Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To whom it may concern,

Hello -- I am writing to appeal the grades I received in GEOL 107 (Fall 2015) and PHIL 115 (Fall 2015/Winter 2016) because I believe that my academic performance throughout these courses in general and on specific assignments was hindered by an extenuating personal circumstance. Throughout the fall semester of my first year, a family member (my father) was suffering through the end stages of a terminal illness, and passed away late October. My academic performance was affected throughout the term as I was very preoccupied with his illness -- making a lot of frequent trips back home (a 9 hour trip away), which left me with little time to spend on schoolwork, in addition to having very poor concentration on academics as a result of worrying. The situation was psychologically challenging -- I had a very difficult time being able to learn the new material when I was emotionally preoccupied with my situation at home. I found myself missing deadlines and being unprepared for quizzes throughout the semester, despite my best efforts. I believe this was a result of being overwhelmed with my situation, and not part of my usual characteristics. I tried very hard to stay on top of schoolwork but was so invested in my situation at home that I wasn't able to put an adequate amount of work or concentration into it. Between frequent visits home, to contacting family members who lived in other countries and dealing with complicated legal dilemmas of the situation, I was physically and psychologically challenged to complete these courses to the ability that I believe I am normally capable of.
Although my academic performance as a whole was affected, I am appealing only the grades for PHIL 115 and GEOL 107 because there were very specific events that affected my grades in these. In GEOL 107, I missed the final exam as it fell during a really stressful time related to my situation, and a particularly stressful event that happened the night before resulted in me missing the exam the next day. I didn't e-mail my professor for a make-up date for a combination of reasons -- I wasn't familiar with the policies of make-up exams and didn't feel that my circumstance was reason enough (I now feel otherwise), and I felt overwhelmed and unprepared to write it regardless. The midterm was worth 50 and so I ended up failing the course. I believe that this mark is not reflective of my abilities, and my overall GPA is far lower than it would be had it not been for this course.
In PHIL 115, we had a heavily weighted essay due around this time as well. I received a low grade on it for submitting it a few days late due to the same preoccupation with my situation. I had just returned home for winter break and was dealing with a lot of legal and family matters related to my circumstance, and I was not able to complete the essay on time. This essay was an uncharacteristically low grade for me in PHIL 115 and it brought my grade down significantly. The grade of C+ I received in the course was what I believe to be a result of this extenuating circumstance and was out of my control.
The reason I was not able to appeal these grades within the 21-day deadline was due to the same preoccupation with my circumstance. At the time the grades came out, I had just returned home from winter break and was very overwhelmed with family matters. I did not even think to appeal my grades. I also thought that there was nothing I could do and being in first year, I was unaware that the appeal process even existed until now. If you look at the rest of my grades, you can see that they do not fall in this same pattern. I deeply regret the lack of action that I took to fix my situation in these courses, however I do still believe that the grades I received in PHIL 115 and GEOL 107, along with my failure to appeal within the 21 day period, were the result of physical and psychological obstacles of an extenuating circumstance, and are not reflective of my true academic capabilities.

Sincerely,

Tess Dufour