Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Hello, I am writing an appeal for a punishment professor Zabojnik is strictly enforcing on a recent midterm. He is taking 30 off of my midterm mark due to technical difficulties caused during the midterm when trying to upload my shown math work as a PDF file. The midterm began at 10:00am and was supposed to be complete with all files handed in by 11:40. Due to Wifi, email, and server issues, I ended up handing in my PDF file about 10 minutes late. I emailed him the day of the midterm to attempt to resolve this issue, but he didn't seem to believe that I had technical difficulties (even though I had proof of my errors). His argument against me is that I submitted my exam about four minutes before the deadline, so he doesn't believe I allocated my time correctly. Although, I was working on taking pictures/making the PDF throughout the exam in order to have a quick submission of my files at the end, so I refute this response. Additionally, in a response to my email, he stated that it shouldn't take more than five minutes to upload a PDF file. With this idea in place, I did indeed allocate my time correctly had there been no technical errors to delay my submission. The rule which he implemented in place as of this year is a deduction of 3 marks per minute that the PDF file is submitted late. This is completely unfair and unforgiving for extenuating circumstances and is likely going to make me fail this midterm due to 10 minutes of a late submission. There are other students I am in contact with who had similar/other issues but he is unforgiving to all. I even wrote to Professor Ian Cromb to see if anything could be done although his advice was to just take it up with professor Zabojnik. Seeing that I already attempted this option, naturally was not a very helpful response. Even in writing this appeal, Im having to write it THREE times, because when I was about to submit it, the page crashed and sent an error. Technology is inconsistent and isn't perfect and for this reason, it is unfair for it to be treated as such. I have attached proofs of some of the issues I was having in the documentation section of this appeal. Thank you for the help

I am free to discuss this further in any style of appointment but am also very responsive to my emails.
-Benjamin Limoges, 20103361, 17bdl2@queensu.ca