Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To Whom It May Concern:

First, I need to begin with an apology for the length of this explanation ¿¿ I think it is necessary in order to truly encapsulate the essence and nature of my struggles this past semester.

I am a graduating student in 4th year, hoping to receive my BAH in Sociology this upcoming June. This past semester I was enrolled in many electives, which I needed to complete in order to graduate. I am a practicing yogi myself, and have used yoga throughout my university career to curtail the physiological effects of stress and my bipolar depression on my body -- and as a result thought it would be an excellent idea for me to take Professor Ellen Goldberg's RELS 322: Yoga in India and the West. Unfortunately, I was bed ridden for the first 3 weeks of the semester (a condition for which I have medical documentation). Because I was not able to attend 3, 3 hour lectures on our class material -- I was extremely behind -- as the readings were dealing with ancient Indian and yogic texts -- which are extremely difficult to grasp on an individual basis studying from home. As a result, I had to write a midterm for which I was completely unprepared. I am sure you can imagine how difficult it was for me to teach myself the Bhagavad Vita (and other material) since I had never taken a course, which focused on themes from Hinduism, Buddhism as well as the Sanskrit language. Because of my medical condition, I was unable to attend lectures and come in for extra help, which greatly hindered my ability to perform at a higher standard on the midterm. I did what I could to prepare (reading the assigned material, studying lecture slides, and asking peers for lecture notes). Despite my best efforts, I received a mark of 26 on midterm, which was worth 30 of the final grade.

I discussed the matter with Professor Goldberg and she graciously agreed (I have it in writing in an email thread between her and I), that if she saw my documentation she would consider some grading options so that I could still excel in the course. At a later point she reiterated her offer to consider options for me (in person), but when I emailed her to inquire about specific details I did not receive a concrete response. Later in the semester, three people who were close to me died within a very short period of time. One friend committed suicide; a few days later another passed away while on exchange and about a month later, a family friend died from breast cancer. Needless to say, for all these reasons, the semester was extremely emotionally stressful (which all began to take its toll on my body and mind). I considered dropping the course because of the midterm and because I was also struggling with my own ongoing emotional issues (and because Ellen suggested I do so as well ¿¿ which I have in an email). Instead (upon speaking with Cindy Butts and Gail MacAllister), Professor Goldberg indicated that she would allow me to hand in my final work a little later. As you can imagine, I did not perform to the best of ability. Due to the deaths occurring, I had received quite a few extensions, which ironically meant that my work was becoming concentrated in a smaller period. I know that I did not submit the work of which I am truly capable. To be honest, I was just trying to get by to the best of my ability in a time of high stress and anxiety -- and by the end of it all I received a D in the class (which makes me eligible for applying for a CR standing in the course ¿¿ which is what I hope to accomplish though this appeal). On April 27th, I was in contact with William Morrow (Undergraduate Chair of Religious Studies), and asked him if I would be able to have Ellen reassess my grades so that I could do an informal appeal through the faculty. I then emailed Ellen once he instructed me to do so, and was informed that she was not willing to reassess my grades ¿¿ with no reason as to why (although she is very well aware of the entire timeline and context of my struggles this entire semester). For this reason, this is my formal request to apply for a CR standing appeal in RELS 322 ¿¿ Yoga in India & The West.

If someone were to look at my transcript, they would instantly observe that a mark like this is a deviation to the standard, and is a complete outlier. I have been living with bipolar depression since high school - and for me yoga was and has been my ultimate therapy. It has completely changed me as a person. Getting this poor grade, in a class that I believed was my element if you will - really shook the very ground that I stand on. I stopped believing in myself, and started to question how much I really knew about my belief systems and my moral compasses. I've been excelling in all of my sociology classes, and gender studies classes - because these classes are very much so in my domain (as my entire undergraduate career has focused on learning topics of sociological and gendered issues), whereas religion (especially studies of Jainism, Buddhism, Hinduism and so on) are especially foreign to me -- making it much more difficult for me to grasp, especially when my body was allocating so much energy to bringing me back to a state of health so I could function properly. In the latter part of my RELS class, we read entire books on the rape of yoga or Hinduism, on the commodification of yoga in the western capitalist world¿ which essentially lead me astray because it lead me to believe that my way of therapy and for coping with my mental illness was inauthentic (whether this was the instructors intention or not, this was how I perceived it, particularly because I was in such a vulnerable place). This made me disdain a class that I was already doing poorly in due to reasons that were well beyond my control and me. Because of everything going on - I emailed Ellen Goldberg, my professor, to seek out accommodations. I have the email threads in the event that I need them for documentation -- but when I asked Ellen under extenuating circumstances and compassionate reason to accommodate my needs, and give me extended time to hand in the remainder of my assessments -- her advice to me was to drop my course¿ (Knowing that I am a graduating student -- knowing that if I drop this course, I cannot graduate on time -- which would directly impact me starting school at another establishment in September). I was completely taken aback by the lack of compassion and understanding in her response -- particularly in knowing my situation. This was the last straw for me -- I grew a burning hate for this class, for its content, for how much it made me question myself, and for how little I was being understood by my professor and being accommodated.

With dealing with these deaths, my bipolar depression, on-going illness and extreme stress regarding my future, my cognitive ability has been completely hindered, my academic success compromised, and my attention span and energy levels have been non-existent. Because of this, I allocated the energy that I did have to classes that I was connecting with (in terms of the material, AS WELL as the professors who knew me, understood me, and wanted to help and accommodate me). Looking at my marks this semester - anyone could tell that it does not make sense that I am receiving A's and high B's in all of my classes and on all evaluations, except for this class that I was not connecting with for a variety of reasons. I want to request to formally appeal this grade, I have already made my case, and I will continue to make it. I have received completely unfair treatment in this situation -- all other professors were very accommodative considering my extenuating circumstances, which is why I continued to excel in all of my other classes but Ellen's. I am very upset about how this was handled, and most of all, I am extremely anxious about how ONE mark like this may haunt me and my future endeavors for the rest of my life. I am truly appalled that I am not being granted a reassessment of my grades so that I can informally and quickly deal with unfair grading and accommodations for someone who was experiencing undeniably extenuating circumstances. Considering we come from a school that prides itself on accommodating those experiencing mental illness, emotional distress, and extenuating circumstance and so on, I would have expected a much different (a much more compassionate and positive) approach to handling this.

I will provide my doctor¿¿s note, which excuses me from 2 weeks of class at the beginning of second semester (I was not able to get a note for the first week, because I was so immobile due to my condition). I will include links to 3 obituaries of my friends who passed away, and 1 obituary for a longtime family friend. My brother will provide written consent that these deaths did occur, and that he did attend her funeral on our behalf in Berlin, Germany. My school schedule was not permitting for me to attend any of the funerals. Finally, I will provide a personal document from my brother who watched me struggle and who was there fore me throughout this time of emotional distress and trauma. These documents also show precise timelines of when these things occurred.

Thank you for your time, compassion and consideration.

Kindest regards,

Anja Todorovic