Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Associate Dean,

I would like to appeal two of my Winter 2017 semester grades, MATH 210 and PHYS 239 due to extenuating circumstances. I was in a biking accident in November 2016 from which I received a concussion, resulting in a poor ability to retain short term memories. I struggled to memorize any information and even to remember to do basic tasks in my everyday life. I am appealing the classes that required me to retain information that I had not seen before and/or classes that needed memorization skills to be successful. The other courses that I took that semester either I had seen the material before and used more long-term memories than short term or the courses involved a lot of problem solving skills. An example of this is my PHYS 212 class. We were able to bring a sheet of notes into the exam which meant that we mostly used problem solving skills to be successful in the class. Both my long-term memory and problem-solving skills were not affected by the concussion; therefore, these classes are a better representation of my learning. I am also not appealing my courses in Fall 2016 because most of the content was covered before my concussion and therefore there was not a significant affect on my ability to preform class work.
I have seen doctors and an occupational therapist to help me with my recovery. I am finally at the stage currently where most of my symptoms have subsided and I believe the grades I received this last semester are a better representation of my learning. It is clear to see that courses that required a lot of memorization such as Phys 216 were not longer an issue for me. I have also seen great improvement in my everyday life with my ability to recall information using my short-term memory. There should be no affect on my future courses because of my concussion.
I would like to waive the one term deadline for my appeal due to two reasons. Firstly, I did not submit the appeal earlier because of ongoing concussion symptoms. It was a struggle in my everyday life to cope with the reduced ability to recall short term memories, remembering to do everyday tasks was very difficult. Second, I was not aware of the impact of the concussion symptoms had on my grades. Like many of my other symptoms associated with my concussion I was unaware of how they affected me until they went away. It was not until I was able to retain much more of my short-term memories that I was able to see how they had affected my success in these courses. Now that I can retain short term memories better I can see it had a great impact on my studies that semester.
Thank you for your time and consideration of my appeal,
Chloe Thiessen