Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean,

I am appealing my fall semester 2019 personal interest credit ANAT 312 and would like to change it to a dropped late course.

Last semester I consulted resources online regarding PICs, their pros and cons. I wanted to clarify a few questions so I went into the Faculty of Arts and Sciences academic services to ask. Unfortunately, I do not have an exact date and time but I went in around the end of September/beginning of October before the drop deadline (November 1st) to ensure I either switched ANAT 312 to a PIC or to drop it before any penalties were applied. A lady at the front ¿¿ located to the further right desk when looking towards all secretary desks - said she could answer my questions as she knew about PICs - ¿¿no need to see an academic counsellor¿ she said. I clearly asked her if failing a PIC affected my GPA and she with certainty said ¿¿No¿, I once again asked her if she was sure that it would only affect my credits and not my GPA and once again she said correct. I of course then proceeded to sign the PIC form (which nowhere does it state that an F in a PIC will in fact affect your GPA).

As you can probably infer, I in fact did not pass the described course. I knew me failing the course was a possibility but decided to keep going as it was a very interesting course that I always wanted to take. Since I was given false beliefs that failing it would only affect my credits I felt alright with an F as I would simply need to take an extra course to make up for the lost credits. Unfortunately, the person was very wrong, and it drastically affected my GPA to the point that my graduate school applications were halted.

As you can see in my transcripts, my grades have drastically improved in my last year as I finally decided to seek help for personal issues that I didn¿¿t think affected my performance. This misshapen took a toll on my mental illness causing me to rebound making my last semester harder mentally than it should have ¿¿ hence why I am only submitting this now. I feel betrayed and lied to as well as now having doubt on university resources. If I would have known that failing a PIC actually did in fact affect my GPA I would have dropped the course as I was self-aware of the stakes I was playing with.

Currently, I am enrolled on an extra summer course to make up for my missing credits due to failing ANAT 312. I hope that you consider my request. If you have any further questions or would like to clarify the information provided please don¿¿t hesitate to contact me.

I Hope you find yourself well through these uncertain times.

SINCERELY,
CAMILA MAYORGA