Petition Letter
Due to the pandemic, I have returned home to Malaysia, which is in the GMT+8 timezone. I am a continuing undergraduate student in my second year in the Arts and Sciences Faculty, and despite the pandemic I registered in the Fall 2020 semester with a full course load of 15 credits. As a Film and Media Major, I took classes in those subjects, with the exception of an additional class in Spanish (SPAN 204) because I wanted to continue with my interest in the Spanish language since high school. All my other classes were held at rather reasonable times wherever synchronous classes were mandatory, and I succeeded in all these classes.
However, SPAN 204 was the only exception requiring synchronous class attendance regularly twice a week during the afternoon¿¿s at Queen¿¿s. Due to my timezone, which during day-light savings increased to a 13 hour difference from 12 hours, already a huge difference, this was extremely difficult for me. I was required to attend these 2pm-3pm afternoon classes at 2am-3am my time. I found this highly stressful. Additionally, because of the pandemic and the necessity to learn remotely, I was required to be on my computer all the time, whether for actual classes, preparing work assignments, communication (whether with classmates or teachers), revisions for tests, completing projects etc. I was at my desk, sitting down at my computer throughout most of a 24h period. My regular healthy sleep schedule was entirely disrupted, replaced by an extremely unhealthy one, and this had a separate snowballing effect on all my classes, not just SPAN 204. Experiencing all this early in the semester I had already reached out to my Spanish instructor early for alternative ways for me to do the work rather than my being required to attend such early morning classes.
Unfortunately this request was denied and I had no option but to continue to struggle with the early morning schedules. I did not consider dropping the class because of my interest in it in the first place, and I have always wanted to be fluent in the Spanish language and study abroad in Spanish speaking countries. Additionally, this class was a prerequisite class for SPAN 205, the more advanced Spanish class, which would open the doors to fulfilling my hopes of studying abroad. In fact, I had written prior to the start of the Fall Semester to the Spanish department inquiring about the possibility of minoring in SLAS, thus I did not want to drop the class and decided to try to struggle through it. I struggled through my four other film classes as well because I did not want these to deteriorate. The sheer exhaustion and constant stress of meeting all my requirements and deadlines in all my classes in a completely isolated, mechanical environment proved to be too much of a burden. I failed the Spanish but I was happy to cling on to good grades in my other classes. I think that in itself is an achievement. The eternal hours of sitting at a laptop, studying alone and preparing my work in isolation for so long have all taken a toll on my mental and physical well-being. I would definitely not have experienced such a burden had I not been in a different time zone from Canada and if the time difference itself had not been so great. However, it pains me to see this F on my record as I have never in my life received such a grade before, and also it affects my CGPA and therefore my future. I do not believe that the grade I received conveys the correct reflection of either my work ethic or ability in the Spanish language, as I received a grade of no less than A- in the assignments that I was able to be present for and submit. I am very disappointed and not sure what my study abroad plans can now be but at this point I just want to focus on appealing the presence of an F on my transcript and have it changed to a DR instead.
However, SPAN 204 was the only exception requiring synchronous class attendance regularly twice a week during the afternoon¿¿s at Queen¿¿s. Due to my timezone, which during day-light savings increased to a 13 hour difference from 12 hours, already a huge difference, this was extremely difficult for me. I was required to attend these 2pm-3pm afternoon classes at 2am-3am my time. I found this highly stressful. Additionally, because of the pandemic and the necessity to learn remotely, I was required to be on my computer all the time, whether for actual classes, preparing work assignments, communication (whether with classmates or teachers), revisions for tests, completing projects etc. I was at my desk, sitting down at my computer throughout most of a 24h period. My regular healthy sleep schedule was entirely disrupted, replaced by an extremely unhealthy one, and this had a separate snowballing effect on all my classes, not just SPAN 204. Experiencing all this early in the semester I had already reached out to my Spanish instructor early for alternative ways for me to do the work rather than my being required to attend such early morning classes.
Unfortunately this request was denied and I had no option but to continue to struggle with the early morning schedules. I did not consider dropping the class because of my interest in it in the first place, and I have always wanted to be fluent in the Spanish language and study abroad in Spanish speaking countries. Additionally, this class was a prerequisite class for SPAN 205, the more advanced Spanish class, which would open the doors to fulfilling my hopes of studying abroad. In fact, I had written prior to the start of the Fall Semester to the Spanish department inquiring about the possibility of minoring in SLAS, thus I did not want to drop the class and decided to try to struggle through it. I struggled through my four other film classes as well because I did not want these to deteriorate. The sheer exhaustion and constant stress of meeting all my requirements and deadlines in all my classes in a completely isolated, mechanical environment proved to be too much of a burden. I failed the Spanish but I was happy to cling on to good grades in my other classes. I think that in itself is an achievement. The eternal hours of sitting at a laptop, studying alone and preparing my work in isolation for so long have all taken a toll on my mental and physical well-being. I would definitely not have experienced such a burden had I not been in a different time zone from Canada and if the time difference itself had not been so great. However, it pains me to see this F on my record as I have never in my life received such a grade before, and also it affects my CGPA and therefore my future. I do not believe that the grade I received conveys the correct reflection of either my work ethic or ability in the Spanish language, as I received a grade of no less than A- in the assignments that I was able to be present for and submit. I am very disappointed and not sure what my study abroad plans can now be but at this point I just want to focus on appealing the presence of an F on my transcript and have it changed to a DR instead.