Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Submission Number: 12918
Decision Date: May 27, 2025
Associate Dean: Jenn Stephenson, Ph.D.
Student Name: Hannah Aubin
Student Email: 20hmna@queensu.ca

Course: MATH 110
Term: Fall/Winter
Year: 2025
Category: Request credit (CR) standing in a course or courses
Instructor: Thomas Barthelme

Dear Hannah,

Thank you for your petition regarding Credit Standing in MATH 110 (FW24/25). I have carefully reviewed your request and the supporting documentation that you supplied, and while I’m unable to grant your petition, I want to assure you that I’ve taken your circumstances into account as part of this decision.

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 recognize the concerns that you reported within your petition letter regarding the structure of this course and the impacts that you experienced due to the labour disruption in the Winter term. I have however denied this request as the information that I received from the instructors of the course confirms that you had achieved lower grades in the course, included failing midterm 3 prior to the academic drop deadline. With the absence of documentation to confirm academic impacts of an extenuating circumstance during the timeline of your lower grades in this course, I cannot grant Credit Standing in it.

I want to remind you that 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 the 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 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.

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 navigating your next steps.

Sincerely,


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