Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Shome Roy
July 13th, 2022

To the associate dean;

I write this letter today for the appeal to drop MATH 112, (Winter 2021), taught by Kaveh Mousavand.

This semester has been extremely difficult for me, for many reasons. While dealing with many personal issues, my parents had to go to Bangladesh for an urgent matter, leaving me home with my little sister. This meant that I had to learn remotely, which was not any easy process by any means. I was continuously neglected by my instructors as the school made it mandatory to come back for in-person classes, when this was genuinely impossible for me. Whilst managing my heavy course load and watching my younger sister, it was extremely difficult for me to balance everything which truly led my grades to drop. Math 112 is one course where I struggled the most - as I got little to no accommodation as I was unable to go to in-person lectures for extra help, and my emails were never responded to. During the exam period, I caught covid-19. This exam was on April 25th, and I tested positive a few days prior to this, so I had to defer this exam. With COVID and all the other stress I was put under, I was not able to study efficiently by any means, and I needed to pass this course. It has been so tough for me to keep up with the content as I missed all those in-person lectures, and only received the bare minimum notes. I stand here asking for an academic appeal to drop this course after the desired date, as I truly cannot accept a fail for this course as it has been so hard for me under these conditions. I tried so hard in all my courses, just to maintain a passing grade, but this course was extremely hard for me to do with my circumstances. This course in particular had brought many challenges over my other courses as it involved a lot of in-person participation, and interaction. From my knowledge, the lectures were extremely interactive with the students, allowing them to actively engage and ask questions. While learning remotely, I felt neglected as I felt like I was constantly learning all the content by myself. Furthermore, I was only given basic notes about the lectures but nothing in depth, which really made it difficult for me to interpret the content. My other courses were a lot more accessible; and learning in these courses was much easier for me. I was not able to drop this course before the deadline as the family emergency occurred well after the final deadline, which left me in a troubled position.
My appeal can truly benefit my future studies in various ways. I look to start my second year of university on a clean slate, and a Fail on my transcript worries me deeply. I plan to thoroughly select my course; and I have spoken with my parents on how to further support me if something like this ever happens again. I really do strive for academic excellence, and I plan on doing my absolute best to achieve this.