Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To whom it may concern,

My name is Kamal Aboulmagd and my student number 20015561. I am writing this letter to appeal to elements of my academic record, with the hopes that you will grant me leniency at this time, and I aim to ensure, never again. I am hoping to be allowed entrance into a course, even though it is significantly beyond the add/drop window. While I recognize that it is inconsiderate of me to assume that I deserve special treatment of any kind, such as being allowed admittance into a course even though it is after the time period to add courses. The courses I am hoping to be granted entry into are PHIL 510-004 as well as PHIL 510-007. I have submitted my request to the department for approval for entry into those courses, and from my academic record, I see no reason why that approval should be denied. I attempted to enroll in the courses well before the add/drop window began but my SOLUS account stated that I had a senate sanction hold on my account. To my knowledge there was no reason there should have been a hold on my account barring some sort of clerical error that I was no privy to.

Additionally, during the course of the pandemic, without access to proper mental health care, as well as the loss of my prospective summer internship and the opportunity to see my family and return home, my mental health went into complete decline. Furthermore, right before the lockdown in March, I was given a very small prescription and was unable to reach my doctor until well after June to be granted additional refills for my medication. All of the above stated issues were compounded with the difficulty of my lease expiring in May and having to sort out a move in Kingston completely by myself placed me in a position outside my depth. Additionally, as I am an international student, my status here in Canada was expiring in the middle of the summer and I had to sort out my visa paperwork without access to consular services due to the shutdown. While none of this is any of the University¿¿s problem, I state it merely to explain my situation and provide a sense of context as to why some of my issues were not dealt with in a more timely manner.

An added wrinkle in this whole situation is that, from a financial standpoint, I will not be able to continue my education beyond the 2020 calendar year without some extremely austere measures. While this is not any reason to be granted leniency from the university, I merely provide it as an explanation for why my situation has a facet of urgency to it, and why I am hoping to take these courses immediately, rather than waiting for a more opportune moment.
I hope this letter of appeal acts as a sufficient and concise explanation of my situation and what I hope for. I truly am sorry that I am in the position of having to ask for any sort of treatment outside of what is reasonable, but I would not ask if the circumstances had not lent themselves to this being my only option. Thank you for your time.

Kamal Aboulmagd