Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I hope this email finds you well. I am a second-year on-campus health sciences student, and I wish to bring up some issues I experienced this summer.

During the summer, I took a full course load in PHGY 216, GLPH 271, and BCHM 270. I was progressing well in the course throughout the summer. However, during the final exam season, my grandma unexpectedly passed away. At the time, I was so tunnel visioned on the matter, and did not think of using the academic consideration as I felt extremely pressured and depressed for a long time. My immediate family were out of the country to take care of my grandma, and I was alone for the first time, navigating Kingston, a city I had never lived in with exams coming up, which severely impacted my mental, psychological and physical health. I suffered from feelings of anxiety, hopelessness, and insomnia, all while neglecting meals and nutrition. I had a massive headache the entire week following the news. I could not retain any information during the final exam.

My performance was suboptimal and nowhere near what my performance was prior to this traumatic event. This has severely impacted my GPA. For example, for the BCHM 270 course, the grade I received on the final exam was substantially lower than any of my assignments prior.

I am petitioning for the CR (Credit standing) in my courses, especially BCHM 270 as that was the final exam out of the back-to-back schedule and thus was the course that was impacted most by this situation. Moreover, PHGY 216 was also impacted as that was my first exam. I received news of my grandma passing on July 26, and the PHGY 216 exam was on July 30, the same day my grandma was cremated.

I truly believe that this situation has negatively impacted my GPA and my academics as a whole. For example, my overall mark prior to the BCHM 270 exam was an A+; however, in the end, it was 2 letter grades lower.

This sudden extenuating circumstance severely impacted my mental and psychological health, and all of it happened within 4 days before my tightly packed exam schedule; under normal circumstances, I would have ended the course with a much higher grade.