Petition Letter
Dear Associate Dean (Academics),
My name is Abhishek Shastry (20120386) and I am going into my fourth year as a Life Sciences student. I am writing this letter to you as an appeal to the finding made by my instructors (Dr. Amany Elbehairy and Dr. Ruaa Al-Qazazi) in PHGY 355, that I had violated Academic Integrity. I am appealing both the finding and the sanction (50 on both parts A and B of the test; and a Level II departure) placed on me, as I know that these are untrue. The evidence presented by my instructors relates to a test, which had two parts, taken by me and another student (Kasthuri Ravishanker), who had written the test at similar times. We had studied for and written the test in the same building, which is why the public IP address reported on the evidence the instructors had used was the same. The other student and I both took many measures to maintain academic integrity, by writing this test in separate rooms (as she was living in her brother's room when he had left Kingston), not communicating or leaving the rooms unnecessarily while writing the test, and not discussing any test questions before or during the test. The instructors noted that we wrote the tests at similar times, and that is because we had been studying quite extensively for this test and exams that were upcoming. By studying for this test together, we were both able to memorize certain topics, concepts, and lists, that we could relay on the test. Due to our memorization of the notes, we had written similar answers on the test which were directly from the notes. The instructors noted that our answers were similar on the written and multiple choice sections, but did not provide any evidence that this was true. I explained that because of the nature of how Kasthuri and I had studied, the word usage and vocabulary of the answers must have been similar. Again, there was no evidence provided to us that this was true. The only evidence provided was the times going through each question and page for the test (parts A and B). Internet issues and an outage had occurred while we were writing our test, which caused the similar delay in time found in the test timing document. I had waited in my room for the internet to return, but had to leave my room to restart the router as the internet issue was persistent. After doing so, both Kasthuri and I were able to return to writing the rest of our tests. I realize this may have caused suspicion, but I had explained this setback to my instructors. I believe that the finding and sanction, without the relevant evidence presented to me as a student, is unfounded and I am appealing both here.
I have supporting documentation regarding the evidence the instructors presented and course notes used in the course. I can also provide the lease agreement including Kasthuri's brother's information if required.
Please let me know if there is any other information I can provide regarding this finding.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Abhishek Shastry
My name is Abhishek Shastry (20120386) and I am going into my fourth year as a Life Sciences student. I am writing this letter to you as an appeal to the finding made by my instructors (Dr. Amany Elbehairy and Dr. Ruaa Al-Qazazi) in PHGY 355, that I had violated Academic Integrity. I am appealing both the finding and the sanction (50 on both parts A and B of the test; and a Level II departure) placed on me, as I know that these are untrue. The evidence presented by my instructors relates to a test, which had two parts, taken by me and another student (Kasthuri Ravishanker), who had written the test at similar times. We had studied for and written the test in the same building, which is why the public IP address reported on the evidence the instructors had used was the same. The other student and I both took many measures to maintain academic integrity, by writing this test in separate rooms (as she was living in her brother's room when he had left Kingston), not communicating or leaving the rooms unnecessarily while writing the test, and not discussing any test questions before or during the test. The instructors noted that we wrote the tests at similar times, and that is because we had been studying quite extensively for this test and exams that were upcoming. By studying for this test together, we were both able to memorize certain topics, concepts, and lists, that we could relay on the test. Due to our memorization of the notes, we had written similar answers on the test which were directly from the notes. The instructors noted that our answers were similar on the written and multiple choice sections, but did not provide any evidence that this was true. I explained that because of the nature of how Kasthuri and I had studied, the word usage and vocabulary of the answers must have been similar. Again, there was no evidence provided to us that this was true. The only evidence provided was the times going through each question and page for the test (parts A and B). Internet issues and an outage had occurred while we were writing our test, which caused the similar delay in time found in the test timing document. I had waited in my room for the internet to return, but had to leave my room to restart the router as the internet issue was persistent. After doing so, both Kasthuri and I were able to return to writing the rest of our tests. I realize this may have caused suspicion, but I had explained this setback to my instructors. I believe that the finding and sanction, without the relevant evidence presented to me as a student, is unfounded and I am appealing both here.
I have supporting documentation regarding the evidence the instructors presented and course notes used in the course. I can also provide the lease agreement including Kasthuri's brother's information if required.
Please let me know if there is any other information I can provide regarding this finding.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Abhishek Shastry