Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: August 26, 2022

Jessie Duhaime
Student ID: 20315113

Final Grade Reconsideration for ASTR 101 Astronomy l: The Solar System Fall 2021
Course Instructor: Professor David Hanes

Dear Faculty of Arts and Science,

My name is Jessie Duhaime and I am a 2nd year Psychology BA Online student at Queen??s University. I am writing to appeal the final grade I received for ASTR 101-Astronomy l: The Solar System. I believe that my overall participation and grades from labs and quizzes should have yielded a higher grade than the assigned F letter grade. I do not meet the criteria to appeal the final grade due to an extenuating circumstance; therefore, I am submitting this written appeal to have our final grade from ASTR 101 reconsidered.

The course evaluation consisted of five virtual labs and five quizzes, each contributing 25% to our final grade and two forum discussions contributing 10% to the final grade. The grades that I received on each assignment (attached) indicated excellent to exceptional performance that met the highest standards which proved that have demonstrated a thorough understanding of the material and could apply it within our assigned tasks as per the Academic Regulations Section 10.1.1 - Long Descriptors. I did not receive any indicators leading up to the exam that I had any reason to drop the course. I often received grades and feedback 15 to 17 days after the due date (attached), which did not seem like other classes I participated in simultaneously. Under Assessments and Activities Description, the syllabus outlines that the quizzes are designed to help you practice concepts learned within the course. These quizzes were more like tests, consisting of 50 multiple choice questions covering material from 1-3 modules (sometimes 1-2). Students were encouraged to set aside 3-hours to complete these ??quizzes?.

I contacted Professor David Hanes via email after discovering my final grade to discuss this. I requested to know what my independent grade on the exam was, which he provided was a 24%. I then met with several members of the faculty on separate occasions to discuss what my options were in regard to having the F grade removed from my transcript as that not only negatively affected my OSAP but it also ended all possibilities of me being on the Dean??s Honor List which as first year student would have heightened my accomplishments. The faculty members I met with included Academic Advisor Deborah Leach, Associate Professor and Head Department of Physics, Engineering Physics and Astronomy Robert Knobel, President of ASUS Yara Hussein, Ombuds Office Lavonne Hood and Kathryn Morrissey, and finally via email with Haley Everson. Deborah Leach expressed to me that during a meeting with Professor Hanes to discuss the matter he approached her with plot graphs and a list of links as to where the answers on the exam could be found in the material taught. However, no one from the advisory department explored this evidence to prove whether or not it was factual. On March 31, 2022, Robert Knobel also shared his concern about the 33% of students who also failed the deferred exam. Shouldn??t this be looked into considering Queen??s University is known to be such a prestigious school and this course is being offered as an elective?

I knew that a 50% on the exam was required to pass the course. The description seems a bit deceptive, however. We chose this class as an elective as it looked fun and the course description detailed that no science background was necessary. Moving through the course, I received excellent grades therefore, I assumed I was progressing as expected, as previously stated in an earlier paragraph of this appeal. Since there was no similarity between the assigned coursework and the final exam, why was so much weight allotted to the assignments? (Please see attached email from Debby Leach detailing the conversation had between Tiffany from ASUS and Dr. Stephenson regarding the assignments not being enough to assess the student??s understanding of the course). If this is true, how are student allowed/able to drop the course before the deadline based on poor performance? Further, the attached syllabus lists the learning outcomes of the quizzes, labs, forum discussions etc., which I assume are indeed a way to assess the student??s performance; otherwise, they would be omitted or assigned a lower weight.

To think I was progressing as expected throughout the term, only to receive an F is very disheartening. Professor Hanes notes in an older announcement from Oct 18, 2021 (attached), that assignments only cannot reflect a passing understanding of the course contents because he believes that students can be swapping answers. How can this be fair based on his assumptions only
I would greatly appreciate if this matter received attention from someone other than Professor Hanes. I believe that his professional background may contribute to his biased opinion. I have included many PDF documents to support my appeal.

Since I am quickly approaching the maximum word count, I would like to request a zoom meeting with Dr. Stephenson to discuss this appeal in greater detail. It has proven challenging to shorten it while ensuring my argument comes across as complete and factual. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Jessie Duhaime