Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Submission Number: 12725
Decision Date: March 3, 2025
Associate Dean: Jenn Stephenson, Ph.D.
Student Name: Grace Boyce
Student Email: 21gab19@queensu.ca

Course: POLS 285
Term: Winter
Year: 2024
Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline

Course: POLS 280
Term: Fall
Year: 2024
Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline

Course: POLS 284
Term: Fall
Year: 2024
Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline

Dear Grace Boyce:

Thank you for your petition requesting to drop POLS 285 (W24), POLS 280 and POLS 284 (F24) after the academic deadline. I have carefully reviewed your request and the supporting documentation that you supplied, and while I’m unable to grant all of these requests, I want to assure you that I’ve taken your circumstances into account as part of this decision.

I will allow you to drop POLS 285 (W24) past the academic deadline as the documentation that you supplied confirms the need for accommodations in August of 2024. Your grade in this course will be replaced with a DR notation on your transcript.

Regarding your requests to drop POLS 280 and POLS 284 (F24), as you know, courses must be dropped on SOLUS within the published deadlines. 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 acknowledge the health-related extenuating circumstances that you experienced over the past few years as confirmed within the documentation that you supplied. However, as you were accommodated by Queen’s Student Accessibility Services (QSAS) during the 2024 Fall term and your petition did not include documentation to address ongoing impacts on your 2024 Fall term courses, I cannot grant this part of your request.

Going forward, it is the student’s responsibility to pause and evaluate the impact of extenuating circumstances on their classes prior to the drop deadline of the term. If they have fallen behind in a course or find the material too difficult, they should drop the course by deadline. 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 fair and equitable treatment of all students.

If you are concerned with the impact that these courses have on your cumulative GPA, I would suggest that you consider repeating them 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.

Additionally, if you wish to appeal this decision, information on the appeal process and deadlines is available at queensu.ca/artsci/undergraduate/student-services/academic-petitions-and-appeals (click on “Second Level”). The Office of the University Ombudsperson offers guidance on student rights and procedural fairness at queensu.ca/ombuds/appeal-process/procedural-fairness, and they are also available to support you at queensu.ca/ombuds.

I hope that you continue to seek out the support and resources available to you, and I wish you the best in your current courses.

Warm regards,

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