Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To the Associate Dean (Studies),

My name is Sinthiya Sooriyaganthan (ID: 10045251) and I am a Concurrent Education student currently in the process of completing my third year in my Bachelor of Science (Honours) degree at Queen¿¿s University. I am writing to you today to appeal my final grade of a C- in CHEM313 (Fall, 2014) and request a credit standing, instead.

During the exam period of Fall 2014, I had been battling the flu throughout and my body was already weak. Nonetheless, I successfully completed two out of my three scheduled exams with careful planning and countless hours of studying. I had finished my second last exam on Wednesday December 10th, 2014, and had planned out how I was going to study for my final exam (CHEM313) on Friday December 12th at 7:00pm well in advance. However, what I was not prepared for was a sudden onset of nausea that arrived while I was in Stauffer Library around 9:00pm on Thursday December 11th, the day before my CHEM313 exam. I believed I was beginning to experience symptoms of food poisoning and went home around midnight to try and sleep it off, after which I proceeded to vomit and have other severe symptoms for 11 hours straight. This resulted in my body losing most of its fluids, and I fainted from the dehydration before realizing I should go to a hospital.

I went to the hospital at 11:00am on Friday December 12th and was admitted immediately after I explained I had fainted. I was administered 2 IV drips, gravol, toradol, and morphine. The doctor explained that my symptoms were consistent with the Norwalk virus. I received a doctor¿¿s note indicating that I should only partake in light activities as tolerated. After being discharged from the hospital near 3:00pm, I arrived home and slept until 6:55pm, nearly sleeping through my exam due to the effect that the morphine was having on my body. I wanted to write the exam because I did not want to write a more difficult exam in January, and had already experienced too much stress to have to go through it all again next semester. I wanted it to be over, and so I wrote the exam.

I had planned on preparing 4 cheat sheets (as these were allowed for the exam) on Thursday and finishing them on Friday before the exam, but had only begun one by the time the symptoms had hit, making me physically unable to continue working. Due to these extenuating circumstances, I was physically unable to prepare for this exam as well as I could have had I not become suddenly ill. I was also in email correspondence with my professor, Dr. Tucker Carrington, from around 6:00 am on December 12th, 2014 explaining my condition. I admitted that I had worked too hard this semester and already pushed through one illness this exam period to push this exam until January, and still wanted to write it the same day. I was going into the exam with around a B/B, and I really did not want to continue studying for this exam through my break. I inquired whether or not he could provide me with an accommodation, such as some extra time so that I could take my time with the exam, since my current physical state was not ideal for writing a three-hour exam in a crowded gym. He first told me that he could give me an exam in January of 2015, but that the make-up exam would be different, making ¿¿it harder to compare your performance with that of other students.¿ Upon my request for extra time, he said ¿¿I cannot supervise the extra time myself,¿ and proceeded to say that ¿¿if you are healthy enough today that you can write the exam if it starts early¿ (I had requested to begin the exam earlier if he would be willing to provide me extra time to write it), ¿¿clearly you think you are well enough to take the exam, I think you should do that.¿ I found his emails to be condescending and rude, and especially difficult to deal with while also dealing with my poor physical state, which he did not seem to accept. In the future I will try to take better care of my body during high stress periods such as exams, but it is difficult to predict when such sudden illnesses will arrive.

My professor¿¿s emails made me upset and frustrated, motivating me to want to be done with the course even though I was weak, under the influence of morphine, mentally/academically unprepared, and truly not in the best physical state by any means. With how he treated me through his email correspondences, I do not believe he would support me in this appeal. However, I do have two witnesses who saw my condition first hand who would be more than willing to attest to my poor physical state. Please feel free to contact me if more information is required. Thank you for your time and consideration of my appeal, and I hope that I have presented it in a concise but thorough manner.

Sincerely,
Sinthiya Sooriyaganthan
11ss82@queensu.ca
BScH/BEd Candidate 2016/2017
Queen¿¿s University