Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Appeal Number: 7674
Decision Date: August 10, 2021
Associate Dean: Jill Atkinson, Ph.D.
Student Name: Nicholas Williamson
Student Email: 19ncw@queensu.ca

Course: POLS 110B
Term: Fall/Winter
Year: 2019
Category: Request credit (CR) standing in a course or courses
Instructor: Jonathan Rose,

Course: SOCY122
Term: Fall/Winter
Year: 2019
Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline

Course: ASTR101
Term: Fall
Year: 2020
Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline

Dear Nicholas Williamson:

I have carefully considered your appeal for Credit Standing in POLS 110 (Fall/Winter 2019/2020) and to drop SOCY 122 (Fall/Winter 2019/2020) and ASTR 101 (Fall 2020) past the academic deadline. After reviewing your file, I have decided the following:

1) To grant your request for Credit Standing in POLS 110 (Fall/Winter 2019/2020). The deadline to request a ??P? (pass) grade in a successfully completed Winter 2020 course was June 10, 2020 and it was your responsibility to connect with the Faculty Office before this date to request the change. As your instructor mistakenly indicated that you would receive a ??P? (pass) grade automatically upon completing the outstanding assignment component in their course, I will allow your grade to be replaced with a ??CR? notation at this time.

2) To deny your request to drop SOCY 122 (Fall/Winter 2019/2020) and ASTR 101 (Fall 2020) past the academic deadline. 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 their control.

I certainly empathize with your situation, and understand that this is a disappointing decision, however I want you to know that competing commitments, such as work-related responsibilities are not typically grounds for an appeal. An extenuating circumstance is defined as a significant physical or psychological event that is beyond a student??s control and debilitating to his or her academic performance. In general, an appeal would be successful when there are significantly extenuating circumstances, which would merit the waiving of an academic regulation. Your appeal letter does not indicate any other circumstances that would have prevented you from being able to drop these courses before the deadline and so I cannot grant your request.

I want to remind you 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.

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 ??Board of Studies?). 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,

Jill Atkinson, Ph.D.
Associate Dean (Academic)