Manage Appeals
Petition Type: New
ID: 10124
Submitted: March 2, 2023 at 4:54:53 PM
First Name: Jessica
Last Name: Sweetnam
Pronoun: She/Her
Student Number: 20372289
Email: 22jms5@queensu.ca
Degree Program: BA
Plan: MUSC
Level of Study: 3
Petition Categories
Petition Categories: Add a course after the academic deadline
Code: MUSC 355
Term: Fall/Winter
Year: 2023
Petition Category: Add a course after the academic deadline
Instructor's Name: Stephanie Lind
Petition Letter
Petition Letter: Dear Sir/Madam,
Please see my petition for an academic appeal.
I am requesting to upgrade course MUSC 352 to MUSC 355. My reasoning for submitting this academic appeal is due to the University??s negligence I am not taking enough credits to be a full-time student at Queen??s University which then in term means I fail my 3rd Year at my home institution Cardiff University. I have spoken to the International Programmes Office, DAN Faculty of Music Office, my home institution Cardiff University and with Dr Lind and she has referred me to submit this appeal.
As Dr Lind has stated in her emails there was a form submitted to the International Programmes Office in August which was sent to the DAN School of Music Office with the 6 credits listed but the wrong course code (MUSC 352). This was then approved by the Music Office. This form was sent before I was a Queen??s University Student and listed the courses, I wanted to take during my time here. I then resubmitted the form again on 14th October 2022 which included the courses I was taking and was approved and signed by the International Programmes Office with the 6 credits listed with the wrong course code (MUSC 352).
Due to this confusion and a sheer lack of miscommunication I am now not taking enough credits for the Winter 2023 Semester to be considered a full-time student at Queen??s despite checking the relevant courses before my arrival at Queen??s and once I arrived at Queen??s. This information was brought to my attention in January 2023 where I went to speak to the International Programmes Office and the DAN School of Music Office in person to try and come up with a solution to this problem and they stated that they would help solve the problem. However, due to no response I had to chase this up which was followed by their slow response to emails which has resulted in surpassing the deadline to add/drop classes despite trying to sort this out for 6 weeks and now need to submit an academic appeal.
This has given me an unnecessary amount of stress due to being worried that I will not have enough transferrable credits to advance into my fourth and final year of university back at my home institution Cardiff University. Which is giving me anxiety attacks due to the lack of communication and miscommunication within Queen's University which could have been avoided if this was improved or picked up on back in August.
Please see my petition for an academic appeal.
I am requesting to upgrade course MUSC 352 to MUSC 355. My reasoning for submitting this academic appeal is due to the University??s negligence I am not taking enough credits to be a full-time student at Queen??s University which then in term means I fail my 3rd Year at my home institution Cardiff University. I have spoken to the International Programmes Office, DAN Faculty of Music Office, my home institution Cardiff University and with Dr Lind and she has referred me to submit this appeal.
As Dr Lind has stated in her emails there was a form submitted to the International Programmes Office in August which was sent to the DAN School of Music Office with the 6 credits listed but the wrong course code (MUSC 352). This was then approved by the Music Office. This form was sent before I was a Queen??s University Student and listed the courses, I wanted to take during my time here. I then resubmitted the form again on 14th October 2022 which included the courses I was taking and was approved and signed by the International Programmes Office with the 6 credits listed with the wrong course code (MUSC 352).
Due to this confusion and a sheer lack of miscommunication I am now not taking enough credits for the Winter 2023 Semester to be considered a full-time student at Queen??s despite checking the relevant courses before my arrival at Queen??s and once I arrived at Queen??s. This information was brought to my attention in January 2023 where I went to speak to the International Programmes Office and the DAN School of Music Office in person to try and come up with a solution to this problem and they stated that they would help solve the problem. However, due to no response I had to chase this up which was followed by their slow response to emails which has resulted in surpassing the deadline to add/drop classes despite trying to sort this out for 6 weeks and now need to submit an academic appeal.
This has given me an unnecessary amount of stress due to being worried that I will not have enough transferrable credits to advance into my fourth and final year of university back at my home institution Cardiff University. Which is giving me anxiety attacks due to the lack of communication and miscommunication within Queen's University which could have been avoided if this was improved or picked up on back in August.
Academic Plan
Academic Plan: To academically succeed with swapping MUSC 352 to MUSC 355. I will speak to my composition lecturer to see where I can make up for the time missed. This will include having more frequent and longer lessons where we will look at the work and compositions I have created and give feedback on the work presented.
As the courses are structured the same but with different credits (MUSC 352 is 3 credits and MUSC 355 is 6 credits) this should not result in a drastic change in academics, however, to make up for the work missed, I will create some extra compositions within the remainder of the term to make up the difference. I will bring these compositions finished and as drafts to my lectures so that I can get feedback on what I have written so that I can make changes and improvements to my works based on the lecturer's feedback and suggestions. This will then go towards the final mosaic concert at the end of the term where I will present my compositions.
I will work on compositions in my free time outside of classes so that I am prepared for my lectures and have work to bring to each of these longer and more frequent lessons. This will ensure that the time in class is being used effectively and efficiently to ensure that concise advice can be given during the class times. Outside of classes I will research different methods of compositions and look at websites and tutorials online, some which have already been suggested by my lecturer. I will also look at YouTube videos and tutorials on different types of compositions and genres so that I can make my compositions more versatile and gain a wider knowledge on different techniques used in electroacoustic composition. Some YouTube videos and tutorials have already been suggested by my lecturer, so I will continue to follow up on previous suggestions and advice given.
THIS IS AN EMAIL RECEIVED FROM THE INSTRUCTOR:
Hi Jess,
It was just communicated to me the possibility of you upgrading to 6.0 credit composition lessons for the remainder of term. I wanted to let you know how this might work pending approval of your appeal.
So I would suggest that we do weekly lessons in person on Mondays where we can focus on your film composition in Cubase as we have been thus far in the term, and that we add an additional lesson on Wednesdays on Zoom (are you free at 10am?) where we can focus on completing a piece using VCV rack as we had started working on this week. If it ends up being more difficult to do VCV online, we could always swap these and do that in-person and Cubase online. In terms of the expectation, I think that if you can complete two more pieces, one in each medium, that would be sufficient for the 6.0 credit course. And hopefully we could have one of them ready to present at the Mosaic concert on the 30th. I also think we should spend a bit of time on creating final mixes of the two pieces that you already presented just to get them in slightly more refined shape.
How does this sound to you? If that works for you, we??d meet this coming Monday at 7:30pm??if you can confirm that works for you, I??ll change my train time. And then I??ll get back to you with what the schedule will look like for the rest of term, but let me know if that 10am Wednesday zoom works as a regular timeslot.
Thanks,
Dr. Mayo
As the courses are structured the same but with different credits (MUSC 352 is 3 credits and MUSC 355 is 6 credits) this should not result in a drastic change in academics, however, to make up for the work missed, I will create some extra compositions within the remainder of the term to make up the difference. I will bring these compositions finished and as drafts to my lectures so that I can get feedback on what I have written so that I can make changes and improvements to my works based on the lecturer's feedback and suggestions. This will then go towards the final mosaic concert at the end of the term where I will present my compositions.
I will work on compositions in my free time outside of classes so that I am prepared for my lectures and have work to bring to each of these longer and more frequent lessons. This will ensure that the time in class is being used effectively and efficiently to ensure that concise advice can be given during the class times. Outside of classes I will research different methods of compositions and look at websites and tutorials online, some which have already been suggested by my lecturer. I will also look at YouTube videos and tutorials on different types of compositions and genres so that I can make my compositions more versatile and gain a wider knowledge on different techniques used in electroacoustic composition. Some YouTube videos and tutorials have already been suggested by my lecturer, so I will continue to follow up on previous suggestions and advice given.
THIS IS AN EMAIL RECEIVED FROM THE INSTRUCTOR:
Hi Jess,
It was just communicated to me the possibility of you upgrading to 6.0 credit composition lessons for the remainder of term. I wanted to let you know how this might work pending approval of your appeal.
So I would suggest that we do weekly lessons in person on Mondays where we can focus on your film composition in Cubase as we have been thus far in the term, and that we add an additional lesson on Wednesdays on Zoom (are you free at 10am?) where we can focus on completing a piece using VCV rack as we had started working on this week. If it ends up being more difficult to do VCV online, we could always swap these and do that in-person and Cubase online. In terms of the expectation, I think that if you can complete two more pieces, one in each medium, that would be sufficient for the 6.0 credit course. And hopefully we could have one of them ready to present at the Mosaic concert on the 30th. I also think we should spend a bit of time on creating final mixes of the two pieces that you already presented just to get them in slightly more refined shape.
How does this sound to you? If that works for you, we??d meet this coming Monday at 7:30pm??if you can confirm that works for you, I??ll change my train time. And then I??ll get back to you with what the schedule will look like for the rest of term, but let me know if that 10am Wednesday zoom works as a regular timeslot.
Thanks,
Dr. Mayo
Documentation
Professional Letter Detail: NO DOC
Document: JS Learning Agreement Upon Arrival-0.pdf
Documentation Detail: Dr Stephanie Lind will send professional documentation to the faculty office and by emails.
Decision Letters
History
Originally submitted March 2, 2023 at 4:54:53 PM.
| Field | Reference | Old Value | New Value | Note | User | Date/Time |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| status | N/A | Received | In Review | Spring Forsberg | 2023-03-03 8:08:12 AM | |
| plan_detail | N/A | To academically succeed with swapping MUSC 352 to MUSC 355. I will speak to my composition lecturer to see where I can make up for the time missed. This will include having more frequent and longer lessons where we will look at the work and compositions I have created and give feedback on the work presented. As the courses are structured the same but with different credits (MUSC 352 is 3 credits and MUSC 355 is 6 credits) this should not result in a drastic change in academics, however, to make up for the work missed, I will create some extra compositions within the remainder of the term to make up the difference. I will bring these compositions finished and as drafts to my lectures so that I can get feedback on what I have written so that I can make changes and improvements to my works based on the lecturer's feedback and suggestions. This will then go towards the final mosaic concert at the end of the term where I will present my compositions. I will work on compositions in my free time outside of classes so that I am prepared for my lectures and have work to bring to each of these longer and more frequent lessons. This will ensure that the time in class is being used effectively and efficiently to ensure that concise advice can be given during the class times. Outside of classes I will research different methods of compositions and look at websites and tutorials online, some which have already been suggested by my lecturer. I will also look at YouTube videos and tutorials on different types of compositions and genres so that I can make my compositions more versatile and gain a wider knowledge on different techniques used in electroacoustic composition. Some YouTube videos and tutorials have already been suggested by my lecturer, so I will continue to follow up on previous suggestions and advice given. | To academically succeed with swapping MUSC 352 to MUSC 355. I will speak to my composition lecturer to see where I can make up for the time missed. This will include having more frequent and longer lessons where we will look at the work and compositions I have created and give feedback on the work presented. As the courses are structured the same but with different credits (MUSC 352 is 3 credits and MUSC 355 is 6 credits) this should not result in a drastic change in academics, however, to make up for the work missed, I will create some extra compositions within the remainder of the term to make up the difference. I will bring these compositions finished and as drafts to my lectures so that I can get feedback on what I have written so that I can make changes and improvements to my works based on the lecturer's feedback and suggestions. This will then go towards the final mosaic concert at the end of the term where I will present my compositions. I will work on compositions in my free time outside of classes so that I am prepared for my lectures and have work to bring to each of these longer and more frequent lessons. This will ensure that the time in class is being used effectively and efficiently to ensure that concise advice can be given during the class times. Outside of classes I will research different methods of compositions and look at websites and tutorials online, some which have already been suggested by my lecturer. I will also look at YouTube videos and tutorials on different types of compositions and genres so that I can make my compositions more versatile and gain a wider knowledge on different techniques used in electroacoustic composition. Some YouTube videos and tutorials have already been suggested by my lecturer, so I will continue to follow up on previous suggestions and advice given. THIS IS AN EMAIL RECEIVED FROM THE INSTRUCTOR: Hi Jess, It was just communicated to me the possibility of you upgrading to 6.0 credit composition lessons for the remainder of term. I wanted to let you know how this might work pending approval of your appeal. So I would suggest that we do weekly lessons in person on Mondays where we can focus on your film composition in Cubase as we have been thus far in the term, and that we add an additional lesson on Wednesdays on Zoom (are you free at 10am?) where we can focus on completing a piece using VCV rack as we had started working on this week. If it ends up being more difficult to do VCV online, we could always swap these and do that in-person and Cubase online. In terms of the expectation, I think that if you can complete two more pieces, one in each medium, that would be sufficient for the 6.0 credit course. And hopefully we could have one of them ready to present at the Mosaic concert on the 30th. I also think we should spend a bit of time on creating final mixes of the two pieces that you already presented just to get them in slightly more refined shape. How does this sound to you? If that works for you, we??d meet this coming Monday at 7:30pm??if you can confirm that works for you, I??ll change my train time. And then I??ll get back to you with what the schedule will look like for the rest of term, but let me know if that 10am Wednesday zoom works as a regular timeslot. Thanks, Dr. Mayo | Spring Forsberg | 2023-03-03 11:18:16 AM | |
| status | N/A | In Review | Granted | Spring Forsberg | 2023-03-08 10:10:25 AM | |
| associate_dean | N/A | Jenn Stephenson, Ph.D. | Spring Forsberg | 2023-03-08 10:10:25 AM | ||
| decision_letter | N/A | N/A | Decision letter sent | Spring Forsberg | 2023-03-08 10:14:41 AM |