Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I am appealing to request an extension on two incomplete grades in the fall semester of 2015 for PHIL 261, Philosophy of Mathematics, and PHIL 510, an independent study, which have since been changed to failing grades. At the end of November I was sexually assaulted. The event left me with multiple physical injuries across my entire body including bruised ribs, shoulders, wrists and internal pain. I went to HCDS to discuss the event and the counselor suggested I go to the hospital. After taking her advice, I was put on various medications, one of which is called the HIV Prophylaxis. I had a severe physical reaction to this particular drug for the first two weeks.
Between the physical and the mental trauma of the event and the reaction to the preventative medication, I did not complete several of the final assignments for the four courses I was enrolled in during the fall semester. Thankfully, for those two courses I had a high enough grade entering the end of the semester that my final paper and exam did not dramatically harm my final grade. For two courses, PHIL 261 and PHIL 510, both of which are taught by the same professor, I asked the professor to submit my grade as an incomplete because the weighting of these assignments, 40 and 100 respectively, were quite high. In PHIL 261, I have received an A in 60 of the course. PHIL 510 is a directed study in which we met biweekly to discuss logic and the readings on various logic systems and had to produce a paper of our own interest on this subject.
I have not submitted an appeal until now, nor had I completed the course work for the two subjects until recently, because every time I looked at it I felt as though I had to relive what had caused me to ask for an incomplete in the first place. I felt embarrassed, ashamed, and utterly disappointed in myself that this had affected me so deeply and that it caused me to stop studying a subject I had come to love. It was also a reminder that my prospects for law school had been completely ruined; I knew that I would be incapable of attending an intense three-year program until I was in a better headspace.
I was in utter denial for a long time, which is why I didn¿¿t ask for an incomplete for the other two courses in the fall semester. I have now had my final six-month blood work test and now feel I can and must move on from this. Refusing to admit what had happened to me prompted my decision to return to Queen¿¿s. While it led me to postpone my application to law school, I was able to do the best I ever had in university, largely because I had found another course to take in logic that made me remember why I was at Queen¿¿s in the first place.
The incomplete on the courses expired and became failing grades. I am requesting an extension for these two incomplete grades so that I may submit the course work for PHIL 261 and PHIL 510. I have the full support of my professor for these two courses, as he knows how hard I have worked on both courses.

Thank you for your consideration,

Tandia Hantho

Documentation will be provided by HCDS.