Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Petition Committee,

I am writing to formally request a CR designation for two of my philosophy courses this semester, PHIL 303 and PHIL 316. I believe my academic performance in both courses has been significantly compromised due to the impact of the PSAC-901 strike, which led to the cancellation of final assessments and unexpected re-weighting of graded assignments.

In PHIL 303, I received a 60% on my first major assignment, the lowest grade I’ve received in my undergraduate career. While this was difficult, I remained hopeful, as the assignment was worth only 20% of my final grade and I still had 70% of the course ahead to demonstrate improvement. Similarly, in PHIL 316, I also received a 60% on my first writing assignment, which was worth 10% of my grade. Again, I was not discouraged, knowing I had time to reorient my approach and improve through future assignments. I am not an irresponsible student. I’ve consistently worked hard and maintained strong grades. In fact, last semester I took three philosophy courses and earned two A+’s and one A. I had every intention and ability to raise my grades this term through sustained effort and improvement, especially as I adjusted to the expectations of more formal philosophical writing. However, due to the strike, my finals were cancelled and the weight of my earlier assignments was increased significantly. This sudden shift does not reflect the structure I was working within when I first received those marks, and it does not fairly account for my capacity to improve, which has been entirely cut off. As a graduating student, I feel it is more appropriate and just to have a CR on my transcript than to carry a grade that fails to accurately reflect my work or academic ability. This final semester has been especially difficult. As a 2020 high school graduate, I already lost the final term of high school and graduation due to the pandemic. Now, in my graduating semester at Queen’s, I’ve again lost the final quarter of instruction in four out of five classes, due to all of my teaching fellows participating in the strike. I have received no teaching, no assessments, and limited communication for nearly a month, yet I am being refused reimbursement or flexibility in academic grading. Given these extenuating circumstances, I respectfully request that CR designations be granted for PHIL 303 and PHIL 316 to prevent unfair damage to my GPA. I have worked hard throughout my four years at Queen’s to maintain strong academic standing, and I believe this request is a reasonable step toward ensuring fairness in light of the disruptions I have faced.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,
Taleya Argueta
20222990
19tra@queensu.ca