Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To whom it may concern,

My name is Anna Ishchuk and I am a fourth-year BHSc student. I am writing to express my concerns regarding the HTLH 200 course taught by Dr. Nicole Beamish under the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. I enrolled in this course thinking it would be an interesting elective, and overall am finding this course to be extremely unfair and unnecessarily overcomplicated. I have never taken a course with such harsh marking, unclear lecture slides, vague assignment instructions, and poor support from the teaching team. The class average for our most recent 10% Assignment #2 was a C, which is extremely low considering we were to plan a 1-week exercise program for ourselves. I initially received 65% on this assignment, which I was taken aback by, as I have never received such a low mark throughout my time at Queen’s, especially on a simple personalized exercise assignment. I asked Dr. Beamish for a regrade, and she lowered my mark to 56%, which I am in complete disbelief about, and confidently do not believe that this mark reflects the quality of my work.

Upon receiving this grade, I reached out to Dr. Beamish to arrange a meeting. She offered to meet after class on Friday, December 1st, which I was unavailable for as I had a doctor's appointment scheduled for this time. I told her about my appointment and how I could not meet after class, and she sent me a passive-aggressive email stating that she was questioning my commitment to the course. Upon receiving this email, I was filled with an overwhelming sense of anxiety and felt completely misunderstood and targeted by her, as my doctor’s appointment was in no way interfering with my class commitment, especially since it was after class. I have never felt so anxious because of a professor, and it is negatively impacting my sleep, my eating habits, and my overall well-being. I ended up meeting with her at a later time on Friday, December 1st, and was absolutely terrified beforehand, which is not normal to feel before meeting with a professor. During our meeting, Dr. Beamish provided me with very vague explanations regarding my concerns and oftentimes completely avoided answering my questions. When I asked her certain questions about our 45% final assignment, she completely disregarded my concerns and would not provide me with an answer, which I do not believe is right. I asked if I could re-take a photo of a lecture slide that was shown in class, as the original photo I took was blurry, and she told me that I could not. She had a condescending tone towards me throughout the meeting, and I felt extremely unsupported, unheard, and overall uncomfortable, which is beyond unacceptable. I have never had such an awful experience with a Queen’s professor, and at this point, I am convinced that Dr. Beamish is purposefully targeting me and wants me to do poorly in the class.

I confidently believe that the grading in this course is malicious and that Dr. Beamish purposely wants her students to perform poorly. Two years ago when HLTH 200 had a different professor, that course averages were in the A- A+ range. Now, plenty of students like myself are receiving Cs and Ds on a personalized exercise planning assignment. I am a straight-A student, am extremely school-oriented, and have never received a grade lower than an A on my transcript. I have never complained about a course before, but believe that I must be vocal as it is not fair the way we are being graded in this course. The assignment instructions and rubrics are vague and do not mention the precise components that Dr. Beamish wants us to incorporate. Further, every time I have reached out to my TA asking a question, she has replied saying that she is unsure as the TAs haven’t been debriefed on the assignment yet. The TA assignment feedback is also extremely vague and unhelpful, preventing me from improving in the course. Oftentimes when students ask questions on the discussion board, Dr. Beamish purposely does not provide a helpful response and tells us to figure it out on our own by referring to the assignment instructions. We also have a 3-day grace period for all of our assignments, and Dr. Beamish sets a deadline 3 days before the grace period so that no more student questions can be answered. I believe that this is truly malicious, as most students take advantage of the 3-day grace period and are likely to encounter a question 1-2 days before the grace period deadline. By not being allowed to ask any more questions, we are stuck and cannot get the clarifications we need, hence the poor class performance on the assignments.

Further, Dr. Beamish’s online lecture slides are extremely unclear and disorganized, and she purposely hides lecture slides from students who are unable to attend class. For instance, we were shown examples of how to complete our final assignment during our last lecture. However, when the lecture slides were posted onto OnQ, Dr. Beamish purposely deleted the slides with the assignment examples so that the students who didn't attend class could not access this resource. I do not believe that this is fair and am having a hard time comprehending why Dr. Beamish would want her students to struggle with this final assignment. Further, Dr. Beamish stated at the end of our last class that she will not be answering any content-related questions pertaining to our 45% final assignment, which I think is truly spiteful, since there is often plenty of confusion related to the assignments, considering the harsh marking. I am dreading this 45% final assignment, as the marking has been beyond malicious, and I am terrified as to how this course mark will not only negatively impact my GPA, but also ruin my chances of getting into graduate school and medical school. This course has taken such a toll on my mental health, and even thinking about this situation makes me sick with anxiety. Overall, I just want the students to receive the support they need in this course and have a teaching team that cares to answer their concerns and wants them to do well in this course.

Upon speaking to my BHSc academic advisor, Dr. Tiziana Cotechini, she informed me about the possibility of writing a petition letter to the Faculty of Arts and Sciences. She also told me that students in the BHSc program are required to receive the higher mark during a regrade appeal, and I was wondering if the same applies to Arts and Sciences courses. I have submitted my assignment for your consideration.

My relationship with Dr. Beamish is beyond repair and I wholeheartedly believe that she has a malicious intent towards me, leading me to believe that I cannot be objectively evaluated in the course and receive a fair grade. Dr. Beamish has the final say in any grading, and I fear that this course is structurally set up for me to do poorly in. As a result, I would like to request a pass-fail grading scheme for this course without any academic penalty for doing so. I am aware that the deadline to apply for the BHSc Personal Interest Credit has passed, and am asking for an exception. Further, I ask that my concerns remain anonymous, as I fear that Dr. Beamish will target me even more and assign me worse grades if she finds out about my petition letter.

Kind regards,
Anna Ishchuk