Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: As an international student, I have faced many boundaries in my studies during my first year at Queens. The most prominent extenuating circumstance, however, has been continued health issues. I have been hospitalized multiple times over this year due to health concerns. I received academic consideration twice during the winter term due to letters from my doctors stating that I was not able to attend or participate in courses during certain periods due to the state of my health. My health had a major impact on my academic performance even after my academic consideration periods were over, and it is still a challenge in my ability to do my best.
Most of my courses were very accommodating, providing opportunities to submit missed assignments, make up seminar participation, and receive extra help with missed concepts. However, despite multiple communications with the HIST 109 course coordinator, professor, and academic considerations team, I was not permitted to make up participation or receive adequate feedback on assignments. My participation grade for this class accounts for 25% of my overall grade, a substantial loss. Furthermore, upon submitting my Primary Source assignment (worth 20% of my overall grade), I received a subpar grade with little feedback. Along with my regrade request, I requested feedback from the professor on the assignment so that I could make changes to my future approach to the course. Despite responses from the professor saying I would receive this feedback, I never did.
Most prominently, after attending my professor’s office hours in an attempt to create a plan to move forward in the course, I highlighted that since I was not able to attend some lectures and missed content, I would need notes from lectures or help understanding concepts. I was also denied these amenities, and instead of receiving advice on how to succeed in the course, I was advised to drop it.
Without these pillars of support, circumstances out of my control have prevented me from succeeding in the course. I have done absolutely everything in my power to succeed in HIST 109 despite the extenuating circumstances I was dealing with, and was denied time after time of support. I was planning on dropping the course sooner, but unfortunately my grandmother died unexpectedly after I arrived at this decision, so I had to take a break from my studies to coordinate family matters. Now that I am back, I ask that I am allowed to drop this course so that extenuating circumstances do not hold me back from my post-graduate goals. I am happy to provide further documentation of my attempts to contact course personnel. Thank you for your consideration.