Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To whom it may concern:

I am writing to you to request a review of Dr. Derek Beamer’s decision on grading for two of my assignments for PHIL 330, which I took during the Fall 2023 semester. My final grade was a D, despite receiving A+’s on three out of five assignments, including the major paper assignment that was 40% of the whole grade. I was unable to hand in two assignments on time but at a later date, which include the short paper assignment and the medium paper assignment. During the due dates of both of these assignments, I was going through personal issues contributing to my missing of each deadline. I hope to provide more context for these issues and why it was difficult for me to submit these assignments on time. Thank you for providing me with the opportunity to do so.

I handed these papers in during the last week of exams via email to Dr. Beamer, and explained my circumstances for my very delayed submissions. I did not hear back and later saw my final grade on Solus. During the deadline of the first assignment (October 6th), I was unable to complete this assignment as I had to suddenly accompany my grandmother on a trip out of the country. My grandmother has severe mobility issues and needed assistance navigating being outside of Canada, and my mother could no longer accompany her. This was a five-day long commitment and it was very taxing as I had to take care of my grandmother nearly every minute, ensuring that she took her medications, was eating enough and was sleeping enough. I was sleeping on the floor next to my grandma’s bed. After my return, it took some time to catch up on the content that I missed due to the exhaustion, making me miss the deadline. I am also in the process of getting diagnosed for ADHD, which only worsens my ability to concentrate and complete tasks. I can provide documentation for this process.

Immediately following the deadline, the incident on October 7th occurred. I started experiencing anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim sentiment at Queen’s, which my mental health was deeply affected by. So instead of being able to focus on school, my mind was consumed by the conflict in the middle east, as well as worries about my family who are all visibly Muslim. My mother experienced a hate crime in Toronto a couple of days after 9/11, so the possibility of my family being in danger is very real to me. A couple of days later, a friend of mine said that Gazans should be flattened. This only contributed to my spiral in mental health, as I felt unsafe being at Queen’s and the city of Kingston as a whole. For this reason, I stopped attending class and had trouble catching up with my school work. Instead, I found myself crying every day and staying indoors to avoid interacting with anyone. I can provide evidence of being mentally ill, as I take anti-depressants to treat my major depression disorder.

After sharing my concerns with colleagues at the AMS, they informed me that they are in the process of working on an academic consideration for those affected by the conflict in the middle east. Unfortunately, it does not appear that this came to fruition, which I was hoping to use to ensure that I got a consideration for these papers. Again, being met with hopelessness, I ended up missing the deadline for the medium paper assignment (November 9th). Additionally, during the month of November, I was being non-consensually filmed and photographed, due to my support for Palestine. This has only worsened my safety. My mother now worries when I do not answer a phone call due to the fear that something has happened to me, as a result of the rampant anti-Muslim and anti-Palestinian sentiment in Kingston.

At the end of November, I noticed that my deadlines were piling up and I needed to get my assignments completed to be able to pass the class and be able to graduate by the end of the academic year. I was using the motivation to leave Kingston, where I feel unsafe, to return to my academic groove. I finished three of the five assignments, handed them in on time and received good grades on them. It was taking an extended amount of time for me to finish the two overdue papers, as I wanted to ensure that the content was as accurate as possible, given I could not attend class and be lectured on the content.

I believe that if these papers were graded and included in my final grade, that my final grade would be higher than a D. This is demonstrated by the grades I received in the other assignments. Thank you for taking the time to read this.