Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Submission Number: 11832
Decision Date: May 29, 2024
Associate Dean: Jenn Stephenson, Ph.D.
Student Name: Valerie Tjendra
Student Email: 20vat2@queensu.ca

Course: ECON 351
Term: Winter
Year: 2024
Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline

Dear Valerie Tjendra:

I have carefully considered your petition request to drop ECON 351 (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. These kinds of extraordinary situations should be supported by official documentation from a health care practitioner or other relevant professional. Official documentation must clearly indicate ways in which the extenuating circumstances directly affected the student’s performance in terms of timing and impact and should verify that these effects were substantial enough to cause the academic problem.

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, the documentation that you supplied and your academic transcript.

I acknowledge the health issues that you experienced during the past academic year as reported within your petition letter. However, it is unclear from the documentation that you supplied how your academic ability in ECON 351 was impacted as I see that you were able to achieve high grades in other Winter term courses.

I have denied this request as the documentation that you supplied doesn’t provide a timeline of extenuating circumstances nor does it comment on the academic impacts on this specific course. I am happy to reconsider this decision if additional documentation is provided.

If you are concerned with the impact that this course has on your GPA, I would suggest that you consider repeating it 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)