Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Nicole Tomei 20226894
April 4, 2022

Associate Dean Jenn Stephenson
Faculty of Arts and Science, Queen's University

Dear Associate Dean Stephenson,

I am writing to request that the C+ grade achieved in ANAT215 during the first term of 2021/2022 year be received as a credit so as not to affect my future, post-graduate prospects. I understand that I am responsible for my performance and grades achieved, however, there were a number of extenuating circumstances that I believe are fair grounds to appeal this singular poor grade obtained to date in my academic career.

I kindly ask the faculty to consider the following explanation of circumstances that have affected my studies:
I was unable to attend several labs due to illness. I was diagnosed with strep throat at the end of September and developed the flu right after. This severely affected my ability to study and attend labs for 2 weeks. For anatomy, hands-on experience is highly beneficial ?? if not required, for a thorough understanding of course material. At the beginning of the semester, Dr. MacKenzie (professor of
ANAT215) emphasized the importance of students attending labs so that their marks do not suffer. I believe Dr. MacKenzie worded it as ??extremely difficult to appreciate the histology and gross anatomy of the content without hands-on experiences with the cadavers and museum specimens?. I am unable to get the physical proof of this advice as the class is now closed, though contacting Dr. Mackenzie directly would prove this. An extenuating circumstance request for a different class further details the illness. Though I am unable to find the record of this, the request was processed and should be available to faculty. These missed weeks affected anatomy more than other in person courses because this was the only class that offered in person labs for this term. Understanding lecture material for my other courses was attainable with all lectures recorded, however, anatomy had 10-20 minute voice recordings, though no actual recorded lectures. If I were able to attend all in person labs and lectures, I feel as though my mark would not have been impacted throughout the first term. Furthermore, I believe the workload of catching up on two week??s worth of material impacted my overall performance in the class and resulted in poor marks in the course.
I also reached out to student wellness regarding a mental health diagnosis that would provide some accommodations to lighten the mental load of school. However, school was so overwhelming that I was unable to follow through with booking a triage appointment and breaks were spent catching up on missed material. After attempting to catch up on the missed school work, obtaining lower marks in the course, and experiencing higher than usual test anxiety, I worked to improve my performance in school. Unfortunately, my efforts did not yield the expected outcome. Please see the attached documents below as evidence of the above.

In summary, I kindly request the faculty to uphold my appeal in obtaining a credit for ANAT 215 so that the grade does not affect my culminating GPA and future prospects.

Best regards,
Nicole Tomei

Documents

1: Email interactions with Student Wellness regarding a mental health diagnosis for anxiety that would provide appropriate accommodations.


2: Prescription dated September 27, 2021 of Amoxicillin for strep throat. I unfortunately have no contact with the doctor that prescribed the amoxicillin as it was a randomly assigned doctor through an online system, and so a doctor's note is unattainable.


3: Attendance record of the Queen??s Women??s Squash team practices by head coach Lisa Coates. Note the missing dates after illness. Feel free to contact Lisa to verify.