Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean,


I hope all is well.


My name is Fahad Malik, I am a third year Applied Economics Student, within the Faculty of Arts and Science.


I am appealing to acquire an aegrotat standing for three of my courses, alongside having the flexibility to defer two of my exams conditional upon my obligations for the next couple weeks alongside the choice of employing a credit stand if need be in a future appeal. The courses I wish to acquire an aegrotat (AG) standing for are ECON351, ANAT100, and COMM324; the courses I am requesting flexibility for establishing a deferral and credit stand if necessary in a future appeal are ECON240 and GEOL106. Please note that all these courses are for Winter 2017.


The extenuating circumstance that catalyses this appeal is the sudden passing away of my mother, Akeela Fazal Malik, on March 23rd, 2017. My mother was battling cancer for the past 15 months, but passed away while on a family vacation to Saudi Arabia and Pakistan.


This event has had great implications upon my schooling and study habits. Firstly, I had to go back home to Toronto on March 23rd, to await the arrival of my father, my mother's body, and spend time with my mother's parents. This led to me being unable to attend lectures, and placed heavy time constraints upon completing any work for the upcoming weeks. Specific example of academic repercussions include my subpar performance on an online assignment for ANAT100, my inability to put my name on attendance for ECON351, and difficulty communicating and collaborating with my group in COMM324. Furthermore, I have been unable to create clear and concise lecture notes through being at home and missing classes all classes, but specifically GEOL106 and ECON240.


Traditionally, funerals and ceremonies within my family require huge time commitments, as a principal organizer, and a support system for my family, I wish to participate in all these events - consequently, it is extremely difficult for me to come to Kingston and regularly attend class. Furthermore, doing school work is limited to smaller patches of time due to many commitments, and it is difficult to set aside large amounts of time for keeping up with all my classes. Ultimately, I am needed at home, to support my family, alongside completing the numerous clerical tasks that must be done.


Due to the recentness of the extenuating circumstance, it has played a role in every single day since the event, whether it is time commitments to visit grieving family, conducting ceremonies to celebrate my mother's life, or a series of errands associated with the death. The implications of my mother's death has drastically altered my daily routine, my schedule, my social interactions, and my academics. I am currently planning on it only impacting the Winter 2017 semester (ideally everything will be sorted out following). Furthermore, I am an only child and firmly believe that I should spend as much time as possible with my father - I have already ensured that I will spend this summer at home with him. Through establishing an appeal, I can ensure this will not heavily compromise my education, as I am a student who takes my education very seriously, as I am heavily exploring the idea of graduate school MA, JD, MSc, MMF, MFE, etc.. I do not want to discard all the time and effort I have committed for this semester, and I want to maintain this framework for success I have strived to establish in my third year.


Course work that is affected include final exam preparation being unable to go to lectures for the last 2.5 weeks, assignment completion is way more intensive and inefficient, and there is difficulty and ultimately inability with keeping up with ANAT100 online modules Case Study, MH Campus Modules, Block Quiz 3, and other deliverables following the online Jeopardy assignment. I am still attempting to collaborate with my groups for the final ECON351 and COMM324 assignments, as I do not want to abandon them. Lastly, GEOL106 and ECON240 have heavily weighted final exams, and I am hoping to talk to the professors to discuss a potential deferment - I understand the necessity of these exams and I wish to write them.