Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean (Academics) Dr Jenn Stephenson,
I am writing to you to petition for a Request Credit (RC) in placement of my letter grade for the MATH225 course completed in Winter 2025. Though I was successful in my completion of the course, there were many factors this semester that affected my learning and therefore resulted in me receiving a D-.
The main contributor to this is that I suffer from recall issues. As someone who already struggles with severe anxiety, particularly when it comes to tests as well as depression (my medication dose was recently increased in April 2025) I have found that I have continuous issues with remembering proper information on exams and accurately representing my knowledge. In late February 2025, I began having panic attacks, which have led to classes being missed for mental health reasons and even a hospital visit. I am currently seeking psychotherapeutic assessments to identify the areas that are causing my recall deficits and potentially provide further diagnosis, however assessments are still pending at this time. These tests were brought to my attention by my SASS advisor, Ellen Babb, after discussing with her how my accommodations could be improved to help with my recall issues and being faced with needing proper documentation in order to be allowed these aids. Furthermore, towards the end of the semester I had to take a mental health day as per what I have in my accommodations and happened to miss a quiz. When I asked the instructor if I could take it later that week, he told me that would not be possible and that the 15% quiz grade would be added to my final exam mark. This meant that I had a 70% final exam. This was extremely stressful for me as I am someone who already struggles with recall and anxiety during tests and now had 70% of my grade riding on 10 multiple choice questions where a slight miscalculation (difference of a sign of a function) meant that I wouldn’t get any points for my process.
Moreover, throughout the semester I sought help from my course instructor and TA. Unfortunately the TA strike had an extremely negative impact on my learning as I was not able to receive personalized feedback, nor was I given the opportunity to ask questions for clarification. The instructor was willing to answer questions about marking and for clarification, however it was not in a manner that I understood or that I felt was positively affecting my learning. I feel as though this was due to the fact that our course got combined with an engineering course MTHE225 and our instructor was better accustomed to dealing with students who possess an engineering background. Many times when asked questions, he would refer to concepts learned in the APXC (first year engineering math course) and was not able to demonstrate a clear connection to anything learned in an Arts & Science first year math courses. Though the instructor also tried to make himself available to students, he was not very understanding of our accommodations. As someone with listed accommodations requesting that notes from lectures be provided ahead of time for my ease, or even afterwards for review, he did not comply with this. Even when asked by the SASS office, he was unwilling to provide such resources. Additionally, he was unable to clearly answer many of our questions during lectures. If a student tried to connect concepts or solve problems differently than how the instructor had done so, he often looked confused or told us we were wrong without providing an explanation.
Lastly, I have been selected for the bilateral exchange program through the International Programs Office for Winter 2026 in England. I have always dreamed of studying abroad and hope to achieve this dream without being held back by the stigma of my mental illnesses. In order to maintain my spot in the exchange program I need to have a 3.0 GPA which is currently achievable, if I am able to list this MATH225 course as CR instead of a letter grade. I have been working extremely hard this semester to push myself to do the best I can to achieve this dream and feel that this avenue would be very beneficial to supporting my efforts at this time.
Thank you for your time and consideration. I have included additional documentation of my current accommodations and medical history.