Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Date: May 10th, 2020
Student ID: 20073588
Course: HLTH 350
Professor: Beth Richan
Assignment: Scientific Poster / Paper
of Final Mark: 45
Grade Received: 0

Dear Dean and Associate Deans of Queen's University,

My name is Evan Buzdon, and I am a third-year commerce student at Queen's University. This year, I had the opportunity to study abroad at the castle in Herstmonceux, England. It was an incredible experience and one that I will never forget.

I am writing to you to appeal a grade that was received on my final assignment in my HLTH 350 course. This is my first and the only appeal I intend on writing, so I hope that I have done everything correctly. The assignment was a Scientific Poster / Paper worth 45 of my final grade. I believe some situations were beyond my control that contributed to this poor grade, and had circumstances been more typical, I would have scored a much higher grade than the 0 that was posted. After calculating my final average in the course, I have received a failing mark because of this assignment. This failing mark will put me on probation, something that has never happened to me during my time at Queen's and will place me in a very stressful position in my fourth year. I was extremely shocked, aggravated, and at a loss of words because of how this may affect my career at Queen's - especially knowing that I had a 4.0 term GPA and a 90 in the course before this final assignment. I am writing with the hope that you will reconsider the mark received on my last assignment. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to explain my circumstances.

I made sure to work extremely hard this semester while on an exchange, as my marks continue to affect my final GPA. My term GPA would be a 4.0 without this assignment; however, a failing mark would drop my term GPA an entire unit, to a 3.0. I do not want to make any excuses for this poor grade; however, I would like to explain the circumstances of the assignment submission. The original due date for the Poster and Paper was March 26th. Due to the rise of COVID across the world, I was pulled out of my exchange and sent home at my parent's request on March 12th. I emailed Professor Richan on March 25th, asking for a 24-hour extension. I was appreciative to be granted an extension until March 30th. I was extremely grateful as it had given me an extra few days to put my final thoughts together and put my best work forward during an extremely stressful time. On March 30th, my Paper and Poster were finalized, and I remember logging into OnQ to submit it. My last assignment was due on April 7th, a final exam for a different HLTH course. After submitting the assignment, I was officially done my semester, and summer quarantine began.

My mother had still been working until mid-April when she became very sick. She was portraying severe symptoms that resembled a serious flu. With the timing of COVID and her symptoms shown, my primary focus turned to ensure her current and future health amid the virus going around. I was not active on social media, emails, etc. because my priority was the well-being of my mother - my friends had assumed I had disappeared for two weeks and were also worried about my well-being. As my mother began to get better, I started scrolling through the notifications on my phone and noticed that I missed several emails, including one from Professor Richan: my Poster and Paper submission was never received. I noticed the email in my inbox on April 27th, stating Professor Richan's final grades were to be submitted on April 20th - I was in shock and extremely worried. I followed up with Professor Richan as quickly as I could, explaining the situations in this appeal. I inquired about the possibility of resubmitting my Paper and Poster. Before receiving a follow-up email from my professor, I resubmitted my assignment to the portal and added it as an attachment to the email I sent on March 27th. Professor Richan has been very helpful, and I could not thank her enough for teaching me this semester. I was suggested that submitting an appeal may offer the possibility of correcting my mark for this assignment due to the stressful circumstances experienced in March and April. Although there was not much that I could have done during April, it would have been extremely beneficial to check my email once a week, at minimum. I thought I had my assignment submitted on time and was ready to enjoy summer; however, I was wrong.

I love Queen's University, and it would mean so much to me to graduate with my commerce degree from this school. It will be difficult entering my fourth year as time has indeed passed way too quickly. Moving forward, I will check my inbox frequently, submit assignments 2-3 days in advance and review my submissions to make sure that they were received on time and in the right place. Fortunately, my mother is feeling better and is working from home, so I should not have to look after her to the extent that I did in April. Please understand that this poor grade will lead to a low GPA and may put me on probation. I am not an underachieving student, and my GPA this semester is not an indication of such. I pride myself on being a bright student who made a significant mistake which may cost me this semester, my fourth year, and possibly, my degree.

I hope you will give me a second chance. Thank you for considering this appeal.

Sincerely,
Evan Buzdon
evan.buzdon@queensu.ca
647-448-7464

PS. I noticed that when I copied and pasted my letter from Word to this box, it combined my letter without proper spacing. Please let me know if you would like a copy of the letter in Word format.