Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Hello,

My name is Kaz, and I am a second-year computer science student majoring in security. Though my degree requires a multitude of core courses, one of the core courses I am required to take is CISC 220. Having taken a course under Professor Ma in the past (CISC 124), I was happy to enrol in the class at my first enrolment appointment.

However, due to a Solus error, I was removed from the course during open enrolment. After noticing that the course was forcefully taken away from me, I quickly went back to add it to my shopping cart once again. The problem was that this time, there was a waitlist for the course.

I called the Queen's helpline and talked to multiple advisors about the situation, but they all told me that there was nothing they could do. I had no choice then to accept that I was on the waitlist and wait until enough people dropped the course for my chance to re-enrol.

I did not want to let this set-back get in the way between me and my education. So, although I was not technically a part of the class, I attended all the in-person lectures that I could and asked my friends that were in the class what I missed. As time went by and more and more people dropped the course, I found myself being in waitlist position 1.

Seeing that the deadline to enrol being right around the corner, I could not stand to see to me come so close yet so far. I called the Queen's helpline once again to see if there was any possibility that they could make an exception to extend the deadline to enrol for me, seeing that I am caught up with the course material. The only solution they provided to me was to email the professor directly and ask if they would be willing to bypass the waitlist.

However, after emailing Professor Ma, he has informed me that he does not have the authority to bypass me through the waitlist despite what the Queen's helpline had told me. He instead told me to speak with Karen Knight, the Department Undergraduate Assistant.

After emailing Ms. Knight, she said that she did not have the power to bypass the waitlist and instead forwarded my email to Jeurgen Dingel. After a countless emails being sent back and forth, I realized that there was nothing I could do. The deadline to add courses passes, and I ask him if there was anything I could do to still have a shot in enrolling back into CISC 220. He told me to write an appeal to add the course past the due date.

Thus, I am here to ask you kindly to please allow me to add CISC 220 past the official enrolment date. I am well caught up with all the material that has been taught and will have the current assignment handed in on the original due date, with no extension required.

I know this may be asking for a lot, but I do ask of you to at least consider the possibility. This being my actual first year at Queen's, I would really appreciate if I could study alongside my friends, and not have my course career backtracked due to a Solus malfunction.

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Kind regards,
Kaz Susilo