Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To the Associate Dean of Studies,

My name is Charles Jobin and I am appealing to drop GPHY 203 for the 2019 fall term. I am looking to drop the course because I have been experiencing some extenuating circumstances that were out of my control and I feel like I would have done better if I were not impacted by them.

The circumstances I have been experiencing are the following; Extreme family crisis, where my parents got divorced in a way that makes it look like a movie, meaning that my dad went out of the country for a business trip and while he was away, my mother went and got him arrested by the police. This means he had an order to not get in contact with her or us. My mom then left my 17 years old sister home alone for days, because she wanted some fresh air so she just left out of nowhere and left her alone, which is one of the reasons why I had to go home and take care of hr, as I am her older brother and I taught that I needed to be more mature than her and take responsibility of my sister in hard times like these. Ever since it started, I have been involved in a lot of conversations with lawyers and professionals, which has been taking a lot of my time and energy. I have also been involved into a lot of emotional decision making because I had to do what was best for everyone and both of my parents, couldn¿¿t take with each other so it was very hectic and complicated to sort things out, especially since my dad was not allowed to go into his own house and my mom would not be in it either, so it was really hard to be organized. I only feel like I need to drop this course because it is the one that required the most reading time and I had absolutely no time to read all of the material I should have read during this time. Also, as if it wasn¿¿t hard enough for me, I got really sick the day before I had to re-take a test and I ended up missing it because I was really ill, so it all went downhill for me in that course and I feel like I would have done so much better if I could have done the readings and write the test. I feel like I am unable to finish it because I am already way too far behind even if I tried to catch up, and I don¿¿t want it impacting my other courses which are really important for my major.

This course is not necessary to my major, but I would like to take it again next fall to prove my point to myself, meaning that I could do better in it within a regular academic situation. I cannot take it this winter semester because it is not available but I would definitively retake it next fall 2020.