Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Good afternoon,

My name is Tatyana Gudge, student number 10194898. I graduated with a BaH in Political studies from Queen¿¿s University in June of 2019. I am writing to you today in regards to the ongoing situation that has plagued my academic transcripts and further my future. I would like to thank you in advance for your time and consideration on this matter especially given the current global situation at hand. I apologize for the delay in submitting my appeal as well as my letter, as I was facing several difficulties as a direct result of the pandemic. In this appeal I have attached my email correspondences with professors, administrators as well as the invoices for the mental health services I have been receiving. Through this appeal I am hoping to explain my case to you in full, detailing the events that put me in this position, as I have found this situation extremely problematic for the lack of consideration I have received for over almost a year. As a first line of recourse, I attempted to speak to the student assistance office as well as the appeals office and several times they stated they had no information for me regarding next steps and subsequently one staff member told me to stop calling. This has been an eye-opening experience for several reasons, as I believe this process has highlighted the lack of understanding I received at this institution and continue to face even after overcoming challenges as a black woman at a university with a population with eight percent visible minorities that has demonstrated an inability to address the intersectionality of issues that we face. I hope that this appeal will shed light onto the extenuating circumstances I have faced and to further provide the basis for my grade to be updated and further for the policy to be changed at the university, so that going forward situations like this can be avoided, and Queen¿¿s will be better equipped to serve the needs of people from diverse backgrounds.

As stated in my first email to the dean, attending Queen¿¿s was an uphill battle for me at various points in my four years on campus. While my grades were high coming to Queen¿¿s, I come from a lower socio-economic background than most of my peers at the school so I was always grateful to be the first person in my family to attend not only university but a prestigious one at that. I had the privilege of attending the institution due to a scholarship awarded to me in honour of the first black man who attended Queen¿¿s; Robert Sutherland, which entirely opened up my academic career. This award provided me with a path I would have been unable to embark on had I not received financial assistance, so I have always tried to strive to obtain good marks, keep a strong academic standing and make a positive contribution on campus. I suffered in first year as many do coming to a new school but the barrier of being a black woman in a predominantly white school provided many challenges. When the racist party occurred on campus I felt extremely unsafe on campus and this is when some of my anxiety as a black woman on campus began to bolster. I got involved with the AMS and chaired the committee against racial and ethnic discrimination as I had faced many instances of discrimination on campus not only by students but from staff as well and this experience with administrators points to a clear instance of this. This took a toll on me but I still maintained a degree of resilience and also put on a conference on this topic in Robert Sutherland hall in my third year. During my final semester at the university I had an immediate family member of mine become ill which drastically affected my ability to make academics the reigning priority in my life, yet I still attended all classes and handed in assignments on time as I had dreams of attending law school in the future. When this family member passed away I struggled deeply and notified some of my TA¿¿s of the issues I was beginning to face.

During my fourth year I began to face mental health challenges due to personal issues back home, compounded by the sense that I still never felt like I was truly accepted by my peers due to my race. I tried to access the services on campus but the wait times to seek adequate help were extensive. Although I reached out to the services for support, they told me the next possible appointment would be over a month and I was unable to find the necessary mental health support off campus during this time. This greatly contributed to the instability of my condition, both physically and mentally. I focused all of my remaining energy on finishing the semester, so I could return home, where I could try to access the support and guidance I needed to move forward. Upon returning home over the break I was unable to put in place the necessary steps to make sure I was supported and to ensure this situation would never again occur. I couldn¿¿t begin therapy for a few months as I could not afford to seek treatment at first but I have attached the documentation once I was able to get back up on my feet. I saw my doctor prior to the invoices I attached for my mental health services and obtained free sessions of therapy throughout the spring and summer but due to the pandemic I haven¿¿t been unable to collect a note for this period. I had also become weary of seeking professional help with Queen¿¿s during my final semester as I also suffer from endometriosis and visited one of the doctors at the on campus clinic who advised me to simply ¿¿tie my tubes¿, which at 21 I found very disturbing. Notably my friend, a white woman, who had visited this doctor with similar complaints was not told this and described a much warmer encounter, which led me to believe the comment was racially motivated and dissuaded me from seeking these services again. In Toronto I did not have much money to sustain myself, so I hoped be able to utilize the student services but as mentioned, I has a very difficult time accessing proper care at the university. The reality being I suffered in silence as a family member of mine became terminally ill. I have attached emails indicating when this began to take place.

I had felt that there had been barriers my entire life but to suffer alone and not receive adequate assistance made me feel helplessly isolated. My computer also broke around April and have included the documentation. Although to many this would simply pose an inconvenience, I did not have the means to buy a new one or repair it so I was very limited in my options. Due to ongoing issues at home, I returned home more frequently and used the desktop there. The difficulties I faced financially is the main reason as to why I had not appealed my grades earlier. All of the money I made at my part time job went to my rent and I did not have money coming on to my final semester. I did not possess a credit card so in order to eat, I started increasing flex dollar allocations on my student account. I attempted to relegate this issue to several staff who could not understand the position I was in. At this point both my grandfather and my mother were very sick. I had no financial resources and tried my hardest to stay on top of my academics as it was my last semester but increasingly it felt like the rug was being pulled from beneath me and despite my efforts to deal with this on my own, I finally reached out to my teachers because I needed help staying afloat. Reflecting on this experience, I think that it¿¿s important to realize there still are access students who attend the university. If nothing is changed they will be looked down upon by staff members and having been in that position, it made me feel incredibly worse.

I reached out to professor Matrix in advance as I knew the situation at home was deteriorating and I needed to return home and was not going to be able to complete the online midterm on time for the course, ENIN 140. I would like to underscore that it was not that I did not study or have the knowledge to do well on the test, as I had been doing well thus far but I physically could not do it in the time frame provided because I was home in Toronto dealing with the family emergencies I was facing. The professor did not provide me with an alternate date due to the circumstances and because this was worth a significant portion of my grade, and I was designated a 0, this pulled my grade down several points and I received a C+ in the course. At the time I could not see this grade, like the next grade I will discuss, until I came into the financial means necessary to be able to pay my student fees. I asked administrators on the phone if I would be able to see my grades in advance, but they refused to release them until the debt was cleared. This was extremely hard to reckon with as I was supporting myself entirely and felt very helpless as I had no way of obtaining the money to pay these fees in advance of the end of the semester. I had just lost family and was living on my own during this time. I was unable to pay the fee which one administrator referred to as ¿¿a simple payment¿ indicating that to her, it was not a large sum of money and could simply be dealt with. I find comments like these to be extremely tone deaf and offensive as I do not believe that any student¿¿s financial circumstance should be looked down upon.

I also had an issue with my HLTH 200 grade. I completed all of my assignments in this course and even though I was facing personal issues and lost a family member at this time I still managed to complete my discussion post. The post was worth 30 but it was just over a few paragraphs in length and due to its brevity, despite the challenges I was facing I was able to complete it by the due date. To my surprise when I was finally able to pay and saw the grade I was extremely taken aback. I completed all the assignments and had a D+ in an elective course which I had been doing very well in during the semester, and has expected it to augment my GPA. During the semester, and after I attempted to reach out to my professor and I have attached the email correspondence. I informed her that I did in fact complete my assignment and was willing to provide proof of such, but she claimed recourse was not possible as too much time had passed. This was troubling to me as I was going through a lot of difficulties in my life at the time but due to the weight of the assignment and it being not too complex in its requirements, I got it done promptly. To have completed an assignment and not been credited for it caused me a lot of distress. On top of all of the personal circumstances I was dealing with, including my now jeopardized financial security, I was forces to desperately try to reach out to the professor, student services as well as the appeals office frequently in order to remedy this situation.

These two grades are outliers on my transcript and do not reflect the work I put in during my four years at Queen¿¿s. Despite facing a debilitating crisis in my life filled with racial tensions, financial burdens and the mental health of losing someone close to me, I managed to complete my final assignment in my HLTH course which dealt an even more formidable blow as I was not credited for my efforts. My instructor said she could not find my assignment although I did complete this discussion post and made sure to do so amidst the crises in my life I was dealing with. There was no ability for me to provide the documentation for my completed assignment as it was a discussion blog post and I completed it on OnQ. The instructor was confused and asked me to reach out the appeals office which said my time had passed to submit a claim of this matter. I know this has been a protracted process and that I had initially missed the deadline for grade appeals but the circumstances prevented me from taking the necessary steps. In retrospect, it is extremely disheartening because despite the wealth of student services that Queen¿¿s purports, when I was facing extreme issues contacted several individuals for assistance I was confronted with little compassion or guidance for the personal and financial difficulties I faced, that rendered me unable to check my grades and further appeal them.

I hope this letter shed light on the academic situation I faced coupled with the barriers I endured. I hope to apply to a graduate program in the future but these grades have brought down my overall GPA down drastically and are clear outliers on my transcript as I had never received such low marks in all of my four years at Queen¿¿s. To not receive assistance and additionally to not be credited after I completed work during such a pivotal time in my life has caused me immense difficulty especially because it translates back to a lot of the experiences I have had at Queen¿¿s where my experience was not understood. If an intersectional perspective was applied to the situation I was facing back in Spring/Summer of 2019 or if there was more staff members from various backgrounds I believe the mental health, financial and racial barriers would have been dubious in this situation. I have tried to work tirelessly for almost a year to have my voice heard on this matter and I would like to move passed the difficulties and challenges I faced during a pivotal time in my life and I hope that you are able to assist me in doing so.

Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.

Best regards,
Tatyana