Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To whom it may concern,

I am appealing to drop MATH 121 (Summer, 2020). I took this course in the summer to satisfy the requirements of the honours portion of my degree. Unfortunately due to unforeseen circumstances relating to the pandemic, and the consequent mental health issues I experienced, I was not able to keep up with the demands of the course and decided that it would be best from an academic and personal standpoint to drop the course. I did not take the midterm or the final as I had difficulty getting out of bed during this time. I had no motivation to study or meet any of my commitments and could not even work during this time. Due to embarrassment and lack of a relationship with a family doctor, I did not reach out for professional help during this time. This being said, my decision to drop the course was made early on and this is reflected by the fact that I did not submit a midterm or a final for the course- I had a plan to drop it and to retake it during the academic year of 2020/2021 in order to fulfill the requirements of my degree. I was surprised to find out that the drop had not gone through and that the course was marked as an F on my transcript. This only came to my attention now, as I have had no reason to inquire about it or look at my transcript until this morning when I decided I would like to begin an application for grad school. I have been a diligent and hardworking student throughout all 4 years of my degree and it would be a shame for that to be misrepresented all because of a clerical error. I am absolutely certain I dropped the course, and I even have dialogue with course admins explaining that I had dropped the course which is why I did not write the final exam.
I care deeply about my academic future and I am looking to pursue a graduate degree. I believe that this simple mistake would dampen my chances of setting my best foot forward and showcasing my academic potential accurately.
I am currently retaking MATH 121 and intend on passing the course and I am working hard towards doing well in the course. As I have adjusted to quarantine and life with the ongoing pandemic, my mental state has greatly improved and I am able to meet the demands of the course. I am a dedicated student and a hard working individual and I believe that it would be unfair to mis-represent this due to a negligent error, especially because I was suffering with a mental health battle at the time. I managed to get through my degree keeping academics a priority a great majority of the time, but unfortunately life does get in the way unexpectedly. I feel as though it would only be fair for this appeal to be granted as I am genuinely convinced that I had dropped the course and even conveyed this to my instructor through e-mail. I am not sure why this was not reflected in the system.
I hope that this appeal is granted, and that this is done in a timely fashion, as I would like to meet the deadlines for graduate studies applications. I believe I am deserving of this as I had genuine extenuating circumstances that perhaps made me less diligent- my normal self would have triple checked that the course was in fact dropped before putting this aside. I hope I accurately conveyed how desperately I would like for this issue to be resolved, as I genuinely believe that this was a clerical error and I did what I had to do on my end at the time.
While I do not have a doctor's note as I was too ashamed at the time to reach out for help, I do have a statement from a family member (mother) who was living with me at the time and witnessed the severity of my condition. She can vouch for how debilitating my condition was, and how my condition has now improved. She can also vouch for my great worth ethic and responsible nature under normal circumstances.
I will also be attaching screenshots of the e-mail dialogue I had with the instructor at the time, noting my personal circumstances that led me to the decision to drop the course.
Thank you very much for your understanding, and I look forward to hearing from you regarding the status of my appeal

Sincerely,
Mariam Al-Hadeethi (20010869)