Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Dr. Jenn Stephenson,

I am writing to formally petition for COMM381, GLPH271, and GLPH281 to be counted toward my degree requirements. I am an incoming fourth-year Honours Bachelor of Science student at Queen’s University, and I was recently informed that only two of these three courses may count toward my degree plan.

When registering for these courses last summer, I was advised by my academic advisor Vannessa Mccourt, to select electives from the “Natural and Physical Science Courses” list to fulfill both my Arts and Science electives and Natural and Physical Science requirements. However, this list is presented on only one webpage, and it does not clearly differentiate which courses count toward the Natural and Physical Sciences versus Arts and Science electives.

During our Zoom meeting in the summer of 2024, my advisor explained that all courses listed on the webpage qualified as Natural and Physical Science courses, “except those highlighted in blue.” I understood this to mean that all course code letters on the list would count unless a corresponding numerical course code was specifically highlighted in blue. Now, nearly a year later on April 11th 2025, she told me that only course codes listed without associated numbers count in full (i.e., all courses within that subject area), and that if there were course letter codes listed with specific numerical codes, only those particular courses would count within that subject area towards the Natural Physical Sciences. This policy is neither intuitive nor stated anywhere on the website. It creates confusion, for instance, a listed course code without any numbers could be interpreted as not qualifying at all, when in fact the opposite is true. She never explained this distinction to me, nor did she ever tell me that if I took a class from that list whose specific code was not included, it would not count as a Natural and Physical Science course.

I reached out via email on Tuesday, April 8th, after noticing that COMM381 was not appearing under the “3.0 units from ASC_Sciences_excluding_KNPE_HLTH at the 300 level or above” section in SOLUS. Similarly, GLPH271 and GLPH281 were not listed under the “9.0 units from ASC_Sciences_excluding_KNPE_HLTH at the 200 level or above” category. My advisor then informed me that none of those classes would count as a Natural and Physical Science and would instead be classified as Arts and Science electives. This now meant that I had chosen more than 6.0 units of courses from outside the Faculty of Arts & Science to count toward my degree, meaning one of these courses would be excluded. Due to all of our prior conversations and her instructions, I had assumed that these courses would count in the Natural and Physical Science category.

At no point during our earlier meetings was I made aware of how I was to interpret the “ASC_Science_Excluding_KNPE_HLTH, Natural and Physical Science Courses” list to understand what is considered Natural and Physical Science and what is considered an Arts and Science Elective. Nowhere on the “Kinesiology – Specialization (Science) – Bachelor of Science (Honours)” page does it explain how to distinguish what counts and what doesn’t, nor does it provide clear guidance on which courses qualify under each requirement. The course list is vague, and the rules are unclear.

In response to my email on April 8th, my advisor told me that because I was enrolled in a summer course, I would need a full course load in the upcoming year, meaning I would need 11 courses to graduate (see email). We then scheduled a Teams call to confirm my academic progress. During that call, she initially maintained this same information. However, after I reviewed my course audit myself and counted 11 remaining courses after my summer course was included, not 10. She became confused, then proceeded to correct herself and confirmed I would, in fact, need 12 more classes to graduate. This is the second time that Vanessa McCourt has given me the wrong information in regard to my degree plan, and what courses I need to graduate. Had I not looked into it myself and spoken up to voice what I saw, her advice would have led me to be eligible to graduate in the spring of next year.
I asked her why SOLUS indicated I only needed 27 credits to graduate. She responded, “It’s the system’s fault. The system can’t tell that the three courses don’t all count,” and admitted, “I didn’t catch it earlier, I would have told you to drop it, but I only caught it now.” If I had not raised these concerns myself, I would have mistakenly taken only one course this summer and attempted to graduate, only to later find out I was ineligible, causing significant stress and disruption to my plans.

SOLUS remains inaccurate, leading an academic advisor to provide me with conflicting information on multiple occasions. When I was enrolling in the summer of 2024, SOLUS was showing me that all three of those courses fulfilled the requirements I believed they did. Now, it does not show that, yet still continues to indicate that I only need 27 credits to graduate (see documentation). This has added considerable stress to my situation. As a marginalized student who lives off of OSAP grants and loans due to being estranged from my parents, I cannot afford to take additional courses due to system errors, miscommunication, incorrect advising, or a lack of transparency. I do not have the financial privilege to take courses for leisure, each one I enroll in must count toward my degree plan.

I respectfully request that COMM381, GLPH271, and GLPH281 all be counted toward my degree plan. I enrolled in these courses based on the advice of my academic advisor and the understanding that they would fulfill the appropriate requirements, based on her communication and the SOLUS system showing that they checked off my credits. I believed I would only need to take nine more courses in my final year to graduate. This misunderstanding stems from a combination of misleading information, inconsistent advising, a flawed course listing system, and technical issues within SOLUS. Given these circumstances, I hope you will consider the validity of my petition.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,

Olivia Luzi
Student ID: 20353923
Queen’s University, Honours BSc (Kinesiology – Specialization)