The petitions unit at the Office of the Faculty Registrar endeavours to issue a decision within five weeks of receiving your petition from your College Registrar's Office. However, the complexity of your request and the need to consult other parties might impact the response time.
A petition can often contain more than one request. For example, a petition may contain one request for a Term Work Extension and a second request for a Withdrawal Without Academic Penalty or a petition may contain requests of the same petition type from different sessions or academic years. The petitions unit will provide an outcome for each individual request. If anything is unclear regarding your petition outcome, connect with an academic advisor from your College Registrar’s Office.
Possible petition outcomes include:
- Absolute Grant: An absolute grant means your request has been approved. For example, if your term work extension request to submit an essay late and beyond the end of a term received an absolute grant, this means that the Committee on Standing has permitted you to hand in the work on a specific date in the future. The decision email for an absolute grant does not contain any information beyond the decision.
- Granted with Recommendations: A request granted with recommendations means that in addition to your request being approved, the decision email will also provide specific recommendations for you to consider. These recommendations are strongly encouraged, and it is your responsibility to complete them.
- Granted with Conditions: A request granted with conditions means that there are mandatory conditions outlined in the decision email which you must complete for the granted request to remain in effect. In the case of a mandatory condition, your College Registrar’s Office will monitor your academic record to ensure that you are adhering to the condition. Failure to comply with the condition could impact the petition outcome. Examples of recommendations or conditions that may be included in a petition decision include:
- Reducing your course load
- Avoiding taking courses in a particular session/term
- Restriction from enrolling in courses in a particular session
- Meeting with your College Registrar’s Office
- Refused with Recommendations: A refused request means that your request has been denied. A refusal decision may include recommendations for you to consider. For example, if your term work extension request is refused in a course where you have done very little work, the decision might include a recommendation to consider other petition types, such as a petition for late withdrawal without academic penalty. In most cases, a refusal with recommendations will also encourage you to seek academic advising from your College Registrar’s Office.
- Not Considered: If you received a decision which indicates the request was not considered, it means that the request was not within the purview of the Committee on Standing. An example is a request for an instructor to waive a late penalty or reweigh term work within a course. To learn more about requests that do not fall within the purview of the Committee on Standing, see the Special Consideration Requests to Academic Department(s) section of the Academic Calendar. If you are unclear whether the policy or deadline that you are seeking an exception from falls under the purview of Committee on Standing, be sure to consult with your College Registrar’s Office.
- Cancelled: In most cases, a request to cancel a petition is initiated by the student if they no longer wish to have their request reviewed. For example, if a student was granted a deferred exam because of a scheduled surgery, and that surgery is cancelled, the student would contact their College Registrar’s Office to cancel the petition because they are now able to write the scheduled exam.