Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I would like to appeal the grade of my Econ 244 final assessment, as I believe that the grade I have received is not an accurate representation of my knowledge or the effort I put into the project.

The email I sent to Professor Hageman stated the following:

I hope you and your loved ones are doing well in these uncertain times.

I am reaching out to you regarding the grade that I just received for the final project, as I am concerned about why I have received a 0/35. I understand that I have lost marks for not providing a video, but I believe I should have received part marks for the information included in the PowerPoint. I am a bit confused, as my comments stated that I did not provide any concepts from the class, however, the topic of my project is directly related to what we learned through the lecture and the textbook. My PowerPoint slides were also directly related to the concepts we learned throughout the year. Although I may have not provided an in-depth analysis of the economics of the situation, I met the other requirements for the project. I was over the 10-minute mark for my presentation. I provided a land acknowledgment with slight Indigenous history on the area that I had chosen. Later in my presentation, I generalized the Indigenous experience, as that is what was stated in the rubric. I described traditional Indigenous practices and cultural norms relating to my topic of specialization and then further explained the impact of colonization and how it affected my topic at hand. I explained the situation today and even distinguished between the different communities. I ended my presentation with strategies to improve outcomes and suggested how grade 12 students can be allies. I believe my presentation was organized neatly and insightfully, and by providing a land acknowledgement, while also acknowledging that I am a settler that has contributed to colonization, I showed sensitivity to Indigenous peoples without pandering. I have also received very high marks on the weekly discussion posts, which are based on the concepts learned in class, therefore I do not understand how it is valid to say that the information that I have learned and provided is not related to Econ 244. I understand that I didn't deliver on the video part of the project, however, there were voice recordings included in my presentation and the information provided showed my understanding of the situation and the injustices that have taken place throughout the years that have led up to it. I believe the feedback provided was not detailed and makes me look like I did not put a lot of effort into this project, however it is an assignment that I dedicated a lot of time and effort towards.

I know you must be very busy during this time of the year and I don't want to be an inconvenience, however, I believe my hard work should be acknowledged. Please let me know how we can proceed and what I can do from my end to make this process easier for you.

I believe that the email that I had sent was very respectful and I was simply trying to clear up any confusion and see where I could possibly get part marks. The email that I received back from Professor Hageman was very rude and I personally felt very attacked. She stated that my project was ¿¿one of the poorest presentations she had seen, which I believe was a very unnecessary comment to make. Comments like these can deeply affect one's mental health, and motivation when it comes to academics. I think it's important to take into consideration the way the pandemic has affected everyone's mental health and comments like these only make things worse. My grandmother recently passed away at the beginning of April and my mother has been stuck in India with covid ever since she attended the funeral, therefore I can attest to the fact these the comments made in Professor Hageman's email did nothing but make me feel worse and cause me more stress.

Professor Hageman made me aware that my grade was adjusted to a 3.5/35, however, I believe that this is a comical grade for a project that I put effort into. I believe that a big part of my lack of depth in my project was due to a lack of clarity on the rubric, however, I will admit that it is my fault for not clarifying any doubts I had with the professor beforehand (I have attached the rubric below). I think that it is ridiculous that despite the fact that I handed in a project with information relating to the course and some sort of a voiceover that met the time requirement, I received a mark that would have been obtained by someone who hadn't handed in a project at all.




¿¿+¿ will be given for creativity and tidiness; ¿¿-¿¿ will be given for carelessness, messiness
A
Great
Student shows mastery of facts and concepts learned in Econ 244.
Student has organized the presentation insightfully.
Student shows sensitivity to Indigenous peoples without pandering.
B
Good
Student shows knowledge of most facts and understanding of most concepts
pertaining to the specialization, as taught in Econ 244.
Presentation is fairly predictable.
Student prioritizes the most important facts and concepts.
C
OK
Student¿¿s presentation is rote.
Students seems a little lost in the details.
Student shows enough understanding of facts and concepts learned in Econ 244.
D
Not good
Student¿¿s presentation lacks important content and/or perspective.
Student has said several things which are inaccurate, misleading, or insensitive.
Student does not highlight the most important points.
F
Not enough to pass
Student does not show sufficient familiarity with enough of the key facts or concepts
learned in Econ 244.
Student has made serious factual or conceptual errors.



If needed, I am able to provide the email that Professor Hageman sent to me and other grades that I have received in the course. I really hope something can be done about this situation and please let me know if there is anything else I can do or documents I can provide to help this process.