Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Faculty Office,

I hope this petition finds you well. I am submitting this letter to request to drop EMPR 100 after the final drop date for the 2025 fall term. Due to extenuating circumstances, I was unable to drop the class during the regular drop period and sincerely apologize for the late submission.

Throughout my first semester at Queen’s I tried to balance many commitments, I am an active participant on the Varsity rowing team, multiple clubs and my commerce courses. I worked diligently in all aspects of my university career and was under the impression, until recently, that I was doing well in all aspects.

When trying to balance all of these commitments, my system to stay on top of my EMPR coursework failed. I thought that all graded work was listed under the assignments tab on Onq. This was an incorrect assumption and resulted in over 45% of the grades for the course now being unavailable to me. I acknowledge that this is my mistake and I apologize sincerely for that. For the assignments I did know about, I worked hard and achieved an A-, I also was an active participant in the tutorials and consistently communicated with my TA and submitted work she assigned me to make up for missed tutorials. Unfortunately, during the crucial tutorials when people were informed about the discussion posts and reminded about them, I was on rowing trips. I have an email chain with my TA documenting my absences.

Once I found out that I was on track to fail EMPR, I immediately emailed the professor and submitted my missing work. I hoped that resubmitting these assignments would salvage my grade. Unfortunately, I received a zero on these assignments because of their lateness. Although I submitted the work before the deadline for the drop period, I received the grades after the deadline had passed, therefore giving me no opportunity to drop the course.

It has caused me extreme stress and worry because I have ambitious goals at Queen’s and beyond. I have spent the entire semester preparing myself for the commerce club march hiring process and for summer internships, taking the Investment Banking Prep night course and self-studying additional textbooks. Should this grade remain on my transcript, I will be under the minimum GPA requirement of 3.5 for these opportunities. Since these clubs only hire first years, I will miss my one and only shot at achieving these goals. I am confident that without this grade on my transcript, I will be able to achieve my goals as all other aspects of my studies are in line with my requirements.

I sincerely appreciate your consideration of my request. I am fully committed to my academic success at Queen’s and will certainly never make this mistake again. Dropping EMPR 100 would allow me to stay dedicated to my goals and meet my academic and professional goals. Please let me know if any additional information is required. Thank you for your time and consideration, I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,
Alexander Wittstock
20512540
EMPR 100