Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean(Studies):
I am Zhantao Bao, I am currently studying in Bader International Study Centre to pursuit General Art and Science in first year, with a Bachelor of Arts(Hons), student id 20112086. I wish to appeal to drop my MUTH111 course in my 2019 winter term.
On February 15th, 2019, I went with the rest of BISC to Paris for our mandatory mid-term trip. However, on the last day of our mid-term trip my backpack was stolen, which contains all my money, bank cards, passport, and my British study permit(the BRP), this has made my trip back to England impossible, as a matter of fact, I couldn¿¿t go anywhere but to stay the Schengen region. I have the police report issued by Paris police(written in French)that documented this incident, I will upload it with my appeal. Shortly after the incident, the only possession I have left, my phone, has been robbed as well, this time with two robbers armed with a knife. I contacted BISC the minute after both incidents, and they have informed me in order to go back to the United Kingdom, I have to apply for a travel document, which is a temporary alternative of a passport, in my home embassy in Paris and then apply for a replacement BRP visa in the British Embassy there. In the multiple phone calls I had with BISC, they also told me that they would inform all my instructors about my difficult situation. My instructors all expressed sympathy for my incidents and were willing to make accommodations for me in regards to what I was about to miss. However waiting for the new visa for the UK, took incredibly long. I waited for some time to get my travel document, and applied for the replacement BRP visa on February 27th, I have submitted all the supporting documents that they needed and even paid for a quite expensive priority fee to speed up the process. However, it took almost a month for my visa to get through, and the visa centre couldn¿¿t let me know what was the reason of this strangely long process. Therefore, I had to stay in Paris without a phone or a laptop until March 23rd, last weekend, when I finally got the visa and flew back to England. Because I don¿¿t have any devices to access the course materials and have been forced to miss all the classes since our mid-term trip, All of my courses was severely affected in the time I was stuck in Paris, especially MUTH111. All my other courses like politics and English, I had the textbooks with me so I could try to keep up in some level, but MUTH111 is a music course with involves a great amount of digital material, like audios and videos, it was impossible for me to access it. Furthermore, MUTH111 is a course that greatly values performance screenings and dialogue in class, it has become extremely difficult for me to keep up without having the experiences in class. My instructors were able to give me plans with extension to catch up my missed assignments in all my other courses, except for MUTH111, as I have explained, very unfortunately for me, it has already become impossible for me to achieve the expected study outcome in MUTH. I have missed almost all the important deadlines in MUTH111 while in Paris,(including two essays, a presentation, and my participation mark)except for the final exam, but without being in class for the last 40 days, it would be extremely hard to pass the exam, as my instructor suggested. Both my instructor Diana Gilchrist and the deputy academic director in BISC Dr. Anna M. Taylor supports me to apply for a late drop of this course.
As the first year program in BISC is coming to the end, I will meet the extended deadline requirement and successfully finish all my other courses. If I can successfully drop MUTH111, I might take an extra course if I need to make up the credit in the second year or I would choose to take a similar course in summer school. I might take a course which is similar to MUTH111 on the main campus because I am personally interested in musical topics. I will go to Queen¿¿s Main campus in Kingston this September, and I don¿¿t see any possibility to have a similar unusual incident again in Canada, and I would definitely take extra precautions on my important belongings there.
To conclude, these unfortunate incidents were clearly beyond my control, as for MUTH111, despite for my strong desire to catch up, it would still be pointless for me to attempt to study it on my own, it¿¿s also impossible for me to pass this course now after the incidents.
I desperately hope that you can grant this late-drop, So I can put my full attention on my other courses. If you need additional information or have any questions, I am more than willing to provide it and I am sure Dr.Anna Taylor is too.
Thank you so much.
Sincerely,
Zhantao Bao