Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean,

I am appealing for a credit standing in Scientific/Medical terminology, CLST 204 (Fall, 2021). This is due to extenuating circumstances beyond my control in the fall semester that affected my performance in the course. The assessments for this course included a midterm test worth 25% on November 18th, 2021. During the time of this test, I had personal and familial problems. As a Residence Don on campus, I had a COVID outbreak on my floor the week of November 15th and I went home for my own safety. At home, I was able to self-isolate but had family issues that deterred and distracted me from my academics. This is related to marital issues of my parents and the concern of them nearing a divorce, which severely impacted me and my ability to complete coursework. For this reason, I had to submit a request for extenuating circumstances to complete a make-up test when I returned to campus after being tested negative, and I could take the in-person test (November 18th-23rd). At this point, I was not prepared due to the circumstances I was in throughout that week. Therefore, I performed poorly on the test, which was significantly lower than my other grades in this course. I asked the professor for ways to make up my mark or improve this grade but was told that I can only try to do well in the future assessments of this course. Since this test was after the course drop deadline, I could not drop it and was not sure of my grade in the course until past the deadline. I spoke to family members for support to recover from this situation as they are the only people I felt comfortable talking to. I worked hard to get back on track with my courses and do well in the remainder of the course but found that this did not change my grade much. Since this is the only assessment that I had throughout those 2 weeks that was worth a significant amount, it was the only course affected. I would like to get a credit standing in the course because I passed the course by doing well in the other assessments, but the final grade still does not reflect my best work due to the test. It is drastically different from my other grades and is an elective that is not required for my degree. In the future, I will ensure to do my best to make a judgement on a course prior to the drop deadline date and speak to a counsellor to help me recover and prioritize my coursework in difficult situations.

Thank you so much in advance,

Naheed Nero