Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Dr Winn, Associate Dean of Life Science,

I am appealing for a credit standing in my class of Biol243 in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (Fall, 2019). On September 26th, during a Queens Men¿¿s Club Rugby Game, I tore my syndesmosis ligament requiring surgery, which was carried out on September 28th. I was on a consistent schedule of medication (Hydromorphone), and I was unable to do work for about three weeks post surgery. This is shown through my academic consideration which has the dates Sept 26 - Oct 15. After many meetings with student services and academic counsellors, they thought it would be in my best interest to drop Anat215; one out of five of my courses for the Life Science program because I wasn¿¿t going to be able to walk till Winter semester (3 Months) and I had already missed three weeks. When I got back to school, I had to take two midterms in Bchm218 and Chem281, both above 30 percent. Missing three weeks, I knew that at some point, I would have to take exams that I wasn¿¿t ready for or else I would have to take the semester off. To pass these exams, I had to prioritize them, as I had a week for each midterm to learn four to six weeks of material, while simultaneously trying to keep up in all my four classes at once. The problem was that from the moment I got back to school, I was three weeks behind in four classes. Every class¿¿s lecture I went to, I was three weeks behind so I had to do everything completely on my own. My peers were all ahead of me on the timeline, and didn¿¿t have time to help me. Furthermore, I was still unable to walk at this time, so everything took multiples hours more than it should have. The reason I am writing this is because I received a B- (72) in Biol243. I rigorously asked them to give me participation marks for coming to class to push me to 73(B), letting them know that I was always behind in class and going to lecture wasn¿¿t an option. After the two midterms in Bchm218 and Chem281, I had to study for Term Test 2 in Biol243, which I couldn¿¿t do by going to class because the material was based on weeks 1-9; I missed weeks 3-6 because of the surgery and medication I was on, and everything after that, I was unable to go to class from weeks 6-8 because of being unable to walk or knee scooter (especially if it snowed), and the other midterms I had to study for (Bchm218 and Chem281). In general, I wasn¿¿t able to leave the house for most of the semester purely for safety. I kindly expressed to the course instructors that I didn¿¿t get the participation marks because I had to find different ways to pass the Term Test 2 and the rest of the course. I was participating, but I was just on a different schedule because of my extenuating circumstance; I went to extra help sessions and self taught most of the course. Furthermore, I was excluded from three tutorials, four preparatory quizzes, and two term tests. I ended up missing term test 2 and another week because of catching the flu. Both term tests were allocated to my final exam grade which was 76.5. The assignments that I was exempted from are generally ¿¿mark buffers¿, helping you increase your gpa, knowing that exam marks tend to be lower. I don¿¿t believe that the B- in Biol243 is a fair assessment of my academic abilities as a student. I am also writing this appeal because I am planning on going on exchange to the University of Leeds which I believe require a GPA of 3.0. Due to this grade rendering a GPA of 2.7, it puts my total GPA at 2.94, which could possibly affect my ability to go on an exchange. I didn¿¿t drop the course because I thought I didn¿t give first year my best effort, and I thought that with my best effort this year, even with extenuating circumstance, I could increase my GPA. I also thought the class would give me the participation marks or figure out some solution for the marks because how genuine and out of control my reasons for not having the marks were. They are marks that everyone usually gets through just by attending the school so I thought that having a surgery and all the post-surgery issues would be a good enough reason for the course to figure out a possible solution, however, they have let me know that they cannot increase my mark. I have talked to many Queens¿¿ affiliated employees who have let me know that they would love to write a supporting documentation if necessary so please let me know if there is anything the committee needs to ask.