Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Submission Number: 12217
Decision Date: October 15, 2024
Associate Dean: Jenn Stephenson, Ph.D.
Student Name: Abigail Sullivan
Student Email: 21agls@queensu.ca

Course: DEVS 250
Term: Winter
Year: 2024
Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline

Course: MUSC 104
Term: Winter
Year: 2024
Category: Request aegrotat (AG) standing in a course or courses
Instructor: Dr.Dean Burry

Dear Abby:

I have carefully considered your petition to drop DEVS 250 (W24) past the academic deadline and for Aegrotat Standing in MUSC 104 (W24). After reviewing your file, I have decided the following:

I see that you had multiple academic consideration requests throughout the 2024 Winter term, and I will grant your request to drop DEVS 250 (W24) after the academic deadline due to the timeline and academic impacts of extenuating circumstances as reported within your petition letter. Your grade in this course will be replaced by a DR notation on your transcript.

To deny your request for Aegrotat Standing in MUSC 104 (W24). The Academic Petitions and Appeal Regulations 1.1 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. 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 three pieces of documentation that you supplied and the information that I received from the instructor related to your grades in the course.

I acknowledge that you were not able to complete MUSC 104 during the 2024 Winter term or during the month of May due to the academic impacts of multiple extenuating circumstances as reported within your petition letter. I have denied this request as your petition didn’t demonstrate that you couldn’t complete this course through an Incomplete Grade during the remaining 2024 Summer term months of June, July and/or August. The instructor of this course has confirmed that the outstanding work was a 35% take-home exam and the documentation that you supplied dated June 11 suggests that you were able to work from home at that time with accommodations. As your petition didn’t include documentation to show that you were unable to complete this course during the Summer term, I cannot grant this request.

The instructor of MUSC 104 (W24) is willing to allow you the opportunity to complete the outstanding components of the course during the current 2024 Fall term and so I encourage you to connect with them to make these arrangements. Alternately, if you are concerned with the impact that this course has on your cumulative 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)