Decision Letter
Appeal Number: 4081
Decision Date: February 14, 2018
Associate Dean: Jill Atkinson, Ph.D.
Student Name: Caroline Uchida
Student Email: 15clu@queensu.ca
Course: ECON110
Term: Fall/Winter
Year: 2016
Category: Request credit (CR) standing in a course or courses
Instructor: Ian Cromb
Dear Ms. Uchida:
I have carefully considered your appeal to receive Credit standing in ECON 110 (FW 2016/17). After reviewing your file I have decided to deny your request.
As you know, Academic Regulation 10.3.2. states that, Credit standing in a course is reserved for situations in which a student, who has completed and passed all of the work of the course including the final examination, but because of illness or other extenuating circumstances beyond their control, earned a substantially lower grade than might have been expected, normally a grade of C or lower€. Credit standing is only granted in cases where there are well documented and unforeseen extenuating circumstances outside of a student€™s control. 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.
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 and reflected by a pattern of lower grades.
While your appeal does contain some documented circumstances that are extenuating in nature, it fails to adequately link the direct impact that these circumstances had on your ECON 110 grade in particular. From your transcript, it appears that you earned grades in the B range in all of your other courses while coping with your health issues. Your appeal letter cites that only your ECON 110 was affected €œbecause of the content€ and you found math-based courses more difficult. This suggests that it was the difficulty of the course and not the severity of your extenuating circumstances that resulted in a low grade in this particular course. These are not sufficient grounds to allow me to change a grade to CR and without any evidence to show that you would have earned a significantly higher grade in ECON 110 under normal circumstances.
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 Ombudsman 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,
Jill Atkinson, Ph.D.
Associate Dean (Studies)
20013909Uchida3
Decision Date: February 14, 2018
Associate Dean: Jill Atkinson, Ph.D.
Student Name: Caroline Uchida
Student Email: 15clu@queensu.ca
Course: ECON110
Term: Fall/Winter
Year: 2016
Category: Request credit (CR) standing in a course or courses
Instructor: Ian Cromb
Dear Ms. Uchida:
I have carefully considered your appeal to receive Credit standing in ECON 110 (FW 2016/17). After reviewing your file I have decided to deny your request.
As you know, Academic Regulation 10.3.2. states that, Credit standing in a course is reserved for situations in which a student, who has completed and passed all of the work of the course including the final examination, but because of illness or other extenuating circumstances beyond their control, earned a substantially lower grade than might have been expected, normally a grade of C or lower€. Credit standing is only granted in cases where there are well documented and unforeseen extenuating circumstances outside of a student€™s control. 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.
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 and reflected by a pattern of lower grades.
While your appeal does contain some documented circumstances that are extenuating in nature, it fails to adequately link the direct impact that these circumstances had on your ECON 110 grade in particular. From your transcript, it appears that you earned grades in the B range in all of your other courses while coping with your health issues. Your appeal letter cites that only your ECON 110 was affected €œbecause of the content€ and you found math-based courses more difficult. This suggests that it was the difficulty of the course and not the severity of your extenuating circumstances that resulted in a low grade in this particular course. These are not sufficient grounds to allow me to change a grade to CR and without any evidence to show that you would have earned a significantly higher grade in ECON 110 under normal circumstances.
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 Ombudsman 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,
Jill Atkinson, Ph.D.
Associate Dean (Studies)
20013909Uchida3
Generated February 14, 2018 at 9:35:24 AM.