Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Hello Associate Dean,

I am appealing a final grade granted by the Department of English for the course ENGL 284, also my Personal Interest Credit course, taken in the Winter 2025 semester. I would like to contest the failing grade of 45%. There were unforeseen changes to the syllabus due to the PSAC 901 strike (an unusual academic event which created extenuating circumstances outside of many students’ control), which resulted in the removal of assignments from the syllabus, as well as a breach of procedural and relational fairness, and bias and discrepancy in marking from the professor.

On March 26th, 2025, an announcement was posted on OnQ outlining the changes being made to the syllabus due to the ongoing strike, in which the professor stated that all assignments, including class participation, would remain unaffected and take place as scheduled. Additionally, the announcement noted that the final exam (worth 20%) had been cancelled, and the final paper (worth 20%) would only be graded and considered part of the final grade, depending on when the strike was resolved. I emailed the professor the same day, highlighting some concerns I had about removing two large chunks of the final grade. Multiple emails were exchanged with me expressing concern about how my grade would be affected by one or both assignments being cancelled, as I had hoped to make up for my poor grade through them. The professor addressed these concerns briefly, saying there was not much to be done about the situation.

When the PSAC 901 strike was resolved, it seemed that all assignments would remain unaffected in their grades, as was stated in the original announcement from March 26th. There were no mentions of re-weighting assignments in any of these announcements, emails or in an edited syllabus. I had calculated my grade with my final paper grade, I was passing the course. However, when my final grades were posted, I had failed the course. Another announcement posted on April 28th, 2025, stated that final grades in OnQ were not official yet as they had not been calculated to reflect the grades out of 80 rather than 100. When I checked OnQ, my final grade was still an F. When I checked the Final Grade Calculation Formula in OnQ, I noticed that the final exam was not exempted from the grade, but reflected as 0. I emailed the professor and TA again, expressing confusion about this issue and my grade and asking if anyone could confirm my questions or corrections. After a couple of emails back and forth, I was told that all assignments had been re-weighted, resulting in my failing grade. There was no change to the syllabus that indicated this, and no mention of this before this day on the OnQ or in email announcements. I was also told that the statement “All other assignments, including ENGL 284 Class Participation, are unaffected and will take place as scheduled” in the March 28th announcement, meant “the context of the sentence makes clear that ‘unaffected’ means ‘not cancelled.’” and that “The issue or reweighting is made clear in the sentence [I] have highlighted.” (as written by my professor in an email dated May 5th). I do not believe that this was made clear at any point, and that this email only makes sense of the professor’s meaning in hindsight. Additionally, the professor stated in this email: “​​This very question came up in class, and I answered it at that time, in class.”, although changes to the syllabus should be efficiently communicated to all students or put into a revised syllabus for students to access. I also believe that the professor’s wording and focus on my lack of participation throughout the various emails and inflexibility to help or communicate indicate a bias. I know that my lack of attendance was not appreciated by my professor, which is understandable, but it affected the way that I received communication, help and decisions on final grades from my professor. Ultimately, this issue seems to indicate discrepancies in marking and procedural and relational fairness concerning making changes to the syllabus and communication regarding these changes, as well as students’ grading.

I requested an informal review of my final grade from this professor on May 5th, 2025, where I was given the breakdown of my newly re-weighted grades and final mark, resulting in a grade of 45/100.

I am requesting to appeal this grade as I am a graduating student, and this failing mark decides whether or not I am to graduate. While I failed the attendance and participation grade of the course, I still dedicated myself to the assignments of the course, and received satisfactory grades in them.

Thank you for your consideration, and I hope to hear from you soon.

Brontë Garrett-Weekes