Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I'm appealing to stay in the program of Certificate In Business and not repeat the course of COMM 612(2022, winter) and COMM 621 (2022, winter). I only got D for COMM612 and D+ for COMM 621, which require at least C to finish the program. I never got grade below C for any course before 2022 winter. The grades for these two courses are mainly caused by the interruption of unexpected domestic circumstance.

I am living in Shanghai by my own this year. Shanghai imposed strict lockdown due to the covid-19 since late March 2022. There was severe food shortage. Since I am living in a small bachelor suit (23 m2) with a tiny refrigerator, I am not able to store enough food at once even if I find the access to buy the food. All the necessaries and food are sold through few authorized online retailers. All the people need to purchase food through these few platforms. Most delivering man were subjected the lockdown as well, thus only very few people were able to place the order successfully. And all the parcel and takeout delivery were suspended, which I mostly relied on before lockdown.

I am living in apartment with service where is not a typical residential community. The most residential community were given food package every few days. And the typical residential community have more residents with more free time to organize the group order for food. The local government did not provide necessary assists for us on time due to the nature, the size, the average age of our community. Many of my neighbors are full-time employees. Their organizations and their family members living in Shanghai would deliver food package to them. Therefore, I am almost the only one who don't have access and urgent need for food. The only approach to get food is placing group order. I had to organize the group order (searching and contacting supplier, collecting the needs of neighbors, tracking the delivery, and distributing the food after order arrives) for survival.

What's more, we had one lockdown at mid-March as well. I spent a lot of time on collecting information and making preparation for the lockdown. And this is the first time that I handle the issues about the covid-19 independently without any accessible plan B. And the things were indeed extremely difficult for the most people in the city. The circumstances were also widely reported by the western mainstream media.

I enrolled 5 courses in the semester of 2022 winter. But only these two courses had significant proportion on final exam. And I was unable to study and to prepare for the final exam. The assignments and projects of other 3 courses were due before the things getting really bad (after April and my food storage was depleted). And the lockdown happened way after the deadline of dropping courses. Also, none of us would believe that the food shortage would occur in the most developed city in China. Shanghai had outstanding performance on coping with covid-19, and the food shortage hardly happened due to the lockdown in the past two years. So, I was unable to predict the circumstance and drop the course in advance.

I really tried my best to coping with the study and the covid-19 issues at the same time. But I had to try to place the online order for food on 6:00 A.M, 8: 00A.M, and 11:00 P.M. And I need to see what is back to stock one hour earlier before the appointed time mentioned earlier. Our property management company did not take the responsibility, so we had to report the situation to the government and negotiate with them. I was extremely anxious and depressed for the situation. And I have no one with me to bear the pressure with me. I left Canada before the lockdown in Canada and the restriction for entrance in China were imposed in the semester of 2020 winter. So, I didn't have any experience on dealing with it. And even if I was in Canada that time, I would have roommate and friend with me.