Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean,
I am writing to respectfully petition for late enrollment in WRIT 125 -- Fundamentals of Academic Essay Writing (3.00 units), offered by the Faculty of Arts and Science. I am currently a Commerce student and am seeking to add this course four days past the registration deadline. I understand that an exception is required, and I wish to outline the extenuating circumstances that led to this delay and explain why enrollment in this course is both academically necessary and genuinely beneficial to my progress.
The registration period coincided with a series of serious personal challenges that were entirely beyond my control. I am a student based in Dubai, and upon returning home after the term, I encountered visa complications that created prolonged administrative uncertainty and considerable stress at a time when I should have been focused on planning for the upcoming semester. More critically, I had two separate visits to the emergency room due to unexpected health issues during this period. These medical episodes were physically debilitating and required recovery time and follow-up care that made it really hard for me to focus on academic matters. The compounding effect of these health and domestic circumstances directly prevented me from engaging with the enrollment process within the standard deadline.
Further complicating my situation, several of my grades from the previous term were not posted to SOLUS until May 11 2025, the day before this petition. My academic standing and course eligibility are directly tied to those results, and without access to my complete record, I was not in a position to make a responsible or informed enrollment decision. This delay in grade posting was entirely outside of my control. The moment my grades became available, I reviewed my academic situation and moved immediately to submit this petition.
Upon reviewing my grades, I found that my academic performance is currently below the standard I had hoped to maintain. Given the health challenges and personal disruptions I have faced, I believe that carrying a heavier course load next semester would place me at serious risk of further academic difficulty.
WRIT 125 is particularly well-suited to my current needs since academic writing has consistently been my greatest challenge, and weaknesses in written assignments, essays, and reports, have contributed meaningfully to my current standing. This course directly targets those gaps. Completing it will not only allow me to manage my workload more sustainably, but will build foundational skills that strengthen my performance across all future coursework in Commerce and beyond. Medical documentation from my ER visits is available upon request. I appreciate your time and consideration of this petition, and I am fully committed to engaging with WRIT 125 to the best of my ability should it be approved. I hope you will view this request as a sincere effort to take responsibility for my academic progress under genuinely difficult circumstances.
Thank you,
Katherine Li