Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Today I am applying to appeal my final grade in FILM110, taken in Fall/Winter of 2019. The goal of my appeal is to change the grade from its current C+ to CR, where it will have no impact on my overall GPA. I am applying to appeal as I was unaware this option existed to students at the time of the course, as well as rectifying the impact it is having on applications to Law Schools.

In the Fall of 3rd year when I began FILM110, I hit the ground running. I had hoped to take a dual degree of Commerce with Film, and FILM110 was the prerequisite course I needed to allow that to happen. I was attending all lectures and tutorials, providing input and participating in TA-led discussion, was a major contributor to my group and performed very well on individual assignments. Things were going great.

In early February, I was on a ski trip to Jay Peak with the Queen's Ski and Snowboard Club, where, on the final run of the trip, I was concussed. I spent the 5-hour bus ride home suffering from extreme nausea, headaches and immediately went to the hospital once we returned back to Queen's. Following my visit to the hospital, I rested for a few days then visited Occupational Therapist Natasha DeGroot at Student Wellness Services, who provided the documents I am submitting with this letter.

My recovery from the injury did not go well. Natasha marked the expected recovery time of 4-8 weeks, and in reality, pushed the upper boundary of that range by an additional week. I spent the first week of my recovery in bed in a dark room. I wasn't contacting professors and TAs, and I missed multiple deadlines. Specific to FILM110, a major component of the grade is attendance and participation in the weekly, TA-led tutorials, which I was essentially unable to attend for the remainder of the semester. That alone caused my grade in FILM110 to fall by extreme amounts. I was also unable to attend group meetings, and was very limited in how much assistance I could provide my group members with final projects and essays. My individual assignments were far below my personal standards and submitted very late, if at all. I was aware of the low quality of my work even as I was submitting the assignments, but found myself lacking focus, clarity and normal levels of cognition for extended periods of time.

The concussion caused me to miss essentially all of my classes from February through the end of the semester, events of committees I was on at the time, and even being able to see friends. My mental health took a toll as well, as I was in and out of Student Wellness and walk-in clinics for those reasons at the same time. I felt hopeless every time I revisited an assignment, attended classes and found myself lost, or with headaches and subsequently having to leave halfway through the lecture. It was an extraordinarily difficult time for me, and the impacts went far beyond personal health. As mentioned, my attendance and participation grade in Winter semester fell extreme amounts, and the final individual and group projects, which make up the overwhelming majority of the remaining components of the overall grade, were well below what I normally would have received. I was entirely unable to devote myself to school.

By its nature of being a full-year, 6.0 credit course, FILM110 is having a disproportionate impact on my overall GPA. Law schools look at the final two years of the applicant's academic performance in undergrad, and FILM110, a course I was unable to devote myself to for half of the year, is bringing that GPA down from a 3.41 to a 3.3 - a gap that could be the difference in my application and my future.

I understand that the typical grade where a CR is granted starts at a C, and my grade stands as a C+. However, the impact of such a low grade in a 6.0 credit course is threatening to throw a wrench in my plan to enrol in law school where I intend to study environmental law. I hope I have laid out substantial reasoning to grant a CR for my FILM110 grade for the Fall/Winter semesters of 2019.

Thank you for your time and I appreciate your consideration of my application.