Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dr. Johanne Bénard
Associate Dean (Studies)
Student Services, First Floor Dunning Hall
December 29th 2017

RE: APPEAL TO DROP AFTER DROP DEADLINE

Dear Dr. Bénard,

I am appealing to have MATH 225 for the 2016 & 2017 Summers dropped from the transcript. During both of these terms that I took this course, I was not given a proper opportunity to write the final exam within a reasonable period. Dr. Ableson has agree that it failure to provide an exam within a reasonable period of time was indeed his fault. However, I realize that asking to have two instances of this course removed is strange: I do wish to address why I took this course two times before requesting to have it dropped

During the summer of 2016 I took Math 225 because I was aware that I would be switching my program to a Math & Computer Science specialization. During this semester I had completed 50 of the course material for MATH 225, and had a grade of A- before the final exam. I had asked to write the exam at a later time due to documented medical circumstances which were agreed upon by the PhD student who was teaching the course; unfortunately communication broke down as the task was delegated to Professor Ableson. He contacted me (much later) to write the exam at a later date, but this date was on a religious day for me (weekly Sabbath, as defined by Judaism). He then asked me about another date which did not work for me. When I replied that this would not work for me (he specifically asked me if it would), he did not acknowledge this. During the fall semester I fell ill, something which has been documented in a previous appeal I had for that semester. I emailed Dr. Ableson several times with not a single reply for over a year. I sought academic advice regarding writing Math 225 and I was advised that I would not be guaranteed an opportunity to write the exam, and that I would be better that I replace a fail, that have no credit and can;t graduate with a math degree. Therefore I took MATH 225 again in the summer of 2017.

Unfortunately, the exact problem occurred again when I took the course during the summer of 2017. I had a conflict with the final exam, was offered the exam on a Sabbath by the PhD student. However, I did inform her that it would not be possible. Once again the process was delegated to Professor Ableson, and once again he failed to reply for over 4 months-- in fact this was the first reply that he's offered to me in over 1.5 years. He has stated that he will support my appeal to have MATH 225 dropped. I have included a copy of his email, and some of the email exchanges I have given over the last year. Furthermore, I would appreciate if I was refunded one of these courses tuition -- I feel like the failure to receive this credit was not entirely in my hands.

Finally, I wish to reiterate that I do realize that it is not typical to ask for two instances of the same course removed twice: I truly should have appealed the first instance of MATH 225 back in April. However, as previously documented, I was having mental-health issues, which at times makes handling too many stressors extremely difficult: I had felt defeated -- unable and unwilling to muster the energy for another appeal after I realized I did not include MATH 225 in my April 2017 appeal -- and decided to just take MATH 225 again (knowing that it was advised anyways). Looking towards the future, management of all my affairs with high-stress is something I continually work to be proactive about. I am still attending Queen;s Counselling with Amy Fischer, and trying to balance my ability to deal with mental-health and deadlines. I appreciate your time and consideration concerning this matter, and I look forward to your decision.

Sincerely,
Sabri Alouache
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