Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Associate Dean,

My name is Cameron Pound, student number 20075650.

I am requesting an appeal of my Instructors¿¿ (Dr. William Nelson¿¿s) decision on my final grade in STAM 200. I received my grade on the 14th of May, and I finished my discussion with Dr Nelson about the decision of my grade on the 15th of May.

I was given the decision that my final grade was a B; however throughout the entire semester I was averaging an A/A+, and my final exam grade was 82.8. Given this I still received a final grade of B.

With all my classes being on OnQ, I became quite familiar with the website and in all 3 of my classes and my other 2 classes online last year there is a ¿Grades¿¿ tab I am sure you are familiar with. In every single class I have taken, all the weighted grades are posted in the ¿Grades¿¿ window and that allows me to track my progress throughout the course for the year.
However, after talking with Dr Nelson following the decision made on my final grade, I found out that he has been weighting grouped online tutorial sessions without posting them into the ¿grades¿¿ window and he did not notify me once throughout the year to tell me that it was negatively affecting my grades.
As I have been juggling Ice hockey and school for the year, if I am doing well in a course and have a grasp on the subject, as I clearly was in STAM 200, I do not participate in the unweighted assignments meant for struggling students. Had I been notified by OnQ to let me know that I was receiving F¿¿s on certain weighted material in the course I certainly would have completed them for my best interest. The fact that Dr. Nelson did not notify me once about me not completing a single group tutorial session and that it was negatively impacting my grades is absurd. He is a teacher getting paid to get the best out of his students and should be pushing to make sure they are attaining the grades they are capable of attaining.
Furthermore, the tutorial sessions that are weighted require a live presence to a session at a specific time. The reason I am taking online classes is for the flexibility of getting work done when I have the time to do it. I am playing hockey full time, spending 3-4 hours at the rink minimum, on game days almost the whole day, and making sure to participate in team functions on top of that. So to expect myself to be able to attend every live session is unreasonable, and there are no recordings to follow sessions missed. Again had I been notified once that these sessions were affecting my grade, I would have made it a point of discussion sooner with Dr. Nelson and made it a point to try and attend as many of these sessions as possible.
I am requesting that my final grade me revised based on the work I have completed as I feel my current grade is unfair given the current grading being ambiguous and unreflecting of my academic merit in this course.

Thank you,
Cameron Pound