Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Hello my name is Stephanie Stamatis and I am appealing to drop COMM 200 (Winter, 2022). I would like to drop out of this course because due to extenuating circumstances I am unable to reach my full potential and succeed in the course. When first enrolling in this course, I didn??t realize this course emphasized team efforts. I thought this was an individually paced course, which is the type of course I am more comfortable with. Especially during a pandemic, I find it very difficult to communicate and coordinate with team members as most of the assignments are to be done online. My team did not help me succeed and was non-inclusive as they excluded me from assignments and meetings. They communicated with each other without me involved and did not share the meeting schedules with me after I missed one. Their lack of inclusivity and support forced me to fall behind as I was unaware that they were having so many meetings without my attendance. While most assessments are constructed to be completed around group decisions, I was forced to attempt group submissions on my own. I was under the impression we had one platform where we communicated with each other. Group submissions and group meetings were presented without my input leaving me to believe they have other forms of communication. They demonstrated poor collaboration and lack of commitment. While I did reach out on the main chat multiple times, to assign assessment parts, all team members failed to respond and waited until later on to inform me that they have submitted group assignments and didn??t once offer or acknowledge my input. While I am engaged in other courses that involve team building, this course was more difficult because the lack of communication my team had towards me. I am completing another commerce course that involves team assignments and I seem to be succeeding and communicating very well with that team. This shows commitment and involvement on my part and that I can handle and focus on team-based courses, even though I show better improvement solo. The thought never crossed my mind to drop this course earlier on in the term because I didn??t think my teammates would disrespect me and fail me on my peer evaluation. This was a significant evaluation as it covered my teamwork abilities to my professor. My professor questioned my engagement in the course after receiving that feedback from my peers. I was completely shocked as I take my academics very seriously and I shouldn??t be accused of lack of engagement because my team can??t communicate with me. After reaching out to my group and apologizing for my own actions and taking responsibility for my faults, they abruptly told me they didn??t want to work with me in our final group presentation worth 25% of my mark. They took no responsibility for their own actions after my civil message asking to put our differences aside and work as the team we are. Our final individual paper is a reflection paper on what we learned in the course and from our teammates. It??s hard for me to receive an achieving grade in these last two assignments as I was completely excluded from one, and have no information to provide for the other. I am a determined student and would love to complete this course with a great, deserving mark. However, while this course material surrounds the success of teamwork, it saddens me to say my team unfortunately did not have my best interest at heart which has set me back for my final assignments. The circumstance has not been resolved as my professor told me there is no alternate way I can achieve a successful mark without participating in this final presentation. I would have participated and succeed in this presentation, but my group has already completed this presentation and told me they don??t want me presenting with them, nor will give me credit. I did not ask for credit, or to slap my name on the assignment, I simply asked we all work together and assign parts for us to all inclusively participate on this presentation. It is unfortunate to say that I have fallen behind and not succeeded in this course because of my peers. I am a committed and hard-working student and wish I didn??t have to come to this last resort, however because of the lack of respect my group has shown me, I am appealing to drop this course as my full potential has been ignored. I plan to succeed in my future by focusing on my strengths. My strength is independence and how much more I achieve on my own. I plan to do this by researching courses and their specialties to ensure a course will have my best interest to succeed on individual terms.