Decision Letter
Submission Number: 11722
Decision Date: May 13, 2024
Associate Dean: Jenn Stephenson, Ph.D.
Student Name: Alessandra Tavernese
Student Email: 20art7@queensu.ca
Course: PHGY 216
Term: Winter
Year: 2023
Category: Request credit (CR) standing in a course or courses
Instructor: Christopher Ward
Dear Alessandra:
I have carefully considered your petition request for Credit Standing in PHGY 216 (W23). 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 Petitions and Appeals Regulation 1.1 at https://www.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 and the information that I received from your instructor related to your grades in this course.
I acknowledge the health-related circumstance that you experienced in December and understand that your academic ability continued to be impacted into the 2023 Winter term. I also recognize that your grade on the mid-term in PHGY 216 (W23), which you wrote in February, was not a true representation of your academic ability at that time due to the ongoing impacts of the extenuating circumstances.
I have however denied this request for two reasons. First, your petition letter suggests that this course was impacted throughout the entire W23 term however, the information that I received from the instructor has confirmed that you achieved strong grades in some components in it including the Case Study Development 1 and 2. I also see that you were able to achieve high grades in all of your other Winter term courses despite these extenuating circumstances. Second, I want to remind you that the drop deadline for the Winter term was March 1, 2023 and the documentation that you supplied confirms academic impacts from extenuating circumstances between the dates of December 10 – February 15. As you were aware of the academic impacts of this extenuating circumstance prior to the drop deadline of the term, I cannot grant this request.
Going forward, it is the student’s responsibility to pause and evaluate the impact of extenuating circumstances on their classes during week 7 of the term. If they have fallen behind in a course or find the material too difficult, they should drop the course by week 8 of term. The drop deadlines, outlined in the “Important Dates” section on the Faculty of Arts and Science web page, have been established to ensure fair and equitable treatment of all 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 as well as guidance on policy and procedure (queensu.ca/ombuds).
Sincerely,
Jenn Stephenson, Ph.D.
Associate Dean (Academic)
Decision Date: May 13, 2024
Associate Dean: Jenn Stephenson, Ph.D.
Student Name: Alessandra Tavernese
Student Email: 20art7@queensu.ca
Course: PHGY 216
Term: Winter
Year: 2023
Category: Request credit (CR) standing in a course or courses
Instructor: Christopher Ward
Dear Alessandra:
I have carefully considered your petition request for Credit Standing in PHGY 216 (W23). 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 Petitions and Appeals Regulation 1.1 at https://www.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 and the information that I received from your instructor related to your grades in this course.
I acknowledge the health-related circumstance that you experienced in December and understand that your academic ability continued to be impacted into the 2023 Winter term. I also recognize that your grade on the mid-term in PHGY 216 (W23), which you wrote in February, was not a true representation of your academic ability at that time due to the ongoing impacts of the extenuating circumstances.
I have however denied this request for two reasons. First, your petition letter suggests that this course was impacted throughout the entire W23 term however, the information that I received from the instructor has confirmed that you achieved strong grades in some components in it including the Case Study Development 1 and 2. I also see that you were able to achieve high grades in all of your other Winter term courses despite these extenuating circumstances. Second, I want to remind you that the drop deadline for the Winter term was March 1, 2023 and the documentation that you supplied confirms academic impacts from extenuating circumstances between the dates of December 10 – February 15. As you were aware of the academic impacts of this extenuating circumstance prior to the drop deadline of the term, I cannot grant this request.
Going forward, it is the student’s responsibility to pause and evaluate the impact of extenuating circumstances on their classes during week 7 of the term. If they have fallen behind in a course or find the material too difficult, they should drop the course by week 8 of term. The drop deadlines, outlined in the “Important Dates” section on the Faculty of Arts and Science web page, have been established to ensure fair and equitable treatment of all 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 as well as guidance on policy and procedure (queensu.ca/ombuds).
Sincerely,
Jenn Stephenson, Ph.D.
Associate Dean (Academic)
Generated May 13, 2024 at 10:35:55 AM.