Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Dr. Jenn Stephenson,

My name is Isaac Thomas and I am a fourth-year undergraduate student, completing my life sciences degree. I am petitioning to drop PHYS 115 (Fall, 2023). In the past two years, I have been dealing with a severe medical condition which has caused me great stress and anxiety, among other things. I had to take off my winter 2023 semester to address this condition and undergo surgery for it. Since then, my progress has been monitored. Throughout the fall 2023 semester, I was able to perform well in all my courses throughout the regular semester, including PHYS 115. During the December exam period, I experienced an acute physical illness during the days leading up to and shortly after my scheduled PHYS 115 final exam, which prevented me from being well enough to write the exam. Because of this, I requested academic consideration, which was granted and I was put on the deferred PHYS 115 exam list. I was scheduled to write the final PHYS 115 exam on January 13th, 2024. However, on January 4th, 2024, I received concerning test results from a medical examination I had in December 2023 regarding my condition. I receive these test results via email, so I did not have a chance to discuss the results with a medical professional when I read them or in the days leading up to my deferred exam. This caused me severe stress which greatly affected my ability to study for my upcoming deferred PHYS 115 exam. Despite this, I wrote my deferred exam. I did not perform well on this exam, which was due to the stresses brought upon by the medical news I had received in the day’s prior. This along with the high weight of the final PHYS 115 exam on the final grade caused me to fail the course. The other courses I took in the fall 2023 semester were unaffected by this circumstance, since I was able to complete my finals for these courses during the December exam period and without hinderance from my acute illness in December, which had caused me to defer my PHYS 115 final.

I spoke to my professor, Dr. Topper, after receiving my final PHYS 115 grade on January 25th to see if anything could be done for me to earn extra credit to achieve a passing grade, however she informed me that there was nothing she could do. I have also talked to academic advising about the impacts this will have on my graduation, since I had planned to take PHYS 115 and PHYS 116 this academic year to fulfill my degree requirements in order to graduate at the end of this winter 2024 semester. They have informed me that I can take PHYS 118 (6.0 units) during the summer 2024 semester instead of PHYS 115 and 116, which would fulfill my physics requirements for my life science degree and allow me to graduate for the Fall 2024 Convocation. I have confirmed this with the life sciences office, so this will be my plan moving forward. Since writing my PHYS 115 deferred exam, I was able to have a consultation with a health-care professional about my medical results that had impacted my PHYS 115 final exam, which has helped me deal with this extenuating circumstance. For these reasons I feel that I am both able to succeed in my courses this semester and when taking PHYS 118 to fulfil my degree requirements over the summer.

I have attached supporting documentation from my family physician.

Thank you very much for your time and consideration,

Isaac Thomas