Decision Letter
Appeal Number: 874
Decision Date: April 7, 2015
Associate Dean: Johanne Benard, Ph.D.
Student Name: ZIQING CAI
Student Email: n.cai@queensu.ca
Course: CHEM282
Term: Winter
Year: 2015
Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline
Ms. Ziqing Cai
n.cai@queensu.ca
Dear Ms. Cai:
I have carefully considered your appeal to drop CHEM 282 (W 2015) past the academic deadline. 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 exceptional 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 extenuating circumstances beyond his or her control.
The deadlines for dropping courses have been designed and established in order to provide sufficient time for students to determine their interest in the course material, to consider their ability to handle each course, and to evaluate their overall workload.
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 your appeal does describe some circumstances that are extenuating in nature, it appears that the timeline of them occurred early in the Winter term. According to your documentation and letter your housing difficulties occurred in December and lasted until mid-February. This does not explain why you were unable to drop CHEM 282 by the February 27 deadline. Your appeal requesting to drop PHGY 214 was granted because PHGY 214 was a full year course and your circumstances affected a significant portion of the course (the end of the fall term, the midyear exam and the first part of the winter term).
Furthermore, your letter explains that the reason why you struggled in this course was because you did not take the prerequisite course, CHEM 281 here at Queen€™s. However, when you transferred to Queen€™s, the Chemistry department assessed your courses taken at the University of Toronto and determined that the course you took there was in fact a direct equivalent of CHEM 281, thus you were given a CHEM 281 transfer credit. Therefore, I do not accept the argument that you were not adequately prepared to take CHEM 282. I understand that you may find Chemistry a particularly difficult subject to learn but without any strong evidence to support that outside extenuating circumstances led you to fail this course, rather than a genuine but failed course attempt, I cannot reasonably waive the academic regulations.
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 Ombudsperson for advice on matters of procedure and on obtaining a representative. His office is located in room 237 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)
10085514Cai
Decision Date: April 7, 2015
Associate Dean: Johanne Benard, Ph.D.
Student Name: ZIQING CAI
Student Email: n.cai@queensu.ca
Course: CHEM282
Term: Winter
Year: 2015
Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline
Ms. Ziqing Cai
n.cai@queensu.ca
Dear Ms. Cai:
I have carefully considered your appeal to drop CHEM 282 (W 2015) past the academic deadline. 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 exceptional 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 extenuating circumstances beyond his or her control.
The deadlines for dropping courses have been designed and established in order to provide sufficient time for students to determine their interest in the course material, to consider their ability to handle each course, and to evaluate their overall workload.
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 your appeal does describe some circumstances that are extenuating in nature, it appears that the timeline of them occurred early in the Winter term. According to your documentation and letter your housing difficulties occurred in December and lasted until mid-February. This does not explain why you were unable to drop CHEM 282 by the February 27 deadline. Your appeal requesting to drop PHGY 214 was granted because PHGY 214 was a full year course and your circumstances affected a significant portion of the course (the end of the fall term, the midyear exam and the first part of the winter term).
Furthermore, your letter explains that the reason why you struggled in this course was because you did not take the prerequisite course, CHEM 281 here at Queen€™s. However, when you transferred to Queen€™s, the Chemistry department assessed your courses taken at the University of Toronto and determined that the course you took there was in fact a direct equivalent of CHEM 281, thus you were given a CHEM 281 transfer credit. Therefore, I do not accept the argument that you were not adequately prepared to take CHEM 282. I understand that you may find Chemistry a particularly difficult subject to learn but without any strong evidence to support that outside extenuating circumstances led you to fail this course, rather than a genuine but failed course attempt, I cannot reasonably waive the academic regulations.
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 Ombudsperson for advice on matters of procedure and on obtaining a representative. His office is located in room 237 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)
10085514Cai
Generated April 7, 2015 at 10:32:52 AM.