Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Submission Number: 13227
Decision Date: May 28, 2025
Associate Dean: Jenn Stephenson, Ph.D.
Student Name: Matheson Goff
Student Email: 13mcg9@queensu.ca

Course: RELS 131
Term: Summer
Year: 2025
Category: Add a course after the academic deadline
Instructor: Danielle LaGrone

Course: PHIL 151
Term: Summer
Year: 2025
Category: Add a course after the academic deadline
Instructor: Mark Smith

Course: HIST 125
Term: Summer
Year: 2025
Category: Add a course after the academic deadline
Instructor: Leonid Trofimov

Dear Matheson Goff:

I have carefully considered your petition request to add HIST 125, PHIL 151 and RELS 131 (S25) past the academic deadline. I have carefully reviewed your request and while I’m unable to grant your petition, I want to assure you that I’ve taken your circumstances into account as part of this decision.

As you know, courses must be added on SOLUS within the published deadlines. The deadlines for adding courses have been designed and established to provide sufficient time for students to obtain the relevant permission, determine their interest in the course material, to consider their ability to handle each course, and to evaluate their overall workload.

I acknowledge the circumstances that you described within your petition letter however I want to remind you that summer term course enrollment began on February 3, 2025 and I see that you were able to enroll in a 6.0 unit Summer course prior to the add deadline. I appreciate that you obtained support from the instructors of these courses, and I hope that you understand that due to your current academic standing, starting a course week 4 of the term is not in your best academic interest especially since an instructor is not obligated to accommodate a student for missed work due to late enrollment.

I have denied this request as your petition did not include documentation to confirm that an extenuating circumstance beyond your control prevented you from being able to add additional May-start courses between February 3 and the add deadline. I also want to also remind you that students are restricted in enrolling in a maximum of 18.0 units per term including the summer term.

Going forward, I encourage you to connect with an Academic Advisor to discuss an academic plan. A strategy that you may consider is to repeat failed courses. When a student repeats the exact same course code, both attempts will appear on their transcript however, only the higher grade will be included within the calculation of their GPA.

Additionally, if you wish to appeal this decision, information on the appeal process and deadlines is available at queensu.ca/artsci/undergraduate/student-services/academic-petitions-and-appeals (click on “Second Level”). The Office of the University Ombudsperson offers guidance on student rights and procedural fairness at queensu.ca/ombuds/appeal-process/procedural-fairness, and they are also available to support you at queensu.ca/ombuds.

I hope that you continue to seek out the support and resources available to you, and I wish you the best in navigating your next steps.

Sincerely,

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