Manage Appeals
Petition Type: New
ID: 13085
Submitted: May 7, 2025 at 5:15:44 PM
First Name: Kaitlyn
Last Name: Maloney
Pronoun: She/her
Student Number: 20399292
Email: 22xgl3@queensu.ca
Degree Program: BAH
Plan: POLS
Level of Study: 2
Petition Categories
Petition Categories: Request credit (CR) standing in a course or courses
Code: POLS 262
Term: Winter
Year: 2025
Petition Category: Request credit (CR) standing in a course or courses
Instructor's Name: Wayne Cox
Petition Letter
Petition Letter: To the Academic Petitions Committee,
I am writing to formally request a Credit (CR) grade in POLS 262 (International Political Economy) from the Winter 2025 semester due to extenuating academic circumstances beyond my control.
During the Winter 2025 term, Queen’s experienced a significant teaching assistant strike that directly disrupted my academic experience. This disruption eliminated access to tutorials, reduced overall instructional time, and removed normal feedback channels from teaching assistants. In this specific course, I received barely any feedback on my progress or assignments for the term. Due to the strike, the weight of assignments had to be rearranged and resulted in all tutorial grades being voided. Because of this I lost out on hard earned participation marks that would have increased my final grade.
These conditions severely limited my ability to improve and adapt my work on time. Professor Cox was then left to deal and manage all questions and concerns students had, and due to the overwhelming amount of emails he was presumably receiving, there was also a delay in responses and sometimes miscommunication via email or Onq.
While the strike was not officially resolved until after the semester concluded, TAs were expected to finalize grading under compressed timelines. This created an academic environment in which assessments were rushed and disconnected from any iterative learning process. As a result, I received a final grade of C in this course, a stark and uncharacteristic drop compared to the A-range grades I received in all of my other courses this semester. I believe this outcome was directly tied to the unusual and compromised learning environment caused by the strike. This class had 3 total assignments, 2 of which making up 75% of the grade) were made to be completed without the TA’s, meaning a lack of guidance and support. Additionally, this class was very heavily based on in-person learning and discussions (in lecture and tutorials), therefore, the strike disproportionately affected my learning and grade outcome in this class.
Throughout the semester, I remained committed to my academic responsibilities. I submitted all assignments on time and maintained full attendance in continued lectures. However, the absence of academic support, particularly in the form of tutorials and feedback, impeded my ability to assess and improve the quality of my work.
Additionally, I had to return home to Vancouver for just over a week due to family emergency regarding a surgery my dad had to undergo. Upon retuning, the strike was in effect making it extremely difficult for me to adapt and get clarity. This is not an excuse, rather more insight into my circumstances.
This request is made not to avoid accountability, but to preserve the integrity of my academic record under exceptional and uncontrollable conditions. I am confident that under normal instructional circumstances, my grade would have been more reflective of my effort and performance.
I respectfully ask the committee to consider these circumstances and approve my request for a CR grade in POLS 262 (International Political Economy).
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Kaitlyn Maloney
I am writing to formally request a Credit (CR) grade in POLS 262 (International Political Economy) from the Winter 2025 semester due to extenuating academic circumstances beyond my control.
During the Winter 2025 term, Queen’s experienced a significant teaching assistant strike that directly disrupted my academic experience. This disruption eliminated access to tutorials, reduced overall instructional time, and removed normal feedback channels from teaching assistants. In this specific course, I received barely any feedback on my progress or assignments for the term. Due to the strike, the weight of assignments had to be rearranged and resulted in all tutorial grades being voided. Because of this I lost out on hard earned participation marks that would have increased my final grade.
These conditions severely limited my ability to improve and adapt my work on time. Professor Cox was then left to deal and manage all questions and concerns students had, and due to the overwhelming amount of emails he was presumably receiving, there was also a delay in responses and sometimes miscommunication via email or Onq.
While the strike was not officially resolved until after the semester concluded, TAs were expected to finalize grading under compressed timelines. This created an academic environment in which assessments were rushed and disconnected from any iterative learning process. As a result, I received a final grade of C in this course, a stark and uncharacteristic drop compared to the A-range grades I received in all of my other courses this semester. I believe this outcome was directly tied to the unusual and compromised learning environment caused by the strike. This class had 3 total assignments, 2 of which making up 75% of the grade) were made to be completed without the TA’s, meaning a lack of guidance and support. Additionally, this class was very heavily based on in-person learning and discussions (in lecture and tutorials), therefore, the strike disproportionately affected my learning and grade outcome in this class.
Throughout the semester, I remained committed to my academic responsibilities. I submitted all assignments on time and maintained full attendance in continued lectures. However, the absence of academic support, particularly in the form of tutorials and feedback, impeded my ability to assess and improve the quality of my work.
Additionally, I had to return home to Vancouver for just over a week due to family emergency regarding a surgery my dad had to undergo. Upon retuning, the strike was in effect making it extremely difficult for me to adapt and get clarity. This is not an excuse, rather more insight into my circumstances.
This request is made not to avoid accountability, but to preserve the integrity of my academic record under exceptional and uncontrollable conditions. I am confident that under normal instructional circumstances, my grade would have been more reflective of my effort and performance.
I respectfully ask the committee to consider these circumstances and approve my request for a CR grade in POLS 262 (International Political Economy).
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Kaitlyn Maloney
Documentation
Professional Letter Detail: No doc