Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Decision Letter

Appeal Number: 8926
Decision Date: May 24, 2022
Associate Dean: Jenn Stephenson, Ph.D.
Student Name: Sam Czerkawski
Student Email: sczerkawski29@gmail.com

Course: PHIL 236
Term: Winter
Year: 2022
Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline

Dear Sam Czerkawski:

I have carefully considered your appeal to drop PHIL 236 (W22) 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 their performance was significantly compromised by circumstances beyond their control.

I am certainly sympathetic to your situation and realize that this is a disappointing decision, however the documentation that you provided indicates that your extenuating circumstances began well before the deadline to drop this course and do not suggest that it would have impacted your ability to drop this course in SOLUS before the March 4th deadline. Going forward, I suggest that you pause to evaluate your academic progress during week 7 of the term and make sure to drop courses that you have fallen behind in or find the material too difficult in by week 8 of the 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.

I also want you to know that repeating courses is a recommended strategy if you are concerned about a lower grade impacting your grade point average. When repeating the exact same course, both grades remain on your transcript but only the higher one is included within your cumulative 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).

??Student Academic Appeals Policy (SAAP) or Rules of Procedure for USAB are Queen??s university Senate approved appeal policies. In the event that an inconsistency arises between these policies and Arts & Science regulations, SAAP and USAB will supersede.??

Sincerely,

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

Generated May 24, 2022 at 9:52:53 AM.