Decision Letter
Appeal Number: 4225
Decision Date: February 20, 2018
Associate Dean: Johanne Benard, Ph.D.
Student Name: stephen zhao
Student Email: 9syz@queensu.ca
Dear Mr. Zhao:
I have carefully considered your request to have your appeal heard after the one-term timeline for submission. After reviewing your file I have decided to deny your request.
The appeal timeline is in place to give students sufficient time to respond to an academic decision. The one-term timeline offers students time to seek academic counseling, to write up and submit an appeal, and to collect the supporting documents necessary to the appeal. Further, the appeal timeline is in place to ensure that decision making takes place in a timely manner, allowing students to continue in their academic programs without ongoing concern for unresolved matters.
To consider appeals outside these timelines can easily compromise fair decision making. The interested parties and the original contexts within which the matter originated may not be available. Over time, instructors, course content, the norms of evaluating course materials, and program structures may and generally do change. Furthermore, the supporting documents necessary to any appeal may no longer be available or their credibility may more easily come into question. Therefore, the inability to reconstruct accurately the circumstances leading to the original matter under appeal can compromise the decision-making process.
Exceptions to this regulation can only be granted in cases where extenuating circumstances beyond a student's control render the student unable to appeal within the specified timeline. The student must be able to show that the extenuating circumstances were ongoing. The student must also be able to demonstrate that these circumstances prevented the student from acting between the time the original decision was received and the time at which the appeal was eventually initiated. Appeals of the regulation governing the timeline for appeals must be submitted in writing. An appeal of this type should include a presentation of the specific reasons for a delay and should include any documents which support the reasons for delay.
Your appeal does not describe any circumstances beyond your personal control that prevented you from making an appeal within the deadline. You submitted an appeal last June requesting to waive the requirement to withdraw within the deadline to drop the courses you now wish to appeal. At that time, you were well aware of your option to appeal those grades and you made the conscious decision not to. You were also cautioned in your appeal decision letter from Dean Blake about your GPA and the specific grades you would need to earn to be released from academic probation and graduate and you accepted those grades and your academic standing at the time. I cannot reasonably allow you to now go back and appeal grades from past terms because your current GPA is not as high as you were expecting it to be by this time. It is your responsibility to closely monitor your progress in classes and if you feel that you are not achieving the grades you require to raise your GPA, you must make decisions to drop classes within the drop deadlines. The appeal system is not designed to compensate for not assuming this responsibility.
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,
Johanne Bénard, Ph.D.
Associate Dean (Studies)
06325317Zhao6
Decision Date: February 20, 2018
Associate Dean: Johanne Benard, Ph.D.
Student Name: stephen zhao
Student Email: 9syz@queensu.ca
Dear Mr. Zhao:
I have carefully considered your request to have your appeal heard after the one-term timeline for submission. After reviewing your file I have decided to deny your request.
The appeal timeline is in place to give students sufficient time to respond to an academic decision. The one-term timeline offers students time to seek academic counseling, to write up and submit an appeal, and to collect the supporting documents necessary to the appeal. Further, the appeal timeline is in place to ensure that decision making takes place in a timely manner, allowing students to continue in their academic programs without ongoing concern for unresolved matters.
To consider appeals outside these timelines can easily compromise fair decision making. The interested parties and the original contexts within which the matter originated may not be available. Over time, instructors, course content, the norms of evaluating course materials, and program structures may and generally do change. Furthermore, the supporting documents necessary to any appeal may no longer be available or their credibility may more easily come into question. Therefore, the inability to reconstruct accurately the circumstances leading to the original matter under appeal can compromise the decision-making process.
Exceptions to this regulation can only be granted in cases where extenuating circumstances beyond a student's control render the student unable to appeal within the specified timeline. The student must be able to show that the extenuating circumstances were ongoing. The student must also be able to demonstrate that these circumstances prevented the student from acting between the time the original decision was received and the time at which the appeal was eventually initiated. Appeals of the regulation governing the timeline for appeals must be submitted in writing. An appeal of this type should include a presentation of the specific reasons for a delay and should include any documents which support the reasons for delay.
Your appeal does not describe any circumstances beyond your personal control that prevented you from making an appeal within the deadline. You submitted an appeal last June requesting to waive the requirement to withdraw within the deadline to drop the courses you now wish to appeal. At that time, you were well aware of your option to appeal those grades and you made the conscious decision not to. You were also cautioned in your appeal decision letter from Dean Blake about your GPA and the specific grades you would need to earn to be released from academic probation and graduate and you accepted those grades and your academic standing at the time. I cannot reasonably allow you to now go back and appeal grades from past terms because your current GPA is not as high as you were expecting it to be by this time. It is your responsibility to closely monitor your progress in classes and if you feel that you are not achieving the grades you require to raise your GPA, you must make decisions to drop classes within the drop deadlines. The appeal system is not designed to compensate for not assuming this responsibility.
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,
Johanne Bénard, Ph.D.
Associate Dean (Studies)
06325317Zhao6
Generated February 20, 2018 at 8:58:23 AM.