Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean (Studies),

I am writing today to appeal to drop ENIN 207 from the Summer 2019 session without academic penalty and am also writing to appeal for an extension for an IN grade for ECON 240 and MATH 121 from the Winter 2019 session.

When the summer term began, I was initially enrolled in three courses, and I first started feeling ill in June, so I decided to drop one course to manage my symptoms better. I expected to finish the remaining two classes, EMPR 230 and ENIN 207. However, my symptoms had gotten progressively worse beginning in July to the point where it significantly compromised my ability to do any coursework as outlined in the supporting documentation. My symptoms caused me a significant amount of physical pain, and as a result, it affected my ability to focus on any tasks for an extended period of time as I could not bear the pain. As a result, I was not able to meet any of the deadlines for the assignments for my courses. I submitted a request for academic consideration notifying my instructors of my illness and hoped to complete the assignments once I had gotten better. As indicated on the supporting document, the estimated recovery time was between 4-8 weeks, which extended beyond the end of the course. I managed to complete EMPR 230 only because most of the course work was already completed prior to July. The final assignment consisted of watching a video and providing a commentary on it and was not research-intensive, so it required less effort. I had already written a draft for the final assignment towards the end of June, so I had 80 of the coursework completed before July. I managed to edit the assignment and submit it a few days after the course deadline but was not confident in my work as it was not my best. For ENIN 207, all the course assignments required an intensive amount of research and effort, which I was not able to do at the time due to my extenuating circumstances prohibiting me from using a computer for an extended period and focusing on any tasks as I had trouble dealing with physical pain.

Not knowing exactly when I would feel better to complete the assignments, I decided it was best to focus on the recovery of my health for the time being. During this time period, I focused on managing my symptoms, and with medication I was able to reduce my symptoms. As my health gradually recovered towards the end of August, I was able to begin my assignments and completed all outstanding assignments for ENIN 207. I submitted the assignments and contacted the instructor, hoping he would be able to understand my situation and accept the assignments and grade them. However, the instructor could not accept the request to grade my assignments as the course had ended, and he advised me to submit an appeal to drop the course without academic penalty. I have put a significant amount of effort into the assignments and was hoping to have them graded as the only reason I was not able to submit them by the deadline was due to an extenuating circumstance that debilitated my academic performance. I believe that I have successfully completed the goals of the course and achieved its learning outcomes, and due to my circumstances, if my assignments cannot be graded for a mark, I should be able to have the course dropped instead. I am appealing to have the course dropped as extenuating circumstances beyond my control effected my ability to meet assignment deadlines on time. I am even willing to retake the course at the next time it is offered to prove that this is a course that I should excel in and achieve a minimum grade of A.

Additionally, I had two pending examinations in September for MATH 121 and ECON 240 from the Winter 2019 session, which I had received academic consideration for and am appealing for an extension for IN status as I am seeking the opportunity to write the finals for these courses. As I was recovering from my illness the entire month of August, I lost a significant amount of studying time as I was not able to focus on any tasks due to my physical pain. I was scheduled to write the MATH 121 exam on September 7th but was unable to write it due to my illness, as indicated in the supporting documentation. As for the ECON 240 exam, I was not scheduled for a date to write the exam and contacted the professor when I was feeling better in mid-September to schedule writing the final exam. After getting in touch with the economics department, we scheduled to write the exam for October 16th. However, I was later informed by the economics department that I must first appeal to before they can schedule an exam, which I was not aware of as there was no deferred examination date scheduled in the first place. I have also been in touch with my MATH 121 professor and was informed that he would only be able to schedule the exam after getting approval from the Arts & Science department.

Since I have recovered from my illness, I have been actively preparing to write the exams for the Winter 2019 session for ECON 240 and MATH121 and have been in communication with professors to write them and am requesting if I can be granted the opportunity to write the final exams for these courses. The past few months have been one of the most difficult stretches of my life and am ready to put it all behind me as I have now regained control of my health and am feeling much better. With the consultation of professionals and reading about how others have managed similar symptoms, I am now able to manage my symptoms with medication and dietary changes, and I anticipate that this will no longer be an issue going forward in my academic career.

I hope that the committee can understand my situation and grant my appeal requests for dropping ENIN 207 without academic penalty and grant me an extension for IN status for ECON 240 and MATH 121 so I can write the final examinations. I am offering a guarantee to the committee that I will no longer have any more setbacks pertaining to this extenuating circumstance going forward and will successfully complete the examinations for ECON 240 and MATH 121.

Best Regards,

Fahad Khan