Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Appeal Number: 8572
Decision Date: March 22, 2022
Associate Dean: Jenn Stephenson, Ph.D.
Student Name: Kailee Thinghuus
Student Email: 16kat4@queensu.ca

Course: FREN219
Term: Fall
Year: 2021
Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline

Course: ENIN240
Term: Fall
Year: 2021
Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline

Course: SOCY200
Term: Fall
Year: 2021
Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline

Course: WRIT240
Term: Fall
Year: 2021
Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline

Dear Kailee Thinghuus:

I have carefully considered your appeal to drop ENIN 240, FREN 219, SOCY 200 and WRIT 240 (F21) 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 their control. Extenuating circumstances normally involve a significant physical or psychological event that is beyond your control, debilitating to your overall academic performance and can be verified with documentation from a profession.

I am certainly sympathetic to your situation and realize that this is a disappointing decision, but the documentation that you provided indicates that your extenuating circumstances began before the deadline to drop these classes and that it had a mild/moderate impact on your academic ability at that time. As you know from your previous appeal decision, it is your responsibility to assess the impacts of extenuating circumstances on your academics during week 7 of the term. If you have fallen behind in a course or find the material too difficult, you should drop the course by week 8 of term. The drop deadlines, as they have been outlined in the ??Important Dates? section on the Arts and Science web page, have been established by the Faculty of Arts and Science to ensure a fair and equitable treatment of all students.

Please know that repeating courses is a recommended strategy for students who are concerned about their GPA. When repeating a course, both attempts will appear on your transcript but only the higher grade will be included within the calculation of 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 information about student rights and responsibilities as well as guidance on policy and procedure (www.queensu.ca/ombuds).

Sincerely,

Jenn Stephenson, Ph.D.
Associate Dean (Academic)