Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To the Department of Chemistry and the Faculty of Arts and Science at Queen¿¿s University,

I would like you to acknowledge this letter as the beginning of the formal appeal process for my grade in CHEM 497, under the supervision of Dr. Diane Beauchemin. The purpose of this appeal is to address the irregularity and unfairness that I believe my supervisor used in order to grade my work during the past 8 months. I wish to appeal my supervisor¿¿s overall grading, however the purpose of this appeal is to address the ¿F¿¿ which I received in the research accomplishment as assessed by the supervisor section, worth 25 of the overall grade. Primarily, I would like to address why I find this grading to be unfair. I believe that I have contributed a great deal to this project, and given the time and resources available, I firmly stand by my point that I have allocated 100 of my effort towards this project. By reading my accomplishments in the following paragraph, I hope that you will feel the same way as well. However, before I start stating what I have done, I would also like you to consider that Dr. Beauchemin decided to change my project during week 4 of semester 1, therefore preventing me from accomplishing as much as I would have hoped for during this time period.

Throughout the past year, I have been working on the development of an analytical method optimization for the analysis of pre-concentrated nickel in alkaline fuel cells, under the supervision of Dr. Diane Beauchemin. In order to begin my project, I spent a large amount of time reviewing literature sources that dealt with similar techniques, and also became familiar with the instrumentation I would be using to analyze my data which electro thermal vaporization coupled to inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ETV-ICPOES). Following these literature reviews, I chose my chelating agent for the project and it was ordered, which took 1 week to arrive. After the arrival of this chelating agent, I spent quite some time finding a way to extract the nickel from a basic KOH medium. Once this was successful, I spent time on optimizing the reaction conditions in order to yield a greater yield, this was done by varying pH conditions, the amount of chelating agent added, the reaction temperature, and the extraction method. I then proceeded to test my samples using the ETV-ICPOES system. Various runs were tested in order to optimize the parameters and temperature program of the instrumentation. Upon selecting the optimal parameters for testing my samples, various emission lines were observed in order to test which emission line provided the most distinct peak for my samples. Following this, various samples were tested in order to examine the concentration of nickel in each sample. This was a challenging step as the use of a chemical modifier caused the samples to become too volatile and overloaded the plasma of the instrumentation, therefore, countless runs were conducted, and in the end it was determined that the direct analysis of my samples without the use of a chemical modifier resulted in the best data sets. From this collected data, I spent a large period of time correcting and analyzing the data on Microsoft Excel, a tedious yet necessary process. Upon analyzing all the data collected, I was able to determine the limit of detection and the limit of quantification of nickel in my samples. Following this, I went further to ensure that my method was successful by comparing my limit of detection and quantification to not only literature sources, but I also conducted a separate experiment where I aimed to compare my method, which contained solid pre concentrated nickel, to that of a nickel in water solution. Upon comparing these two methods, my method provided a much lower limit of detection. Overall, I believe that I have met the goal of my project and surpassed many obstacles in order to achieve the results I have achieved.

What may have gone wrong:

There was a miscommunication error between Dr. Beauchemin, my graduate students and myself. At the beginning of the project I was told to create a 100 ppm Ni in KOH solution. This was something I followed for the majority of the year, and something I presented to Dr. Beauchemin three times and was never questioned about. However, during week 11 of semester 2, Dr. Beauchemin indicated that the concentration I was using was way too high and insisted I re do the entire project using a lower concentration. I spent every hour I could find in order to ensure that I was doing everything she wanted. Unfortunately, the reaction was unsuccessful at lower concentrations. I approached Dr. Beauchemin many times for guidance, support and to update her about the progress of my project. Although she was often uninterested, she never once indicated that she was unhappy with my performance or what I was doing. It is very important for me to note that the instrument I was working on was malfunctioning for the majority of the term, and even had to be sent in for repair. This was a frustrating process for me as I really needed this instrument to conduct my research, however I understood that this is research, and not everything is expected to work all the time. I was patient, I did not complain, and I strived to use every second that the instrument was operational to conduct my research. As an undergraduate research student I never expected myself to be in Chernoff Hall until the early hours of the morning, however I found myself in this situation multiple times throughout the year.

Please understand that I am in no way indicating that I am a star researcher, or the best chemist to graduate from Queen¿¿s, however receiving a failing grade for the research component of my thesis project is insulting and degrading for me. I strongly believe in myself, in my work and I will always stand up and voice my opinions when I sense unfairness. I am troubled by how Dr. Beauchemin feels about me, and I truly wish to understand what may have caused this, however I strongly disagree with her views, and her grading. As a student leader in our department, I have long stood up for fairness, equality and acted as a voice for my peers. This does not stop today, as I aim to address the unfairness and irregularity I sense in the grading of my CHEM 497 project by my supervisor.

Thank you for taking the time to read my appeal, and I would be more than happy to answer any further questions you may have regarding this issue.