Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To Dr. Stephenson, Associate Dean (Studies)
I am appealing to add the following courses past the academic deadline: BIOL 410 (lecture section 001, seminar section 002) and BIOL 403 (lab section 001, tutorial section 002).
During the fall semester I took BIOLs 212 and 339, both of which are on the Biology Fundamental course list. In order to take 400 and 500 level biology classes a cumulative GPA of 2.0 must be achieved in the Fundamentals list. I missed my BIOL 339 exam as I had the wrong date written down. A classmate messaged me on the day of the exam wishing me good luck, and halfway through the time that I was scheduled to write the exam I realised my mistake. I went to the exam location in order to speak to Dr. Tufts about my options, but he had already left. I sent him an email that night and attempted to speak with him at his office over the next weeks; however I was unable to get into contact with him before leaving Kingston for the holidays. It was my intention to attempt once again to get into contact with him upon returning to school. A friend of mine unexpectedly passed away right after New Years, and I took a couple weeks to process it before I was ready to start dealing with school again. During the second week of courses I got into contact with Dr. Tufts, who allowed me to write the BIOL 339 exam on January 23rd. I finished the class with a 3.7, resulting in a GPA of 2.1 in the Biology Fundamentals list. I also contacted Dr. Ko, the Undergraduate Chair of the Biology department, as with the incomplete on my record in BIOL 339 my GPA in the Biological Fundamentals list was previously 1.97 and I was unable to register in the 4th year courses that I need to complete my degree. Unfortunately, as I had not yet written my exam and my GPA in the Biology Foundations list was uncertain, he was unable to add me to the classes prior to the end of the add/drop period.
Now that I have the GPA requirement for 400 series biology courses, I have permission from Dr. Ko to add BIOL 410 and 403 past the academic deadline to add courses, as well as permission from the instructors of both courses, Dr. Arnott and Professor Seroude, respectively.