Decision Letter
Appeal Number: 8075
Decision Date: September 7, 2021
Associate Dean: Jill Atkinson, Ph.D.
Student Name: Alexandria Morrissey
Student Email: alexmorrissey24@gmail.com
Course: HLTH 332
Term: Summer
Year: 2021
Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline
Course: HLTH 230
Term: Summer
Year: 2021
Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline
Dear Alexandria Morrisey:
I am sorry to have read in your letter of appeal the challenges you report you faced during the recent summer term and have I carefully considered your appeal to drop HLTH 332 and HLTH 230 (S 2021) past the academic deadline. After reviewing your file I have decided to deny your request.
As you know, courses must be dropped on SOLUS within the published deadlines. The Academic Regulations (Appeal of Academic Decisions, IIIb) stress that exceptions to this will only be waived under extenuating circumstances. The integrity of Arts and Science transcripts in general would be greatly diminished if the Faculty were to effect changes to students?? records without clear and compelling documentation indicating that the student??s performance was significantly compromised by circumstances beyond his or her control.
Your appeal outlines that you have been dealing with a chronic condition and have been seeking treatment regarding your condition and I commend you for that. However, the appeals process is not meant to manage an ongoing and/or chronic condition. Instead, a student should pause and evaluate their progress in courses prior to the drop dates and if they have fallen behind or their health is impacting their progress, they should drop courses by the drop deadline dates.
The documentation you submitted is for three terms (September 2020 to August 2021) and during this time you took 12 courses, receiving seven A-range grades and three B-range grades. There is no evidence to indicate that this chronic condition affected these two courses in particular, nor why you could not drop them by the drop date. Without that information, allowing a student to drop their lowest grades based on the presence of a chronic health condition that affects them globally would not be fair to hundreds of other students who are coping with chronic conditions. Appeals are meant for situations in which a problem occurs or becomes acute after the drop deadline.
Going forward, I encourage you to carefully evaluate your progress in each of your courses prior to the drop deadline and if you have fallen behind or you are not performing in the course to your satisfaction, you should drop courses by the drop deadline.
Another tool to manage your academics in addition to dropping a course by the drop date deadline is our Academic Consideration service. A student can request short term consideration if they need more time to complete an assignment or had to miss a class due to extenuating circumstances. Here is the link for information about that process:
https://www.queensu.ca/artsci/undergrad-students/academic-consideration-for-students
This is a disappointing decision I am sure Alexandria, but let me remind you that if a student repeats a course, the low grade is excluded from their grade point average and the higher grade is included which would mean there would be no long term negative impact on your GPA.
If you wish to appeal the Associate Dean??s decision to the Board of Studies, information and deadlines can be found at www.queensu.ca/artsci/students-at-queens/academic-appeals (click on ??Board of Studies?). You may contact the Office of the University Ombudsperson for guidance on policy and procedure when submitting an appeal to the Board of Studies. (www.queensu.ca/ombuds).
Sincerely,
Jill Atkinson, Ph.D.
Associate Dean (Academic)
20064423Morrissey
Decision Date: September 7, 2021
Associate Dean: Jill Atkinson, Ph.D.
Student Name: Alexandria Morrissey
Student Email: alexmorrissey24@gmail.com
Course: HLTH 332
Term: Summer
Year: 2021
Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline
Course: HLTH 230
Term: Summer
Year: 2021
Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline
Dear Alexandria Morrisey:
I am sorry to have read in your letter of appeal the challenges you report you faced during the recent summer term and have I carefully considered your appeal to drop HLTH 332 and HLTH 230 (S 2021) past the academic deadline. After reviewing your file I have decided to deny your request.
As you know, courses must be dropped on SOLUS within the published deadlines. The Academic Regulations (Appeal of Academic Decisions, IIIb) stress that exceptions to this will only be waived under extenuating circumstances. The integrity of Arts and Science transcripts in general would be greatly diminished if the Faculty were to effect changes to students?? records without clear and compelling documentation indicating that the student??s performance was significantly compromised by circumstances beyond his or her control.
Your appeal outlines that you have been dealing with a chronic condition and have been seeking treatment regarding your condition and I commend you for that. However, the appeals process is not meant to manage an ongoing and/or chronic condition. Instead, a student should pause and evaluate their progress in courses prior to the drop dates and if they have fallen behind or their health is impacting their progress, they should drop courses by the drop deadline dates.
The documentation you submitted is for three terms (September 2020 to August 2021) and during this time you took 12 courses, receiving seven A-range grades and three B-range grades. There is no evidence to indicate that this chronic condition affected these two courses in particular, nor why you could not drop them by the drop date. Without that information, allowing a student to drop their lowest grades based on the presence of a chronic health condition that affects them globally would not be fair to hundreds of other students who are coping with chronic conditions. Appeals are meant for situations in which a problem occurs or becomes acute after the drop deadline.
Going forward, I encourage you to carefully evaluate your progress in each of your courses prior to the drop deadline and if you have fallen behind or you are not performing in the course to your satisfaction, you should drop courses by the drop deadline.
Another tool to manage your academics in addition to dropping a course by the drop date deadline is our Academic Consideration service. A student can request short term consideration if they need more time to complete an assignment or had to miss a class due to extenuating circumstances. Here is the link for information about that process:
https://www.queensu.ca/artsci/undergrad-students/academic-consideration-for-students
This is a disappointing decision I am sure Alexandria, but let me remind you that if a student repeats a course, the low grade is excluded from their grade point average and the higher grade is included which would mean there would be no long term negative impact on your GPA.
If you wish to appeal the Associate Dean??s decision to the Board of Studies, information and deadlines can be found at www.queensu.ca/artsci/students-at-queens/academic-appeals (click on ??Board of Studies?). You may contact the Office of the University Ombudsperson for guidance on policy and procedure when submitting an appeal to the Board of Studies. (www.queensu.ca/ombuds).
Sincerely,
Jill Atkinson, Ph.D.
Associate Dean (Academic)
20064423Morrissey
Generated September 7, 2021 at 1:04:37 PM.