Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To the Office of the Associate Dean (Studies),

I am writing to request an appeal for the review of my instructor¿¿s decision on my final essay in ARTH 253 (Fall 2016), which contributed to 40 of my final grade. To submit the request, I am also appealing to request to waive the 21-day deadline.
I was unable to make the appeal within the 21-day deadline due to conflicting schedules between myself and the instructor as well as my ongoing, documented illness. I collected my graded essay on December 14, 2016, the day they were first available. However, I could not meet with my instructor to conduct an informal review until the Winter 2017 term because of conflicting holiday and travelling schedules. I was then unable to meet with my instructor until January 25, 2017 because of my ongoing illness. Documentation pertaining to my illness is to come.
The grounds for consideration for my request for an appeal for the review of my final essay pertain to the formatting of and content analysis in the essay as well as reliability and consistency among the various essay graders.
Due to my ongoing illness, I received a penalty-less extension for my essay. I submitted a paper copy of my essay in person to the Art History Office within the extension period on November 25 2016. The course syllabus clearly states that only paper copies of the essay would be graded. However, the instructor also required that I submit an electronic copy of the essay. The electronic copy appeared to have some formatting issues that were not present in the paper copy of the essay I handed in, as per the course syllabus requirements. These issues altered the placement of paragraphs, titles, and figures. The correctly formatted paper copy was not graded, but instead the incorrectly formatted, electronic copy was printed out by the professor and graded. Because of the syllabus, it was my understanding that the paper copy of my essay would be marked. I addressed this concern during my informal review with the instructor on January 25. When I asked for the essay to be reviewed, the instructor produced the paper copy that I had submitted on November 25, 2016 and compared it alongside the printed electronic version that he had graded. He refused to acknowledge my concerns regarding the formatting issues.
There was little discussion during the informal review on the content analysis in the essay. When I asked the instructor to go through the feedback and grade he primarily commented on the formatting issues and described one line of text as being vague. To support my answer to the essay question, I provided descriptions and analyses of three relevant works of art. In my analyses, I highlight comparisons between the art and architecture of the respective periods, satisfying the essay question. However, I feel that my supporting analysis of the question was undervalued.
Although it has not been confirmed, it is my understanding that the teaching assistants graded the majority of the final essays. There was no transparency to students regarding the grading process for the final essay, as the outline did not specify grading or assessment criteria. Based on discussions with my classmates, I have concerns regarding the calibration of grades between the instructor and teaching assistants. However, I was not comfortable discussing this during the informal review because of the instructor¿¿s refusal to acknowledge my other concerns.

The following documentation pieces are to come:
1. Proof of illness from doctor (explaining ongoing illness and waive for 21-day deadline);
2. The printed version of the improperly formatted electronic essay that was graded; and
3. The properly formatted essay that was submitted on paper on time (given the extension).

Thank you for your time and consideration,
Jessica Lanziner