Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To the Associate Dean of Queen's University,

I am petitioning my course final grade for PHIL 351 on two counts. The first is the very extreme extenuating circumstances I dealt with this semester (I am in the process of receiving supporting documentation from my QSAS advisor for this). The second is seemingly unfair grading throughout the course from the instructor.
This semester was the final one for my undergraduate degree. Unfortunately, I was experiencing some very taxing extenuating circumstances simultaneously throughout the entire semester that worked to affect my academic performance. I have been in the process of applying for law school, and the delayed/lack of responses from the law schools I applied to certainly impacted my mental health. I was consumed by fear and anxiety (and still am as I wait for a response from Queen’s Law), which negatively influenced my time-management, motivation, and resolve. More importantly, however, I have also been dealing with multiple family-related problems this semester that were also mentally-draining. My brother recently came forward to my family that he experienced child sexual abuse, and so much of my time and energy subsequently became devoted to supporting him in any ways possible. I was constantly going back home to Oshawa from Kingston to be with him and my mother during this semester, which affected my class participation (which is usually quite high). I also had to be home with my family because we have been gearing up for my Father's murder trial, which has been ongoing since April 8th. I have been preparing my Victim Impact Statement to deliver at this trial in the event of sentencing, which has been a major struggle. Court has taken place twice a week since April 8th, which I have been attended with my mother all while I was in my exam period. The information discussed at court is indescribably difficult to sit through. The course assignments in PHIL 351 saw many small, weekly hand ins worth 1% of the grade per week. I sometimes could not get to these each week due to the ongoing strain on my mental state resultant of all the personal issues I was juggling (or just simply because of how much of my time was consumed by them).
Ultimately, these extenuating circumstances have worked to wear my mental health down severely. They took my time and energy away from my academic pursuits, both due to their high demand of mental energy and also due to the way they were very upsetting and discouraging for me to experience. If I was not experiencing them at this time, then I would have undoubtedly performed much better in this class as I would have had much more time to devote to it. I have appended a letter from my QSAS advisor to this petition that will validate my claims of impaired mental health, as it is this impaired mental health that has directly impacted my ability to perform better in this class. Since I am still under consideration for Law School at Queen's, I also fear that having such a low grade and GPA this semester will impact my continued consideration. I desperately need this mark changed to a credit standing in order to reflect my poor mental health for this reason.
Despite my extenuating circumstances being so gruelling, I was still able to come through with decent enough marks in my other classes. The reason why I am petitioning this grade in particular is because this is my worst mark, and this is mark is impacted by more than just my personal situation. It has been agreed upon by multiple students in PHIL 351 that there was seemingly unfair grading on the part of the professor for this class, Professor Andrew Lopez. The first reason for this unfair grading has to do with the course work expected in the class. The assignments due throughout the semester consisted of 10 participation questions of 2-3 sentences, two short assignments of 250 words (and two respective peer reviews of another student's short assignments), one long assignment of 500 words, and a final assessment of 3 essays of 500 words (1500 words overall). The participation questions were Pass/Fail, and the professor would oftentimes fail your question without any explanation. He remarked consistently in class that he was not in the practice of offering feedback, which is reflected in his distribution of assignment grades and is very unfair.
For the larger assignments, it was in my experience that the professor did offer feedback for marks under 80%. However, it was only ever a suggestion to further elaborate on ideas presented, but the assignment parameters with such low word counts make that extremely difficult and resultantly unreasonable. He also, in my experience, did not offer any remedial grading opportunities for these assignments. There are multiple other students that feel this way about the grading process in this class. I have appended a petition agreement that reflects a shared understanding that the grading in PHIL 351 was seemingly unreasonable.
Ultimately, both my extenuating circumstances and the unfair grading process of the professor led to a course grade in PHIL 351 that does not reflect my true academic potential. Both of these issues directly lowered my grade for valid reasons that were out of my control, and it is my hope that a Credit Standing will replace my mark in order to better accommodate for my experiences this semester.