Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Appeal Request

I am requesting a waiver of appeal deadlines for the following two requests:

1) Extenuating circumstances leading to failure of ANAT100 CDS F15, Dr. Les MacKenzie and Dr. Klodiana Kolomitro Fall 2015

2) Denial of credit for grades achieved at University of Toronto under Letter of Permission (LOP) in Fall 2015 ¿¿ HIS284H5 and HIS395H5

I am also requesting an appeal of a failing grade in ENGL100 CDS F/W15 Completed April 2016

Explanation of Extenuating Circumstances

I moved from Kingston to my parents home in Toronto due to psychological challenges and issues that have been documented previously by doctors notes and prescriptions given to the school and was too distracted to focus on the importance of appeal timelines and the decision to appeal. My anxiety related issues have created challenges for my learning throughout my time at Queen¿¿s and since moving home I have been taking courses primarily on-line.

For the Anatomy course I purchased the course textbook for 200 from the Queen¿¿s bookstore that was supposed to come with an access code to McGraw-Hill on-line course material that much of the on-line course was graded on. I notified my professor that I did not have the code and he instructed me to call McGraw-Hill
for another code. McGraw-Hill told me I would have to purchase another one for an additional 200 dollars. I was on OSAP at this time and I could not finance this purchase right away. I told my professor about this. As soon as I was able to buy this code I did, I notified my professor that I could access now and he opened up only a few of the quizzes that I had missed but a vast majority of the marks I did not have access to.

I strongly believe I would have done well in this course and certainly passed if I had access earlier or if the professor allowed me access to all the gradings rather than just a couple after all my difficulties with the codes. This is all documented in email records. This whole issue was expensive and extremely stressful during an already stressful time and has left me with a 0 on my transcript that I do not feel is fair to a struggling financially independent student. My GPA has suffered without just cause as I completed all i could at this time while explaining and pleading for assistance.

I passed two courses at U of T achieved under the LOP, however Queen¿¿s did not grant credit as my final grades were less than the minimum grade required to pass.

I was offered a full time ongoing job that I needed to survive and pay rent but conflicted with the final exam time. Given the timing, I was unable to be excused during my first week of employment. The professor refused my repeated requests to reschedule on compassionate grounds even though policy suggests this may be granted.

Academic Plan

Given my personal situation and challenges, my goal is to complete my three-year B.A. providing me some closure and a sense of accomplishment as I seek to get started with a career. Consideration of my requests would both give me credit to help achieve this and/or help my academic standing by being removed from my record. I am currently enrolled to re-take the ENGL100 course but my preference would be receive some credit or accommodation recognizing the effort I have made and my extenuating circumstances.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Dylan Whitaker