Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Faculty of Arts and Science,



I am writing this petition letter regarding the waiving of the deadline of the late course drop. My name is Savannah Ford and I’m currently in my fourth year. In my second year, the Fall 2022 term specifically, I took STAT263, an option for a statistics course as required by my degree. I’m just about done a BSc (hons.), Specialization in Geological Sciences. I struggled significantly in this course due to a variety of factors and as a result, ended up failing the course. I did try to take it again in the Winter 2024 term, but ended up dropping it as I could tell that I was still struggling pretty badly.

During this current term, Fall 2024, I have taken BIOL243, another option for a statistics course for my degree. This course has gone phenomenally better for me, for a number of reasons. During this term, I received a diagnosis for a condition that led to my getting academic accommodations put in place. Even before the diagnosis, due to my suspicions about having what I was diagnosed with, I had begun to self-accommodate to the best of my abilities while I waited on getting academic accommodations. These factors, as well as the vastly different structuring of the course itself, I believe contribute to my improvements in a statistics course.

Due to these circumstances, I am hoping to appeal to have the F grade from the first STAT263 removed from my transcript. Firstly though, I am appealing to have the deadline for a late course drop waived so that I can do this. Until getting my diagnosis, I believed my performance in STAT263 to be my own fault, and this is why I am seeking this so long after the initial F grade. BIOL243 is an equivalent statistics course required by my degree and while I only recently wrote the final exam for the course, I have confidence in passing the course well. I also believe the F grade from STAT263 to be hurting my GPA on my transcript.

I believe having accommodations in place this term to have greatly helped me and I also strongly believe that had I had them while taking STAT263, I would have performed better. My accommodations advisor is Jon Oosterman, if that’s helpful.



I thank you for your time and consideration,

Savannah Ford

Student Number: 20302302