Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Appeal Number: 7032
Decision Date: January 18, 2021
Associate Dean: Jenn Stephenson, Ph.D.
Student Name: Todd Terzievski
Student Email: 14tt29@queensu.ca

Course: MATH 112
Term: Winter
Year: 2019
Category: Request credit (CR) standing in a course or courses
Instructor: Richard Gottesman

Course: ANAT 312
Term: Fall
Year: 2018
Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline

Course: BIOL 350
Term: Fall
Year: 2018
Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline

Course: COGS 100
Term: Fall
Year: 2018
Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline

Course: BCHM 316
Term: Fall
Year: 2019
Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline

Course: PATH 310
Term: Winter
Year: 2019
Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline

Course: BIOL 350
Term: Fall
Year: 2019
Category: Request credit (CR) standing in a course or courses
Instructor: Lonnie Aarssen

Course: BCHM 316
Term: Winter
Year: 2020
Category: Request credit (CR) standing in a course or courses
Instructor: Glenville Jones

Course: SOCY 122
Term: Fall/Winter
Year: 2020
Category: Request credit (CR) standing in a course or courses
Instructor: Sachil Singh

Dear Todd Terzievski:

I have carefully considered your appeal request to drop ANAT 312, BIOL 350, COGS 100 (Fall 2018), BCHM 316, PATH 310 (Winter 2019) after the academic deadline and for credit standing in MATH 112 (Winter 2019), BIOL 350 (Fall 2019), BCHM 316 (Winter 2020) and SOCY 122 (Fall/Winter 2019/2020). After reviewing your file, I have decided to deny your request.

As you know, courses must be dropped on SOLUS within the published deadlines. The Academic Regulations (Appeal of Academic Decisions, IIIb) stress that exceptions to this will only be waived under extenuating circumstances. 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 circumstances beyond his or her control.

I am sure this is a disappointing decision, but the documentation that you provided does not clearly correlate the timeline of your health issues with the terms that you are appealing courses from. The documentation that you supplied from August and September of 2020, does not indicate the timeline, severity or impact of your health issues. The document that you supplied dated October 28, 2020 does mention an impact between December 2017 until September 2019 but this appears to be based on your report and does not indicate the severity of your health issues during that time period.

Please know that repeating courses is a recommended strategy if you are concerned about a lower grade impacting your grade point average. When repeating the exact same course, both grades remain on your transcript but only the higher one is included within your cumulative GPA.

Going forward, I encourage you to connect with Queens Student Accessibility Services (QSAS) to meet with an Advisor who may be able to help you manage your academics along with your ongoing health issues.

If you wish to appeal the Associate Dean€™s decision to the Board of Studies, information and deadlines can be found at 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 the Office of the University Ombudsperson for information about student rights and responsibilities as well as guidance on policy and procedure (www.queensu.ca/ombuds).

Sincerely,

Jenn Stephenson, Ph.D.
Associate Dean (Academic)