Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To: Academic Associate Dean,

My name is Aliya Guttman (Student ID 20220327) and I am appealing to my professor's grade on my Independent Research Assignment in PHGY 216. I am submitting a Level 1 Academic Appeal today to request a formal review of this grade. After receiving my grade and informally reviewing my feedback with my professor via email, I still believe that my grade does not reflect my work. Additionally, the feedback given by the TA and supplementary feedback given by the professor are extremely different and upon asking for further clarification, the professor stated that he could not spend more time with my work.

I believe after reviewing the feedback that I was unfairly graded. First, in the 'Introduction' section of the rubric, the professor's feedback stated that my subheadings made the introduction (which was meant to be a brief summary) difficult to follow; however, the subheadings should have made the information more recognizable. Additionally, the TA's criticism included me needing more detail, while the professor's additional feedback stated that this section was meant to be a bigger picture of the topic and therefore not needing excessive detail. These contrasting feedback ultimately coinfuse me and do not correlate with the rubric. I believe I deserved at least a 7.5/10 on this section: my description of the disease is accurate and relevant as I used scholarly works to source relevant information (as indicated in my citations), and this information does provide context to the reader.

Additionally, for the 'What changes are caused by -disease-' section, the TA said that I needed to better explain the immune system pathophysiology. I dedicated a text box to it and believe that I explained it much better than my grade in this section (17.5/35 marks) indicated. Secondly, the TA said that the way in which I mentioned the connection of my disease with other organ systems and whole-body homeostasis was not relevant; however, the assignment clearly states that these two aspects along with the pathophysiology of the disease are necessary in this section of the poster. I believe this should be taken into account and I should receive more points. Finally, the TA said that I required more explanation in the immune system physiology section, whereas the professor's additional feedback claims that this whole section should be shorter. Given the minimal and contrasting feedback along with the fact that I did everything necessary in this section, I should have received at least a 26.25/35 if not more; my description of the pathophysiology of the immune system in my chosen disease was well explained and this led to a good foundation to understand the outcomes observed from the disease.

To support this appeal, I have attached my assignment submission, the feedback that I received, and the assignment instructions. There are no other relevant assessments to provide as every assignment is independent of each other, save for the examinations.

Thank you for taking the time out of your busy schedules to read this through and consider my appeal. I greatly appreciate it.

Best,

Aliya Guttman.