Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To whom it may concern,

My name is Eric Lazure and I am currently a 4th year student and hopeful graduate this spring of 2016. Over the past 4 years I have been very fortunate to have majored in Drama and pursued a passion that I was lucky enough to discover here at Queen¿¿s. Part of the degree requirements for Drama is to complete show hours, meaning that the student would spend hours outside of the classroom working on a variety of productions. In my 2nd year, the department changed the course numbers and structure to include DRAM 246 and DRAM 247 as the course numbers associated with the completion of the required hours for working on a production. My problem is not that I did not complete the hours, rather, due to a miscommunication, these courses were not added to my course load and I was never given official recognition or credits for my production hours. Of course, this was concerning, so I met with the Drama Department advisor, Lee Atkinson, and she helped me out, so that I would be credited for my work and therefore, am now able to graduate. There was an exchange of emails between Lee Atkinson and another advisor, Andrea Labelle, (in which I was cc¿¿d) where I was notified that some courses had been moved around and that I would in fact be credited for my hours through a different course number and as a result, be able to apply for graduation. I will supply a screen shot of these emails. However, the only problem was now that I still had DRAM 246 as a registered course and because I was credited through a different course number I would not be able/ or required to complete it. I was then notified that if I did not drop the course, it would show up as a Failure on my transcript, but the problem was that this process occurred after the February 26th drop deadline, on March 4th, 2016. (This can be seen in the email screen shots I will supply). So really, I was left feeling quite helpless and of course, my only available option to avoid failing the course was to make a formal appeal (which I was instructed to) and so that is where I am now. The whole situation has caused quite a lot of stress for me, but I am hoping that because there wasn¿¿t anything I could do in the situation this may be taken into consideration. I am not dropping the course, because I did not do the work or anything like that. In fact, it¿¿s quite the opposite, for the reason I am being credited for the hours is because I have worked on a total of 5 productions recognized by the Department, Vogt B (January 2013), Vogt A (November 2013), Vogt B (January 2014), Vogt C (April 2014) and Queen¿¿s Musical Theatre¿¿s Spamalot (April 2014). Over all of these productions I have put in easily put in over 100 hours of work outside the classroom, and thanks to Lee I was recognized for those hours, the only problem is that now I need to drop DRAM 246.

I have really enjoyed my time working on productions and various projects, and it means a lot to me that these could be credited towards my degree. I am very thankful for the help of Lee Atkinson and Andrea Labelle, my only wish is to not have my transcript stained in my final semester due to a circumstance in which I had no control to complete the course.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

Eric Lazure