Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To Whom It May Concern,

I am writing to formally request Credit (CR) standing in KNPE 254 with Dr. Costigan, due to extenuating academic and personal circumstances that significantly impacted my performance in this course.

Throughout the semester, I encountered ongoing challenges in KNPE 254 that were largely beyond my control. Despite my strong commitment to the course, including working with a tutor and consistently attending lectures, I struggled to keep up due to a lack of instruction clarity and support. Many students, including myself, looked for clarification during class, but were often met with vague, dismissive, or unhelpful. The course lacked the structured teaching necessary to understand complex biomechanics content, and this severely hindered my ability to succeed.
These difficulties were intensified by the TA strike, which further limited my access to support. While I understand that the strike created challenges for instructors, no additional instructional or academic support was provided in its place. Normally, I would rely on the TAs for clarification and academic support, especially since Dr. Costigan often made it difficult to seek help directly, and without their guidance during the strike, I felt completely lost and unsupported. This left me with little guidance, especially when preparing for assessments, at a time when I needed more help.

One of the most difficult aspects of the course came near the end of the semester, when significant last-minute changes were made to both the grading scheme and the final exam format. At the start of the term, it was clearly communicated that if a student performed better on the final exam than on a term test, the weight of the term test could be shifted to the final. I structured my studying and preparation around this policy and invested time into preparing for the final with that understanding. However, this option was unexpectedly removed during the final week of class. Additionally, the final exam format was changed to 80–100 multiple choice and assertion-reason questions, a style we had never practiced or been assessed on in KNPE 254. When concerns were raised about this, we were told that assertion-reason questions were “to separate the top students from the bottom,” which felt discouraging rather than supportive, particularly at such a stressful time of the year.

Recognizing the seriousness of these issues and how they were affecting my ability to learn, I proactively reached out to Dr. Samantha King, Director of the SKHS, to express my concerns and seek support. I communicated the course-related difficulties I was experiencing, the lack of support, and the increased pressure caused by the strike and sudden grading changes. I did this because I genuinely cared about doing well in the course and believed that highlighting these issues could lead to some resolution or assistance.

Unfortunately, despite these efforts, the course continued to feel disorganized and unsupported, and my academic performance suffered as a result. I felt overwhelmed, anxious, and discouraged in a learning environment that offered little clarity or assistance. I did everything I could to stay on track, but the combination of ineffective instruction, reduced academic support due to the strike, and last-minute changes to course expectations created conditions that were not conducive to success.

For these reasons, I am requesting Credit (CR) standing in KNPE 254. Thank you very much for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,
Angelica Balestra