Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Submission Number: 11801
Decision Date: May 27, 2024
Associate Dean: Jenn Stephenson, Ph.D.
Student Name: Yuting Wang
Student Email: 20yw143@queensu.ca

Course: CISC 121
Term: Winter
Year: 2024
Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline

Course: ARTF 125
Term: Winter
Year: 2024
Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline

Dear Yuting:

I have carefully considered your appeal request to drop ARTF 125 and CISC 121 (W24) 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 "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 am sympathetic to your situation and understand that this is a difficult decision, however, I want you to know that I considered this request very thoroughly. In making this decision, I reviewed your petition letter, and the three pieces of documentation that you supplied.

I acknowledge the health-related circumstances that you experienced during the 2024 Winter term as reported within your petition letter. I have however denied this request as the petition process is not meant to be used to manage chronic circumstances. Academic impacts from ongoing circumstances should be managed proactively by utilizing options such as dropping a course by the deadline, or by utilizing academic consideration or accommodations through Queen’s Student Accessibility Services (QSAS).

The documentation that you supplied confirms that you experienced academic impacts of these circumstances between February 3 – 9, on March 15 and on March 19, 2024 and I can see that you did receive academic consideration for these dates. As you were aware of the academic impacts that your circumstances had on this course in February, prior to the drop deadline of the term, and you were accommodated appropriately through academic consideration, I cannot grant your request.

If you are concerned with the impact that these courses have on your GPA, I would suggest that you consider repeating them in a future term. When repeating the exact same course code, both attempts will appear on your transcript however, only the higher grade will be included within the calculation of 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 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 queensu.ca/ombuds/appeal-process/procedural-fairness and guidance on policy and procedure by visiting their website at queensu.ca/ombuds/.

Sincerely,

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