where are you suspended?? athabasca u?

Hey Aska,
I got suspended last year (winter semester) for four months. After trying again this summer by taking 4 courses, I just checked my rosi and it it showed that I just barely passed all four of them to end up with a cumulative GPA of 1.50 flat. I worked so hard from the start of the semester and even got great midterm marks. After midterm, it all just went downhill. And I very well know that I have nobody else to blame but me. I’m suspended again right, for 12 months this time?

So if I am indeed suspended, do you have any tips as to what to do for these 12 months? See, I’ve been pretending to my parents that I have been going to school last winter semester. I did it for four months but 12 months is another story. Should I go to school, attend lectures and pretend I’m just any other student? As much as I wanna tell them that I got suspended, I simply can’t for the sake of my emotionally, physically and psychologically fragile mother. Is there any hope at all? Am I even supposed to be in university?

Thanks.

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hey there,

guhhhh. see, this is why i harp on y’all about telling me which campus you’re on. i know you’re not in the faculty of arts & science, because we don’t suspend people for four months. but depending on where you go to school (faculty of applied science & engineering, utsc, etc.), the rules about suspension are different.

check your utoronto e-mail address and your physical mailbox for any communication that may have come through about your suspension. if you didn’t get anything, talk to your registrar’s office and ask them whether you’re now on suspension for one year.

if you have been suspended again, i would take the time you’re on suspension to use some of the resources at your disposal.

if you’re a utsc student, get in touch with an academic and learning strategist and a study skills peer coach. the faculty of applied science & engineering also has a learning skills strategist, academic advising and academic success resources which i would strongly recommend.

all these things are much better and more constructive ways to spend your suspension than by pretending to go to class, which probably wouldn’t be much fun for you anyways.

obviously, you have to decide how to speak/act with your own parents, but i can tell you from experience that if you have unpleasant news to tell a parent, it goes down much better if you can follow it up with a plan on moving forward. get in touch with these academic success resources and make a plan to meet with them regularly through the year. then you can tell your mom, “i’m on suspension, but i’ve done these things to get back on track.”

that’s a lot more comforting than, “i’ve been suspended for a year, i’m panicking, i don’t know what i’m gonna do, may as well sell myself to the circus and see where the wind takes me.” parents don’t like that. though if that is what you decide to do, make sure to write to us about what happens.

finally: are you supposed to be in university? man, i don’t know. that’s something only you can decide. while you’re down at the registrar’s office, they’ll hopefully ask you to reflect a little bit on that question. but i think that if you’re put on suspension for a year, that’s something you’ll have to think about yourself.

just remember that university is one very specific path, but it is by no means a necessary one. you do yourself a disservice by falling for the trap that university is objectively the best way to spend your young adulthood. maybe it is for you, and maybe it’s not – but you’ve gotta figure that out for yourself.

best of luck with it,

aska