Petition Letter
To whom it may concern,
I am petitioning for a late drop of CISC 124. I had tried to manually drop CISC 124 before the deadline and SOLUS would not allow me to do so. I then emailed Karen Knight and Erin Gunsinger of the Computing Department and applied to drop the course on July 30th, before the deadline of the 31st. I was told that I would have to apply for a petition as the deadline had already passed, which was not accurate - the deadline as stated in the ArtSci calendar is July 31st, meaning missing the deadline would be August 1st. I have attached the email chain of this interaction.
There are a number of reasons why I am appealing this decision. I took CISC 124 out of personal interest and to boost my confidence and GPA after a rocky second year. In the fall term of second year I was involved in a serious bike accident which left me with concentration and focus issues and months of physiotherapy, all of which unfortunately led to a less than stellar academic performance. I was granted academic accommodations (extra time on assignments) in the winter term because of the accident. However, extra time was not particularly helpful in my situation, which was working on improving concentration, focus, and time-management. I was unable to find the supports I needed, so I tried to tackle things on my own. I had hoped that taking a summer course of personal interest would help me with this goal. In hindsight, I was working a 40 hour a week summer job, as well as taking another online course required for engineering, and training for varsity track and field. This schedule proved to be too hard to balance with the aforementioned focus and concentration issues despite my best efforts. I was advocating for myself by trying to drop the course before the deadline. I am now not in a position to succeed in the exam.
I hope that you will please consider my request. I value my place at Queen’s and I do not want to further derail my studies.
Thank you,
Zach Comber
I am petitioning for a late drop of CISC 124. I had tried to manually drop CISC 124 before the deadline and SOLUS would not allow me to do so. I then emailed Karen Knight and Erin Gunsinger of the Computing Department and applied to drop the course on July 30th, before the deadline of the 31st. I was told that I would have to apply for a petition as the deadline had already passed, which was not accurate - the deadline as stated in the ArtSci calendar is July 31st, meaning missing the deadline would be August 1st. I have attached the email chain of this interaction.
There are a number of reasons why I am appealing this decision. I took CISC 124 out of personal interest and to boost my confidence and GPA after a rocky second year. In the fall term of second year I was involved in a serious bike accident which left me with concentration and focus issues and months of physiotherapy, all of which unfortunately led to a less than stellar academic performance. I was granted academic accommodations (extra time on assignments) in the winter term because of the accident. However, extra time was not particularly helpful in my situation, which was working on improving concentration, focus, and time-management. I was unable to find the supports I needed, so I tried to tackle things on my own. I had hoped that taking a summer course of personal interest would help me with this goal. In hindsight, I was working a 40 hour a week summer job, as well as taking another online course required for engineering, and training for varsity track and field. This schedule proved to be too hard to balance with the aforementioned focus and concentration issues despite my best efforts. I was advocating for myself by trying to drop the course before the deadline. I am now not in a position to succeed in the exam.
I hope that you will please consider my request. I value my place at Queen’s and I do not want to further derail my studies.
Thank you,
Zach Comber