Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean Dr. Jenn Stephenson,

My name is Ara Harriman (#20465633) and I am writing to request a formal review of my ANSH 102 instructor’s decision on grading Part 1 of my Anishinaabemowin Language Booklet #1 assignment.

At the end of Reading Week nearing the end of February, I submitted my Language Booklet #1. I have attached the original instructions that are part of the course outline we received at the beginning of the semester. Almost a week after the assignment was due, my instructor sent out an email (Email 1 Part 1 & 2) to all students that explained that because some students were not adding enough reflections and questions into their booklet, they would give us a chance to resubmit. The instructor sent another email shortly after (Email 2) to say there was an example of another student’s booklet that was posted. The other student chose to format their booklet differently than mine; they attached their reflections to each week and I organized mine at the top. The instructor said multiple times in class that the way each booklet looks will be unique to the student and their notes, so I was not concerned that my booklet had different formatting. Additionally, in ANSH 101 last semester, we submitted two Language Booklet assignments that were nearly identical to this one. I formatted those nearly the same way I did this semester and I received full marks for both of them. The email that was sent well after the assignment was originally due also said “It is okay to thread your questions / comments / reflective thought(s) throughout the Notes in Part One that was submit for the booklet” but this did not make it clear that this was mandatory; and that each of my reflections were required to formatted in a way that keeps them separated to follow the vocabulary notes for each week. It was also never mentioned in the assignment instructions, and I had been working on this booklet since the start of the semester. Overall, the focus of the instructor’s email was on the content of our reflections, not the formatting.

Although I felt comfortable with my original submission, I decided to take the opportunity to resubmit to add more reflections and questions. However, I did not think I needed to change the formatting of my booklet for the reasons stated above. When I received feedback for this assignment, I was shocked to see that I only received 10/15 points for the booklet part of the assignment (I received full marks for Part 2 of the assignment, but that is not the part that I wish to dispute). This mark equated to losing 5% of my final mark, and the feedback simply said, “These are some great reflections, however, they should be connected to your weekly notes as required.” I no longer have access to my feedback on OnQ because my instructor took it down (which is confusing to me), but I have attached a cropped screenshot of the feedback that I took before it was removed. I would have been more than willing to organize my booklet in his preferred way, but this requirement was simply never communicated. I was proud that I seemed to have received full marks for the actual content of my submission, but I did not agree that I should have lost a third of my mark for my formatting choice when that expectation was not clear. Shortly after I received my grade, my class received an email (Email 3) that clarified that expectation and said some students struggled, but this was almost a month after my submission. I discussed this with multiple of my classmates and they had the same experience I did.

On March 24th, not long after I received my grade, I requested an informal review from my instructor (Email 4) after a meeting with my academic advisor, Jenna Kring. A day later, I received a response (Email 5) from Eliza, who I believe is my instructor’s wife. Most of the communication in this course has been through her so I send emails to her as well as my instructor, George (Jaach) Trudeau. The response said “All instructions were Sent from my iPhone.” Confused by this, I sent a follow-up (Email 6), and since there was no response by March 28th, my academic advisor sent another follow-up on my behalf (Email 7). On April 1st, Eliza responded (Email 8) but her email did not address anything I said in my request. Because of this, I am proceeding with my request for a formal review of my grade for ANSH 102 Language Booklet #1 Part 1.

Thank you for your consideration,
Ara Harriman (#20465633)