Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Dr. Bénard,
My name is Lukas Burch and I am a fourth year Physical and Health Education student. I am appealing the severity of punishment that I have received from the recent findings of my departure of academic integrity in HLTH 205 as a result of an assignment I submitted. I have been given a 0 on the assignment plus the subtraction of the value of the assignment (80) which has failed me from the class. I have also been given a Level II departure from academic integrity, which is the part I feel is unnecessary. I feel that I should be given a Level 1 sanction because this is my first time being involved in anything to do with academic integrity, the weight of the assignment was less than 50 of the final mark and I could have passed the course had I just gotten a 0 on the assignment, and there is no direct effect on other students in the course. I feel, based on what Dr. Fergus stated in his report that the sanctions given to me are overly harsh and that the SKHS were just trying to make an example of me as a fourth year student. In addition, one of Dr. Fergus¿¿ arguments was that he had given multiple extensions to other students and would have given one to me but I was unaware of this possibility at the time.
For the last semester, my overall anxiety and stress has reached an all-time high for my university career. This semester I have dealt with a very messy break up with my ex-girlfriend in which she would not stop contacting me for about two months. Recently, I have been quite stressed about my family. In early November my Uncle Alfred, who is pretty much like my grandfather because he has no children, was sent to the hospital for an accumulation of fluid around his heart. For a few days, we were not sure whether he would make it through. My mother was calling me every day at school to update me on his status. A few weeks ago he started making a recovery and he can now talk and eat on his own. It has been a very stressful time for me and my family. With his age, my parents decided it was best for him and his wife to be moved into a retirement home so he can receive the daily care he needs. This has been a very lengthy process and my mother has been doing most of the work to get it done. When I talk to her on the phone I can sense the she is very stressed with the situation. On top of this, I have not been in a good place mentally for most of the semester. I have been constantly worrying about what I am going to do with my future and this has caused me to not be able to focus on this school year as much as I should be. I was not sure what I wanted to do when I graduated or what I was even going to do next year and my parents have constantly been asking me about it which is just making me more stressed. In the week of Nov 30 ¿¿ Dec 4 I had 2 tests and 3 assignments due. On the following Monday, December 7 I worked all night from 7pm-2am. On the Wednesday, December 9, I had an assignment due. On the 11th I had my statistics final which I knew I had to study at least a day for. I was crunched for time and the amount of stress I was dealing with made my pace of work very slow and unorganized and it was quite debilitating. In hindsight I understand that I could have asked for an extension on the paper and I know I could have submitted a quality piece of work. However, I have never asked for an extension on anything before because I do not like asking for extra help. I also wanted to get home to be with my family for the holidays as early as possible to help with moving my aunt and uncle into the retirement home. Instead, I made a huge error in judgement and used an old paper for my submission. Now, I feel ashamed and embarrassed about what happened.

Sincerely,
Lukas Burch