Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Submission Number: 11307
Decision Date: January 29, 2024
Associate Dean: Jenn Stephenson, Ph.D.
Student Name: Katarzyna Fraser
Student Email: katarzynafraserr@gmail.com

Course: ASTR101
Term: Fall
Year: 2023
Category: Request credit (CR) standing in a course or courses
Instructor: Dave Hanes

Dear Katarzyna:

I have carefully considered your petition request for Credit Standing in ASTR 101 (F23). After reviewing your file, I have decided to deny your request.

The Academic Petitions and Appeals Regulation 1.1 at queensu.ca/academic-calendar/arts-science/appeal-regulations/ stress that petitions and appeals are only granted where there are significantly extenuating circumstances, which would merit the waiving of a particular Faculty regulation or decision. Extenuating circumstances normally involve a significant physical or psychological event that is beyond a student’s control and debilitating to their academic performance. 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.

I am sympathetic to your situation and understand that this is a difficult decision, however, I want you to know that I considered this request very thoroughly. In making this decision, I reviewed your petition letter, the documentation that you supplied, your academic transcript and the information that I received from the Department of Physics related to your individual grades in this course.

I acknowledge that you experienced an extenuating circumstance during the 2023 Fall term as reported within your petition letter and the documentation that you supplied. I have denied this request as the academic impacts on this specific course remains unclear.

I see from your transcript that you were enrolled in another 3.0 unit course during the Fall term that you were able to complete to high standards. The information that I received from the Department of Physics indicates that your grades were consistent in ASTR 101 through the term where I see that you achieved 64% on both term tests. The documentation that you supplied did not speak to the timeline or specific academic impacts of the circumstances and so the correlation on your final grade in this course is unclear.

Katarzyna, I want to remind you that a student can request short term academic consideration if they need more time to complete a component or had to miss a class as a result of an illness or a personal circumstance. Here is the link for information about that process: https://www.queensu.ca/artsci/undergrad-students/student-services/academic-consideration-for-students.

If you are concerned with the impact that this course has on your GPA, I would suggest that you consider repeating it in a future term. When repeating the exact same course code, both attempts will appear on your transcript however, only the higher grade will be included within the calculation of 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 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 queensu.ca/ombuds/appeal-process/procedural-fairness and guidance on policy and procedure by visiting their website at queensu.ca/ombuds/.

Sincerely,

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