Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Hello,

My name is Michelle Huang and I am requesting to take BIOL243 this fall term. I am in the concurrent education program as a Biology major and a physics minor. However, because that combination is rare, it was difficult to have a full schedule if I took my equal amounts of biology and physics (all courses are in conflict with each other). Therefore, I am only taking one biology course this semester, and prospected to not being able to take any next semester (I might be able to take BIOL206 if I switch out one of my courses next year).

I was talking to an upper year biology student who told me that I may not have enough time to complete my degree by taking my only one course because of the different prerequisites and the fact that certain courses are only offered in one semester. I was not aware of this.

Regardless, I am very worried about graduating on time, and so I was thinking about taking on an additional course this semester. You will notice that the BIOL243 lecture is in conflict with monday’s MATH221 Lecture (a prerequisite for many physics courses), however I had a chat with Boris Levit, the instructor for that course, for permission miss mondays lecture to take BIOL243. This is his email:

Hello Michele,

Following our chat after the class today, I have no objections
to you missing some Monday classes MATH 211. Of course,
I'm expecting you to compensate for it, by your hard work
throughout the whole semester.

Good luck,

Boris Levit,
Instructor MATH 221`

I can forward this original email for documentation purposes to whoever needs to validate this.

I also emailed the Undergraduate Biology Department about this the week before the add course deadline, to which they replied asking which section I would like to take. I replied very soon with but I did not get a response after that. It’s saddening because if I could add this course on my own, I would have done so before the deadline.

I am confident that I can take on the additional course, and this semester’s workload gives enough slack to. I have been constantly anxious about this throughout the day and when I try to sleep. It will give me much peace of mind to know that I will be prepared for my upper year biology courses. In many of those courses, it states that BIOL243 is recommended.

Thank you very much for your understanding, I fervently appreciate it,

Michelle