Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Faculty of Arts and Science,

I am writing this letter to apply for credit standing in the following course: SOCY 211 Introduction to Statistics. During the recent Winter 2022 semester, I fell ill with Covid-19 and a week later went to the hospital with pneumonia-like symptoms. I had a fever, chills, cough, shortness of breath, runny nose, nasal congestion, headache, extreme fatigue, sore throat, muscle aches, and more on and off for about a month. Attached as documentation will be my positive Covid-19 test and my doctors note. I had already submit both for academic consideration this semester as I was unable to function for long periods of time as a result of my illnesses. The accommodations helped significantly for most classes, but not SOCY 211. Professor Sytsma poorly communicated when she needed my Lab 3 submission and sent me an email around 5-6 days after the original due date saying if I did not submit within the next 6 hours, I would receive a 0. I had applied for two weeks of consideration, and she had given zero previous warnings, so I was under the false impression I had more time to recover. Still sick, I tried my best to submit something in time, and in the end received a 25% on the lab. I contacted the professor, my TA Spencer, and the academic consideration team for help or the opportunity to make up the grade but I was told the best thing I could do was to re-do the course as a 63 is the necessary grade to continue in my program (Sociology) or appeal the grade. Because I was ill, I did what I was told to and did not attend my lectures or labs. If I had, I would have been able to score above a 25% as up until that point I had passed every assignment in the course. As a result of my poor grade during the third lab (which was worth 20% of my grade), I dropped to a D in the class (around 55%). I am applying for credit standing because I am going into my fourth and final year this September and believe it would be a shame to learn the same material twice as punishment for following Covid-19 guidelines. I wholeheartedly believe if I was in full health there is no way I would have not received the grades needed to in order to receive the necessary 63%. In all my classes that properly communicated the length of my accommodations (SOCY389, HLTH230, ENGL273, SOCY300), my assignments were done very well. That lab grade is an outlier in my academic performance this semester. Please allow me the grace needed to earn the necessary credit towards my program. If there is any further information needed, please let me know.

Thank you,
Tyler