Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean (Academic), Faculty of Arts and Science:

I am writing to appeal the Level 1 Sanction provided by Dr. Pruss (PHGY 170 course professor in BHSC).

I got in trouble with Dr. Pruss on December 4th, 2021, regarding the PHGY 170 Module 9 assignment weighted 1.5 percent. Dr. Pruss finalized the decision on December 15th and gave me a Level 1 and written warning.

Although I didn't share my exact module 9 assignment with the student named Victoria Christy Sathya Rajasekar (student in BHSC department), I gave Sathya my word document file named mod9notesphgy170.docx (attached) which is my compiled notes for module 9. Basically, I compiled the notes using the learning outcome listed in the companion guide as well as adding additional things that I deemed important to understand and memorize for the final exam. However, those same learning outcome questions are reworded and used as assignment questions for PHGY170 module 9. I had shared the module 9 notes mod9notesphgy170.docx with Dr. Pruss also as proof.

With this letter, I am only including the announcement and my notes as proof. I believe the other student's turnitin assignment as well as email correspondence with Dr. Pruss was already sent to the office by her, so I have only attached my module 9 notes which were not included by her.

The rest of the pdfs attached in the email are from Dr. Pruss. The Learning Outcome 9 Turnitin Report shows a 77% match. I had made the docx notes using a lot of the same words I used in my module 9 assignment, so when Sathya used my notes, a lot of it ended up matching to my actual submitted assignment. When I took PHGY170 in W21, it was my first semester at Queen's and my previous degrees are in Engineering and Computer Science, so I was not very good at rewording things.

The screenshot attached of Dr. Pruss's PHGY170 announcement shows we are welcomed to share notes. Sathya had internet issues as well as storms and hurricanes in India, so I wanted her to have a fair chance and to get a different perspective on the main ideas of the module 9, I shared my notes. My intention was simply to help and provide her with additional reference. I never meant for her to copy word for word some of the things. It was a lapse in judgment from my part.

I feel really bad about all this. I realize now it was wrong to share the notes. Although the screenshot of Dr. Pruss's announcement mentions that notes sharing is ok, my sharing of the notes resulted in my facilitation and another student's enablement in plagiarism.

This was a learning experience since I missed the non-continuing education student orientation, and I don't have an academic advisor in Arts and Science Online, and I was not familiar with some of things that gets classified as Academic Integrity Departure such as even plagiarizing one-self. It was a lesson learned and going forward, I will not be sharing notes with anyone.

This event was unnerving for me as I have never gotten in trouble at school before. I promise to follow all rules of academic integrity carefully and thoroughly going forward. The academic calendars mention that the Level 1 falls off if I graduate from Queen's but in my case I have no graduation since I'm a non-continuing education student. My goal is to apply to medical school and I did see the below in the academic calendar In rare cases, some institutions (such
as American Law Schools, Medical Schools and Police Academies) request references from the
Associate Dean (Studies) and the materials in the file are consulted to answer specific questions
about the student's academic history. Since I have no graduation, I feel that this Level 1 will stay on my file forever and I also need to use Queen's for academic references as it is my most recent place of study and only the courses taken at Queen's are related to life science.

I hope and pray the Level 1 can be removed and I will be in my best conduct going forward. Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Saima Sarwary