Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Thursday, April 30th, 2015

Dear Associate Dean (Studies),

I am appealing to have a Credit Standing (CR) for BIOL 334 (Winter, 2015) instead of the final grade I received (D+), due to extenuating circumstances that were beyond my control.
BIOL 334 is comprised of 1 comprehension quiz (5), 2 midterms (each worth 25) and 1 final exam (worth 45). I wrote the first midterm in January, and received a grade of A-. For the second midterm in March, I fell physically sick and provided a doctor's note for being unable to write the midterm on the given day. My professor informed me that if I didn't write the midterm in March, there would be no makeup midterm scheduled, and that my final exam would be reweighted to now be worth a total of 70 of my overall grade. I signed the confirmation letter agreeing to this, as I firmly believed this was something I could study for and handle. In the past, I have been able to successfully write exams worth this much.

On March 31st, 2015, a friend and former Queen's student that I had known well for about 2 years, Carley Allison, passed away from a battle with lung cancer. In the past 4 years, I have lost 2 other friends (one of them being a childhood best friend) to osteosarcoma (a similar form of cancer that reached the lungs). Carley's death affected me for a few weeks because of the triggering emotions that it brought up. I felt that I was not only dealing with her death in my mind, but with 2 other deaths as well. I knew I wasn't in the best state, so on April 2nd, 2015 I met with Nadia Sawaya Fehr (the Residence Outreach Counsellor at Queen's University). I wrote the exam for BIOL334 because it was worth 70 of my grade, and I felt that I had almost no choice but to write it. Despite what I was struggling with mentally, I did study for my BIOL 334 exam little bits every day. I found that it took me much longer to motivate myself, and I had to constantly tell myself that I would get through it, and can go home for the summer to grieve and figure my thoughts out. Despite opening up my notes every day, I still had trouble focusing every time I sat down to study. I could not adequately study for this exam worth 70 of my grade. I struggled with this loss for approximately 3.5 weeks since the day it happened. Today, I have come to terms with the emotions and feelings I felt, and have noticed improvement since.

Throughout this semester, I have attended 95 of the lectures in BIOL 334. I am appealing to have a CR on my transcript as opposed to the D+ as I believe this is an inaccurate representation of me as a student. Additionally, as a 4th year Biology student, this course is mandatory for me to graduate from an Honours Bachelor of Sciences degree this upcoming month. I have worked extremely hard for my diploma, and typically have maintained a 3.0+ GPA for the past few semesters. As a result, I would appreciate if my final grade in this course could be reconsidered based on the given circumstances.
Thank you for your time and consideration in listening to my perspective, I greatly appreciate all of your efforts.

Sincerely,

Sharan Kuganesan (10017484)

(Additional Note: I can provide a letter from the counsellor Nadia Fehr of our meeting, and the contents of our meeting if that will help support my case).