Decision Letter
Appeal Number: 4330
Decision Date: May 1, 2018
Associate Dean: Johanne Benard, Ph.D.
Student Name: Dayna Goren
Student Email: 15dg34@queensu.ca
Course: BIOL205
Term: Fall
Year: 2017
Category: Request credit (CR) standing in a course or courses
Instructor: Dr. I. Chin-Sang and Dr. Wm. Bendena
Dear Ms. Goren:
I have carefully considered your appeal to receive Credit standing in BIOL 205 (F 2017). 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.
While I understand that you have a learning disorder and General Anxiety Disorder, it appears that you were registered with Accessibility Services and were properly accommodated according to the Queen€™s Accessibility Service guidelines during the fall term. Therefore, this alone does not constitute a circumstance that would warrant changing a grade to CR, after the fact.
I do agree that the circumstances surrounding your living situation were outside of your personal control. Unfortunately however, there is no clear correlation in your appeal to show that this circumstance was the direct cause for your low grade in BIOL 205. This is a challenging course and your grades in your other fall term courses follow the same pattern of your grades from previous terms. If your circumstances had affected your performance directly and significantly, we would normally expect to see a drop in your overall performance from the fall term. Without any further evidence to show that you would have performed significantly better in BIOL 205 under usual conditions, I cannot warrant altering the transcript.
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)
20013346Goren
Decision Date: May 1, 2018
Associate Dean: Johanne Benard, Ph.D.
Student Name: Dayna Goren
Student Email: 15dg34@queensu.ca
Course: BIOL205
Term: Fall
Year: 2017
Category: Request credit (CR) standing in a course or courses
Instructor: Dr. I. Chin-Sang and Dr. Wm. Bendena
Dear Ms. Goren:
I have carefully considered your appeal to receive Credit standing in BIOL 205 (F 2017). 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.
While I understand that you have a learning disorder and General Anxiety Disorder, it appears that you were registered with Accessibility Services and were properly accommodated according to the Queen€™s Accessibility Service guidelines during the fall term. Therefore, this alone does not constitute a circumstance that would warrant changing a grade to CR, after the fact.
I do agree that the circumstances surrounding your living situation were outside of your personal control. Unfortunately however, there is no clear correlation in your appeal to show that this circumstance was the direct cause for your low grade in BIOL 205. This is a challenging course and your grades in your other fall term courses follow the same pattern of your grades from previous terms. If your circumstances had affected your performance directly and significantly, we would normally expect to see a drop in your overall performance from the fall term. Without any further evidence to show that you would have performed significantly better in BIOL 205 under usual conditions, I cannot warrant altering the transcript.
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)
20013346Goren
Generated May 1, 2018 at 9:45:48 AM.