Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean,

I hope that you are doing well this summer semester. My name is Monica Aida Lopez and I am submitting an academic appeal surrounding the final grade for the LLCU 295: Indigenous Theater and Performance course this Winter semester. My concerns stem around the participation mark that was awarded to me in the course which was a 0% and accounts for 10% of the final grade. I am requesting a re-evaluation of this section as the professor was aware of multiple course conflicts I had with his live section of the course, and in spite of this I still attended and participated in these live discussions.

This course conflict did not initially exist as it when I signed up for the course in the winter there was no time given on SOLUS, therefore I was under the impression that it would be asynchronous. However, the professor tried to plan the live discussions around the schedules of the majority of the students where the available live discussion time slots were voted on through a survey that was sent out to the class. The class selected availability for Monday mornings and Friday evenings which still worked well in my SOLUS schedule for other courses.

Unfortunately, in the following weeks one student voiced complaints about the timing for the Monday mornings since he would have to wake up 2-3 hours earlier due to a different time zone. I appreciate the professor's concern for this student but the class ended up having to move both the Monday and Friday session to accommodate him to dates that were not suitable for a larger portion of the class. These dates were Thursday and Wednesday in the middle of the day, where I and other students have lab sections or mandatory lectures to attend for other courses.

Although I had scheduling conflicts with the live discussions, I made it a point to attend as many sessions as I could - making the decision to not attend a mandatory lecture in favor of this class. Certain sessions through the course were recorded which demonstrate my attendance and participation. The professor for LLCU 295 was made aware of these scheduling conflicts which impeded mine, and other student's attendance. The professor clarified that this would not be held against us or reflected in our grade. Therefore, when the final grade came in, I was surprised to see that I was awarded a 0% despite my efforts and participation. I believe that my final project which was given a 100% along with the weekly class discussion reflections which I received high marks. I feel that this demonstrates that I did participate and take part in the live discussions as without this, I find it hard to think I would be able to achieve high marks in those areas.

It was hard to get a gauge for my progress in the course as all grades for the assignments were submitted after the classes ended for exams. After my final grade was submitted to SOLUS, I saw that there was a 0% in the participation section and attempted to contact the professor on several occasions to discuss this grade. I did not receive a response therefore I was forced to reach out to the LLCU Department Head Professor Donato Santeramo, where he also attempted to resolve the matter before going through an official process. After contacting the LLCU professor, Professor Santeramo said that I should expect to hear from the LLCU professor in the next few days, however this did not happen. Once again, I reached out to Professor Santeramo to ask about next steps and he suggested submitting a formal appeal about this matter.

I was not familiar with the formal appeal process as usually I am quite accepting of the grades I have received. After reading more about this process, I realize that I may only have a 21 day period to submit an academic appeal. I am afraid my appeal may not go through since I decided to directly contact the professor himself, which is the first recommended step but he did not respond in a timely manner which ultimately caused this delay. In addition, this has been adding to my stresses as a student, as I am still enrolled in summer courses while managing a summer research position at the Cumming School of Medicine Critical Care sector. I hope that this matter will be resolved soon and if there are any additional documents required of me such as email records demonstrating my efforts to contact the professor or voicing my past schedule conflicts, do not hesitate to contact me for those.

Please let me know if you or anyone through this process have any concerns or questions, I am available through my email 19mal5@queensu.ca. I can also be reached at (403 890-8417 ), or can set up a call on Zoom/MS Teams to discuss this matter further if need be.

Thank you so much and I'm looking forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,

Monica Aida Lopez
20199090