Decision Letter
Appeal Number: 1421
Decision Date: October 2, 2015
Associate Dean: Johanne Benard, Ph.D.
Student Name: Liam Liu
Student Email: 11lfl1@queensu.ca
Dear Mr. Liu:
I have carefully considered your appeal to drop ECON 223 (W 2015) past the academic deadline. 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 Regulations (Appeal of Academic Decisions, IIIb) stress that exceptions to this will only be waived under exceptional circumstances. 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 extenuating circumstances beyond his or her control.
The deadlines for dropping courses have been designed and established in order to provide sufficient time for students to determine their interest in the course material, to consider their ability to handle each course, and to evaluate their overall workload.
Extenuating circumstances normally involve a significant physical or psychological event that is beyond your control and debilitating to your overall academic performance. Additionally, these kinds of extraordinary situations are normally supported by documentation from a professional.
While your appeal does describe some circumstances that may be extenuating in nature, the timeline of those circumstances and your statements do not line up with the time that this course took place. According to the Toronto Star news article you supplied, the altercation that resulted in Mr. Khalid€™s death took place in early October 2013. Your letter states that after this incident you returned home to say goodbye and pay your respects to the family. You also confirmed that you did not return to Kingston afterwards and chose to drop all of your courses (except ECON 223) and stay home for the remainder of the term. However, this is not consistent with what appears on your transcript. Your transcript shows that in the 2013 fall term when the incident took place, you were enrolled in three courses and successfully completed two of them €“ ECON 111, PSYC 235A (dropped November 5, 2014) and PSYC 251. You were also enrolled in three courses for the following 2014 Winter term €“ COMM 200, COMM 251 and PHYS P16. Your grades from those terms are consistent or better than your performance from your first year of study. ECON 223 took place over the 2015 Winter term, a year and a half after this event took place. While you did fail ECON 223 and drop the remainder of your courses during this term, it is not clear what the connection is between this incident in October 2013 and your poor academic performance in Winter 2015 (and there is no documentation supplied to confirm the connection).
If you wish to appeal the Associate Dean€™s decision to the Board of Studies, you must submit an appeal to the Board of Studies within 21 days of the date this decision was sent. Guidelines for appealing to the Board of Studies and the appeal form can be found at: http://www.queensu.ca/artsci/students-at-queens/academic-appeals (click on €œBoard of Studies€) Do not use the on-line application for this process. You may contact Mr. Harry Smith, Office of the Ombudsperson for advice on matters of procedure and on obtaining a representative. His office is located in room 421 Robert Sutherland Hall and he can be reached by phone (533-6495) or e-mail (ombuds@queensu.ca).
Sincerely,
Johanne Bénard, Ph.D.
Associate Dean (Studies)
10054482Liu
Decision Date: October 2, 2015
Associate Dean: Johanne Benard, Ph.D.
Student Name: Liam Liu
Student Email: 11lfl1@queensu.ca
Dear Mr. Liu:
I have carefully considered your appeal to drop ECON 223 (W 2015) past the academic deadline. 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 Regulations (Appeal of Academic Decisions, IIIb) stress that exceptions to this will only be waived under exceptional circumstances. 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 extenuating circumstances beyond his or her control.
The deadlines for dropping courses have been designed and established in order to provide sufficient time for students to determine their interest in the course material, to consider their ability to handle each course, and to evaluate their overall workload.
Extenuating circumstances normally involve a significant physical or psychological event that is beyond your control and debilitating to your overall academic performance. Additionally, these kinds of extraordinary situations are normally supported by documentation from a professional.
While your appeal does describe some circumstances that may be extenuating in nature, the timeline of those circumstances and your statements do not line up with the time that this course took place. According to the Toronto Star news article you supplied, the altercation that resulted in Mr. Khalid€™s death took place in early October 2013. Your letter states that after this incident you returned home to say goodbye and pay your respects to the family. You also confirmed that you did not return to Kingston afterwards and chose to drop all of your courses (except ECON 223) and stay home for the remainder of the term. However, this is not consistent with what appears on your transcript. Your transcript shows that in the 2013 fall term when the incident took place, you were enrolled in three courses and successfully completed two of them €“ ECON 111, PSYC 235A (dropped November 5, 2014) and PSYC 251. You were also enrolled in three courses for the following 2014 Winter term €“ COMM 200, COMM 251 and PHYS P16. Your grades from those terms are consistent or better than your performance from your first year of study. ECON 223 took place over the 2015 Winter term, a year and a half after this event took place. While you did fail ECON 223 and drop the remainder of your courses during this term, it is not clear what the connection is between this incident in October 2013 and your poor academic performance in Winter 2015 (and there is no documentation supplied to confirm the connection).
If you wish to appeal the Associate Dean€™s decision to the Board of Studies, you must submit an appeal to the Board of Studies within 21 days of the date this decision was sent. Guidelines for appealing to the Board of Studies and the appeal form can be found at: http://www.queensu.ca/artsci/students-at-queens/academic-appeals (click on €œBoard of Studies€) Do not use the on-line application for this process. You may contact Mr. Harry Smith, Office of the Ombudsperson for advice on matters of procedure and on obtaining a representative. His office is located in room 421 Robert Sutherland Hall and he can be reached by phone (533-6495) or e-mail (ombuds@queensu.ca).
Sincerely,
Johanne Bénard, Ph.D.
Associate Dean (Studies)
10054482Liu
Generated October 2, 2015 at 9:24:03 AM.