Petition Letter
Dear Associate Dean,
My name is Nickon Babaei and I am writing to you in hopes of dropping MATH 310, MATH 384 and STAT 361 which were all taken during the 2020 fall semester. I am aware I am not required to share the specific details of my circumstances, but I would like to for a better understanding.
The 2020 fall semester was delivered remotely due to covid, for which I was back home in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The length and severity of lockdowns in Nova Scotia happened differently compared to the rest of Canada. My parents own a wholesale bakery supplying retail food businesses with pastry products. I believe it was during the second week of the 2020 fall semester when the NS government announced a full-on lockdown, forcing many non-essential retailers to shut down. After a week, my parents realized not enough businesses were open in order to keep their bakery afloat. My parents were forced to fire all their employees (they could not afford to keep paying them) and solely have our family in the bakery working (my parents, sister and I), as this is my family??s only source of income. I talked to my parents about taking this semester off, but we concluded that I was able to balance both work and school. During week 6 of the 2020 fall semester, the toll of the lockdown came in full effect as the bakery was not producing close to enough, resulting in my parents being extremely stressed about money. This caused me to be in the bakery doing productions from early morning until evening. This (along with other conflicts) lead to a divorce between the two, resulting in major damage to my mental health. At this point, I believe it is week 7 of the semester and the last thing on my mind was school. I was in a deep depression, forced to work from 6 am until sometimes 10 pm so we would not get kicked out of our house. My grandfather passed away a few months prior as well. In my opinion, I believe my grandfather??s passing, the lockdown forcing me to work extreme hours and then my parents deciding on a divorce, is why my mental health went to what it was. I was keeping up with schoolwork to the best of my ability up until my parents decided to divorce. Once that happened my mental health crashed, and I did not look at either of those 3 courses again until the day of the exam and that is why my marks became what they are. I am not entirely sure when was the last day to drop courses but in the mental state I was in, I was incapable of thinking that far ahead and that is why I believe there was no chance for me to drop-in time.
The 2 courses from that semester I am not dropping are MATH 231 and MATH 280. I also did not look at those courses after week 7, yet I got extremely lucky to be completely honest. MATH 231 had no exam or assignments, the entire grade was based on 4 tests. I had a lot of prior knowledge with regards to differential equations (from online classes I took in high school), so I was able to show up on test day and do very well, although I was extremely lucky. MATH 280 I also got very lucky as I did well prior to week 7 and then did well on the exam after two hours of studying. This was my second time doing the course, so I believe that worked in my favour as I have seen a lot of the questions before. After the semester, I got in contact with my doctor and explained to him my mental health situation, for which he gave me a number to get in contact with (a therapist). The therapist helped me tremendously and got me back on my feet. By the 2021 winter semester, businesses were back open, and our bakery was able to survive. My mental state still was not fully recovered until the 2021 summer I would say as my studies suffered in the 2021 winter semester as well. The 3 courses I am appealing to are not required for my degree plan since I am completing a general arts degree with math, so these courses are just dead weight hurting my GPA tremendously. I would have appealed MATH 280 as well but I need it in order to meet the math credit requirements to graduate.
I did not submit an appeal much earlier because I genuinely was not aware that my situation fit the criteria for an appeal until I had a chat with a counsellor, Kerri Andrews. I spoke with her at the beginning of this semester trying to figure out my graduation plan, then my situation came up in conversation. She advised me to submit an appeal letter. Kerri helped me so much throughout this semester and I owe a lot to her. It took a few weeks to get in contact with my doctor for some documentation from him, once I did it took another couple of weeks for him to get that documentation to me. Once I got the documentation, I was amid exams and now that I am finished, I instantly went to write this letter and get it to the associate dean as it makes a major difference with what GPA I graduate with. I appreciate the time you took to read this, and I am looking forward to your response.
All the best,
Nickon
20057461
My name is Nickon Babaei and I am writing to you in hopes of dropping MATH 310, MATH 384 and STAT 361 which were all taken during the 2020 fall semester. I am aware I am not required to share the specific details of my circumstances, but I would like to for a better understanding.
The 2020 fall semester was delivered remotely due to covid, for which I was back home in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The length and severity of lockdowns in Nova Scotia happened differently compared to the rest of Canada. My parents own a wholesale bakery supplying retail food businesses with pastry products. I believe it was during the second week of the 2020 fall semester when the NS government announced a full-on lockdown, forcing many non-essential retailers to shut down. After a week, my parents realized not enough businesses were open in order to keep their bakery afloat. My parents were forced to fire all their employees (they could not afford to keep paying them) and solely have our family in the bakery working (my parents, sister and I), as this is my family??s only source of income. I talked to my parents about taking this semester off, but we concluded that I was able to balance both work and school. During week 6 of the 2020 fall semester, the toll of the lockdown came in full effect as the bakery was not producing close to enough, resulting in my parents being extremely stressed about money. This caused me to be in the bakery doing productions from early morning until evening. This (along with other conflicts) lead to a divorce between the two, resulting in major damage to my mental health. At this point, I believe it is week 7 of the semester and the last thing on my mind was school. I was in a deep depression, forced to work from 6 am until sometimes 10 pm so we would not get kicked out of our house. My grandfather passed away a few months prior as well. In my opinion, I believe my grandfather??s passing, the lockdown forcing me to work extreme hours and then my parents deciding on a divorce, is why my mental health went to what it was. I was keeping up with schoolwork to the best of my ability up until my parents decided to divorce. Once that happened my mental health crashed, and I did not look at either of those 3 courses again until the day of the exam and that is why my marks became what they are. I am not entirely sure when was the last day to drop courses but in the mental state I was in, I was incapable of thinking that far ahead and that is why I believe there was no chance for me to drop-in time.
The 2 courses from that semester I am not dropping are MATH 231 and MATH 280. I also did not look at those courses after week 7, yet I got extremely lucky to be completely honest. MATH 231 had no exam or assignments, the entire grade was based on 4 tests. I had a lot of prior knowledge with regards to differential equations (from online classes I took in high school), so I was able to show up on test day and do very well, although I was extremely lucky. MATH 280 I also got very lucky as I did well prior to week 7 and then did well on the exam after two hours of studying. This was my second time doing the course, so I believe that worked in my favour as I have seen a lot of the questions before. After the semester, I got in contact with my doctor and explained to him my mental health situation, for which he gave me a number to get in contact with (a therapist). The therapist helped me tremendously and got me back on my feet. By the 2021 winter semester, businesses were back open, and our bakery was able to survive. My mental state still was not fully recovered until the 2021 summer I would say as my studies suffered in the 2021 winter semester as well. The 3 courses I am appealing to are not required for my degree plan since I am completing a general arts degree with math, so these courses are just dead weight hurting my GPA tremendously. I would have appealed MATH 280 as well but I need it in order to meet the math credit requirements to graduate.
I did not submit an appeal much earlier because I genuinely was not aware that my situation fit the criteria for an appeal until I had a chat with a counsellor, Kerri Andrews. I spoke with her at the beginning of this semester trying to figure out my graduation plan, then my situation came up in conversation. She advised me to submit an appeal letter. Kerri helped me so much throughout this semester and I owe a lot to her. It took a few weeks to get in contact with my doctor for some documentation from him, once I did it took another couple of weeks for him to get that documentation to me. Once I got the documentation, I was amid exams and now that I am finished, I instantly went to write this letter and get it to the associate dean as it makes a major difference with what GPA I graduate with. I appreciate the time you took to read this, and I am looking forward to your response.
All the best,
Nickon
20057461