Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I would also like to provide additional context regarding the attendance concerns that significantly affected my experience in the course.

Initially, I intended to drop the course. However, after communicating with a student services officer, I was advised that pursuing a CR petition might be a more appropriate option.

Throughout the term, the classroom was extremely overcrowded. With approximately thirty students sharing a very small space, students were often required to sit very closely together or on the floor. Due to my physical condition, I was unable to sit on the floor for three hours each class.
I often could not remain within the main seating area and instead had to sit near the doorway or side area of the classroom, sometimes positioned behind other students.

Despite still being physically present inside the classroom, there were multiple occasions where my attendance was not recorded.

The course also did not use a written or formal sign-in system. Attendance appeared to rely largely on the professor’s observation and the submission of annotations. However, even when I attended class and submitted my annotation work in person, there were still approximately four to five occasions where I was not marked present.

I raised these concerns multiple times with both the instructor and the department over the course of approximately a month and a half, but the issues were never meaningfully resolved.

Academically, my grades outside of attendance were consistently within the A range. However, by the end of the term, I had become increasingly discouraged and uncertain about continuing in the course due to the ongoing unresolved attendance issues. This ultimately contributed to my decision not to submit the final annotation assignment, which was worth 4%, as I was already considering dropping the course at that stage.

I wanted to clarify that the missing assignment and the overall impact on my course performance were closely connected to these ongoing attendance and classroom accessibility concerns, rather than a lack of engagement with the course itself.

If a CR petition is ultimately not possible, I would still like to request consideration for a late drop due to the circumstances outlined above.

Thank you so much.