Petition Letter
On Saturday April 15th 2023, I was working on finishing up an essay for my class (BIOL 322) when my computer crashed and completely deleted my essay along with other documents. I immediately started to panic as the essay was due that night for me with an accommodation I already had. The essay had really been due for the rest of the class the day before however my grandmother back in Toronto had been hospitalized with stroke symptoms on the 10th so I headed home to spend time with her and received accommodations to submit a day later. The essay was 20 pages long with over 30 references and I had put over 40 hours into it and I knew I had no time to start over or work on it any days until at least after exams because I had 3 exams coming up next week that I needed to study for. I called Microsoft and Queen's IT services to see if there was anything they could do, Microsoft said no, I spoke with someone on the phone from Queen's IT but unfortunately I would need to meet in person for them to scan my computer and no one would be able to be in person at Queen's IT services until Monday and this all happened Saturday. IT also recommended to continue to try to find the essay on my computer which I spent a few hours on Saturday trying to do without any luck. On Monday I went in to see if there was anything that Queens IT could do to retrieve the essay. After about half an hour of searching IT was able to retrieve a version from early on April 13th. This version was missing a ton of the essay as I had put around another 25-30 hours into the essay on the 13th, 14th, and the morning of the 15th. I had been extremely anxious and upset about the situation ever since as I knew that I would receive a grade which did not reflect the work and time that I put into the essay and course as this was caused by a technical issue outside of my control. I had been reaching out to my professor day after day after the essay was deleted trying to see what we could do or what accommodations could be arranged. I was told to talk to accommodations services to see what they could do, unfortunately they said they did not cover technological issues and that I had to come to a solution with the professor. Upon telling the professor this after a few days of stress and inability to come to a solution I was told that this would not work and that I needed to find a solution, and that he could not make the decision. I was extremely panicked as this essay was worth 35% of my final grade and I was no fearing failing the course as I had no essay or guidance of what to do. I have been a very hard working and diligent student throughout my undergraduate receiving only A’s up until this situation. I next reached out to the undergraduate biology office hoping they would have a solution, their reply was that they would have suggested talking to the accommodations services as well, and since they could not come to a solution the problem would have to be solved between me and the professor. This was the worst news as I had already been contacting the professor for days asking to meet, call, or come to any solution whether it be moving weighting onto the exam or pushing the essays due date, at this point I just wanted a conclusion. At this point my three exams were a few days away and I had been so anxious and stressed about my essay that I was unable to stay focused in studying and spent most of my time trying to email or look online for solutions. On April 21st I received an email back from my professor telling me I could submit the essay with a 25% deduction before the grading period was over in early May. This came as a huge loss, to lose 25% of a 35% essay would mean about 8 marks off my final grade if I could even make the essay as good as before as I had far less time to work on it and was extremely busy with my final three exams and getting started working in a lab over the summer. This was all due to a computer crash and a failure of Microsoft to continue to Auto-save past April 11 even though the setting was turned on, and is why I have felt so defeated and punished as this was not due to my lack of effort. I was feeling very horrible about the whole situation I felt that my grades would not reflect my work, I felt i would be penalized for a uncontrollable event, and I also felt horrible for my upcoming 3 exams as I had been so anxious and stressed over the past few days trying to sort out the essay that I had not gotten anywhere far into studying. I met with a Queen’s mental health councillor as I was seeking someone to talk to about the situation that could hopefully shed a new light or help me get through it. The talk helped and reassured me that hopefully given the circumstances that I would receive an appeal given the circumstances and received a letter from the councillor I met with indicating her support of the appeal under the circumstances. Overall I believe that my transcript speaks for itself showing that I am a dedicated and hard working student, I do not think it would be fair that I am penalized with receiving my lowest ever grade based on this technological error.