Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean,

I am a fourth year philosophy major requesting your consideration regarding my professor's refusal to grade my final paper. For this particular course, each paper assignment is free of penalization and grade deductions for the week following the due date, and are not considered to be late during this period. Upon completing the final paper for this course, I regretfully relied upon the assumption that following this period, penalties and deductions for late assignments would begin to apply, as this is the way every other course operates. Given that I was struggling significantly with writing this paper, I felt that receiving a one-day grade deduction was worth the extra effort to finish the paper properly given the assignment was worth a significant portion of the final grade. Upon reaching the dropbox to hand in my assignment, I noticed that it was closed. I revised the syllabus and, to my dismay, was made aware that papers would be assigned a grade of zero immediately following the extension period. In the hope that my professor would sympathize with my mistake and accept my profuse apologies, she refused to grade the paper in any capacity. I sent a follow-up email to elaborate on the circumstances of what this would mean for me, informing her that because this assignment is worth 45 of the grade, I would fail the course and be unable to graduate. She replied with another refusal, but encouraged me to appeal my grade.

Associate Dean, I have been on the Dean's List and am currently on the path to a Master's Degree in Philosophy at Queen's next fall. I have accepted my offer, and moreover, this professor is one who has formally recommended me to the board of graduate studies which greatly contributed toward my acceptance. This professor is keenly aware that not only is this incident inconsistent with my academic reputation, but that I have outstanding potential for graduate level studies. I respect my professor's decision to enforce this rule, however, taking into consideration the degree to which this one assignment has the potential to compromise my academics, I cannot accept that my paper will not be graded in any capacity. If it were not my final year, I would embrace the disappointing circumstances and redeem myself by completing another course, but given that I am scheduled to graduate in June, there is no opportunity for redemption¿¿something I had hoped my professor would have taken into consideration and sympathized with. Although I am tremendously remorseful for my lack of awareness to the conditions of the course policies, I must point out that these policies are radically inconsistent with every other course I have completed throughout the entirety of my undergraduate career. I believe that it is unjust to entirely omit the standard policy of penalizing assignments for each day that they are late beyond the formal deadline, which in this course should be immediately following the extension. Consistently following this grading system with every assignment for four years has thus not prepared me to assume any different this time around. It is as such that I wish to have my paper granted the opportunity for assessment along with appropriate deductions.

My professor has especially denied my request in the name of fairness to other students who handed in their assignments on time, which I can appreciate. It would have been unfair to others had she accepted my paper without penalties. However, it is my impression this is the entire significance of late deductions, and presumably why they are embedded within the policies of every other course. This being said, I do not see it necessary to reject my assignment altogether in order to maintain equity for my classmates when there is a possibility to apply penalties. Being stripped of the opportunity to graduate with my peers and having my future degree compromised are consequences which I do not find are at all proportionate to the late submission of an assignment by one day based in an honest mistake. Although I accept full responsibility for my passivity towards the syllabus containing this abnormal policy, I do not believe that this isolated event should dictate my entire undergraduate career, especially given my accomplishments thus far. For my graduation in June to remain a reality for myself and attending family members, and for the pursuance of my Master's degree to remain uncompromised, I sincerely request your consideration to have my paper be graded with appropriate deductions. Thank you.

Sincerely,

Courteney Laplante