Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Submission Number: 13535
Decision Date: November 5, 2025
Associate Dean: Dorit Naaman (Associate Dean Academic)
Student Name: Anita Nadarajah
Student Email: 20asn@queensu.ca

Course: PHIL 259
Term: Fall
Year: 2024
Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline
Instructor: Nancy Salay

Dear Anita Nadarajah: 

Thank you for your petition request to drop PHIL 259 (F24) past the academic deadline. I have carefully reviewed your petition, and while I’m unable to grant your request, I want to assure you that your circumstances were considered thoughtfully and with care as part of the decision-making process. 

As outlined in the Academic Petitions and Appeal Regulations 1.1, petitions are only granted in cases where extenuating circumstances significantly impaired a student’s ability to meet academic responsibilities, and where these impacts can be clearly supported by documentation. The regulations also emphasize the importance of demonstrating how these circumstances directly prevented the student from taking academic actions within established timelines, such as dropping a course by the published deadline. 

I acknowledge the extenuating circumstances that you described in your petition letter, particularly the unexpected caregiver responsibilities that you took on during the 2024 Fall term. While I do not doubt the sincerity or the severity of this extenuating circumstance, I want to remind you of your previous petition request that was granted to allow you to complete the outstanding components in PHIL 259 (F24) during the 2025 Summer term.

While I appreciate the documents that you supplied dated November 7, 2022 and November 13, 2023, with the absence of documentation demonstrating that an extenuating circumstance affected your ability to meet course requirements within the 2025 Summer term, I am unable to grant this request.

If you are concerned about the impact that this course has on your GPA, I would suggest that you consider repeating it in a future term. If you repeat the exact same course code, both attempts will appear on your transcript, but only the higher grade will be included within the calculation of your cumulative GPA.

Going forward, you should know that it is your responsibility to pause and evaluate the impact of extenuating circumstances on your coursework prior to the drop deadline of the term. If you fall behind in a course or find the material too difficult, you should drop the course by deadline. The drop deadlines, outlined in the “Important Dates” section on the

Faculty of Arts and Science web page, have been established to ensure fair and equitable treatment of all students.

If you wish to appeal this decision, you are welcome to submit an appeal to the Board of Studies. 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, 

Dorit Naaman, PhD
Associate Dean (Academic)