Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Appeal Letter: To Members of the Board of Studies,

I am appealing the Associate Dean's decision to deny my appeal to drop ASTR 101 (Fall 2021) after the academic deadline. I understand that courses must be dropped on SOLUS within the published deadlines, however, as outlined in my letter to the Associate Dean, this deadline had passed by the time I started experiencing difficulties and more strenuous circumstances. In regards to my documentation, I submitted my letter of accommodations (via QSAS) for CISC 455 because I did not receive one for ASTR 101. I inquired about this relatively early in the Fall 2021 semester, however, was informed that this was unavailable due to the structure of the course. I believe that I should have been provided with a letter for this course regardless of the structure, given my pre-existing conditions. Given that these conditions have been recurring, I was under the impression that my letter of accommodations would be an adequate source of documentation for the initial appeal. Additionally, I began relapsing and experiencing difficulties nearing the end of the semester and during a very stressful time. I was not able to make use of all the campus facilities, such as student wellness services, since I was physically ill from week seven to early in week nine. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I was unable to set up a virtual appointment with my doctor during this that time frame, thus I was unable to acquire more recent documentation. Although I do have an existing document from a licensed medical professional on file that was used in my initial registration to QSAS. I assumed that this would correlate to the letter I submitted in my appeal.
To clarify the timeline, I fell physically ill during the seventh week of the Fall 2021 semester and began my self-isolation. This made it impossible for me to stick to my daily routine and as a result, I started to crumble mentally. As the week progressed, my mental state and overall health declined each day. This took a toll on my learning and grades in all my courses, but I managed to get through the week. I didn't want to quit and decided to try to push through. This was a brief moment of positivity after which, I started to fall down a spiral of negativity week after week. The reason why my other grades did not take as much of a hit is because of the course structure of ASTR 101 (must pass the exam to pass the course), and my existing knowledge of the material in the other courses. However, it is undoubtedly to me that all my results would have been significantly better had I been mentally healthy for the second half of the semester. As the semester progressed, my loss of motivation and focus led to me falling behind. All students in ASTR 101 were allowed to defer the exam (by simply not showing up) to a later date. Given how I was feeling at the time, I decided to take this option. I traveled back home to BC, where my mental battle continued. I got in touch with friends, talked to certain family members, and slowly started making progressions in increasing my mental fortitude toward a healthy state. This was a priority for me at the time and I was unable to catch up on the course material for ASTR 101. Additionally, the notice for the exam re-write date was given very close to that date. I began feeling stressed and doubt in myself again and was not able to perform to the best of my abilities. As of now, I am managing my issues carefully and am trying to ensure that I don't relapse again. I am making strides towards being permanently healthy and am managing my time effectively. It is difficult at times, but the work I put in over the break has allowed me to become mentally stronger and deal with difficult situations rather than getting overly stressed. I worked very hard to rid myself of negative thoughts, and stay positive and healthy overall. I feel that the grade I received is undeserving given these circumstances. Thank you and I look forward to your response.

Kind regards,

Raghav Taneja
Student No. 20058783