Petition Letter
To Whom It May Concern,
My name is Tatyana Gudge and I am in my fourth year of studies at Queen¿¿s University with a major in Political Studies. I am appealing my POLS 434 final grade of B+ as the mark I received is inaccurate of the content I produced within the course and in addition feel as though the instructor Maria Krausse was biased against me. I reached out to her several times and she decided not to address each of my concerns and decided that she would not change my mark. Due to the fact that I have a scholarship to maintain here at Queen¿¿s as well as the fact that I have applied to law schools this year I found this grade extremely detrimental to my future. I had to submit my grades to law schools by February 1st in order to be considered for admission and while I understand the appeal process is lengthy I ask that precedent will be given to review my case so that if a change is granted I can inform the law schools I am seeking admission from.
I took the course Multiculturalism because I was not only interested in the course outline and content but because I could relate to a lot of the material being someone who is a minority at Queen¿¿s University. I was excited to engage in class material as I had never been enrolled in a class that focused on minorities and our experiences within Canada and through my own family immigrating to the country and my personal experiences being a black woman in Canada I was particularly drawn to the course.
I will begin by outlining each of my concerns in order to highlight the issues that I have run into during this course. To begin, I will discuss the participation grade I received - if my grades are examined you can see that evidently I have always received an A- or higher in each of classes for the participation component of the class. In this seminar I spoke at great lengths to provide insight and connections to readings and course objectives. I showed up to every class and always came prepared and ready to engage with my fellow classmates. As a student of colour I found that unlike with other courses I was able not only to engage with class material but also with my own personal experiences sometimes being ¿othered¿¿ at school or not fitting in with the majority groups and my mental health has suffered at times due to this. I challenged myself and offered personal connections and discussed topics that had affected me deeply. Halfway through the course my midterm participation grade was updated and displayed a 76 percent. I reached out to the course instructor Maria to find out if that was a final grade because I was shocked initially. At no time did she say that I should have been doing anything differently or change any aspects of my participation in class and reassured me that it was simply a midterm participation mark and nothing to worry about as it was not a final mark. After the course Maria closed the OnQ page and there were no marks to display except for the final grade posting on solus. I reached out to obtain a grade breakdown and she informed me of my updated participation grade of 78 percent. I was extremely confused and she claimed that the mark of 78 was high enough because I had failed to post in the online discussion section of the OnQ page. During the syllabus week of classes I raised my hand and asked if the discussions were mandatory because she had said they were for students who did not talk as much in class so they could get some of their participation grade from that as they would be talking less. She did not make it clear and that is evident by the sheer number of students who wrote in the online discussions section. If I had known the discussions were such a large component that would change my participation mark from a A level to a B I surely would have taken the time to post in the discussions but despite the syllabus she distinctly said that it was for those students who did not talk as much. We talked about online discussions once in class and when talking to other students nobody believed that the online discussions were imperative to a participation grade and she failed to make this clear or reiterate to the class or when I discussed my participation grade with her she did not tell me this was something I should be focused on to get it to the next level. When I emailed her to make this clear she said she would raise my participation but only to an 82 and believed it was ¿generous¿¿ but it would not improve my grade. I am not sure if she had a biased against me but as a student of colour at a mostly white school and being the only person of colour in most of my seminars and even at lectures at times I was extremely saddened to see my grade be so low for a class that I put a high level of time into and finally had a chance to connect to.
Secondly, we had three critical reflections to complete over the course of the ten weeks of class. The objective was to engage with class material and to pose a discussion question and draw themes between each of that week¿¿s readings. I am not the type of person to leave things to the last minute so I completed the reflections relatively early. I decided that I would wait to see my first grade before writing the next assignment as I had never received a grade in her class. My first grade was a 78 and I was disappointed as I really tried to engage with class material ¿¿ however, after reading the comments I realized that my grade was lower because of the fact that I did not include a question which was an error on my end. I realized that was my mistake and I did speak to her after class briefly where she agreed that adding a question was imperative to my grade and I believed that it would get my next reflection to the A level. However, after handing in the next two reflections I received the same grades even though I followed the same structures and made sure to include questions yet attained the same grade. I emailed Maria expressing my concerns for the marks I received and also spoke to her after the first critical reflection although she claimed that I failed to reach out to improve my grade. An instructors comments should always aid the student for improvement especially when it is not a full year course. In her emails she took a tone that suggested if I had come to see her earlier on how to improve she would have changed my mark or given me a higher grade. I asked questions within class, spoke to her after receiving my first assignment and further reached out on email. I am not sure what else I could have done to improve my stance and why she arbitrarily gave me specific grades.
The next assignment was a research presentation. As with most presentations I put in a significant amount of work because it would be executed in front of the whole class. I was extremely interested in the research paper because I had the opportunity to focus on Muslim immigrants integration into Canada. I chose this focus because of the fact that a lot of my family is from Sudan where Islam is practiced and when integrating to Canada being a person of colour and being a Muslim poses a double barrier to society. Because a presentation along with my participation is going to be based on my account and her account I am taking the time to address her presentation comments which is something that she failed to respond to in her emails. I attained a 76 and grades should in no way shape or form be compared to classmates but in discussing with some peers some of which who read of a sheet of paper many received the same grade as me. I looked to her comments yet again to understand why I didn¿¿t receive a higher grade. I was extremely frustrated and disheartened reading her presentation comments because it seemed as though she hardly listened to my presentation. She claimed that I should ¿¿justify why religion is important to the study of multiculturalism¿ which I did during my presentation on my second slide. She also claimed I did not outline what values I would be assessing for the paper. This again frustrated me because I explained the values I would be looking at and what research methods I would use to do so. Although I addressed why I decided to discuss Muslim immigrants integration to Canada she asked why I did not talked about Christian or Jewish faiths. Other than the fact that it was my presentation and focus, I discussed why I particularly focused on Muslim women veiling and short of telling her my family are black Muslim immigrants I am not sure what else I was supposed to do. It was the lowest grade I received in the class and her comments did not reflect content of my presentation accurately in the least.
Moving on to my final essay. I would appreciate if this could be revised by another teaching assistant or the person evaluating my case as the grading in this seems grossly unfair. I received high levels on the rubrics except for the thesis and research question where I somehow attained level 1¿¿s. If there is no thesis or research question there is simply no paper. I am in my fourth year of studies I have written countless essays in Political Studies it would be somewhat concerning if I did not know how to outline those two crucial components in a research paper. I did outline those objectives in the introduction and methodology sections of my paper and later in our emails she claims that I missed strong support for my thesis. This contradicts her original statements and I also am unsure of how a paper could even be completed or reach a 78 percent if there was no support for a thesis. The grading seems subjective and relative to fit into whatever she deems correct but when looking at the essay I was unable to understand her justification yet again.
When I assessed all of my grades it became evident that I always achieved high 70¿¿s but never attained an A once in the entire class. Being off of about one two or three percent with each and every assignment. I reached out to her before the course final grade because I had law school and a scholarship with Queen¿¿s to keep in mind and she never reached out to me again. I just had to see the final mark being a B+ with no final paper grade and when I went to the course it was closed. I tried to discuss my grades and reasoning with her as I was really unsure of why she would grade me this way in comparison to classmates or solely on the content that I produced. I enjoyed the class but it seemed as though she had a dislike or biased towards me for whatever reason. There were two other black students in the class and one of which who also had some issues with her as well. I would never insinuate that a seminar leader instructing on Multiculturalism would have bias with race but I do not believe I was supported in this class or accurately treated fairly in terms of grades in relation to my white peers. As a black student at Queen¿¿s University who has had to strive to work extremely hard to occupy spaces in which the dominant groups at the institution get handed I try to work hard for each grade and class I am in. Multiculturalism is part of my life and I have worked hard at Queen¿¿s to even change perceptions on race and inclusion in my time with the AMS. I tried to connect with this class even though some topics were difficult for me to talk about given the fact that I have felt what a lot of the authors had discussed and have had extremely negative experiences and suffered in silence at times. I am not sure if my race had something to do with this but I truly do not believe that this grade is reflective of the content I produced in POLS 434. Thank you in advance for your time and consideration on this matter.
Best,
Tatyana G.
My name is Tatyana Gudge and I am in my fourth year of studies at Queen¿¿s University with a major in Political Studies. I am appealing my POLS 434 final grade of B+ as the mark I received is inaccurate of the content I produced within the course and in addition feel as though the instructor Maria Krausse was biased against me. I reached out to her several times and she decided not to address each of my concerns and decided that she would not change my mark. Due to the fact that I have a scholarship to maintain here at Queen¿¿s as well as the fact that I have applied to law schools this year I found this grade extremely detrimental to my future. I had to submit my grades to law schools by February 1st in order to be considered for admission and while I understand the appeal process is lengthy I ask that precedent will be given to review my case so that if a change is granted I can inform the law schools I am seeking admission from.
I took the course Multiculturalism because I was not only interested in the course outline and content but because I could relate to a lot of the material being someone who is a minority at Queen¿¿s University. I was excited to engage in class material as I had never been enrolled in a class that focused on minorities and our experiences within Canada and through my own family immigrating to the country and my personal experiences being a black woman in Canada I was particularly drawn to the course.
I will begin by outlining each of my concerns in order to highlight the issues that I have run into during this course. To begin, I will discuss the participation grade I received - if my grades are examined you can see that evidently I have always received an A- or higher in each of classes for the participation component of the class. In this seminar I spoke at great lengths to provide insight and connections to readings and course objectives. I showed up to every class and always came prepared and ready to engage with my fellow classmates. As a student of colour I found that unlike with other courses I was able not only to engage with class material but also with my own personal experiences sometimes being ¿othered¿¿ at school or not fitting in with the majority groups and my mental health has suffered at times due to this. I challenged myself and offered personal connections and discussed topics that had affected me deeply. Halfway through the course my midterm participation grade was updated and displayed a 76 percent. I reached out to the course instructor Maria to find out if that was a final grade because I was shocked initially. At no time did she say that I should have been doing anything differently or change any aspects of my participation in class and reassured me that it was simply a midterm participation mark and nothing to worry about as it was not a final mark. After the course Maria closed the OnQ page and there were no marks to display except for the final grade posting on solus. I reached out to obtain a grade breakdown and she informed me of my updated participation grade of 78 percent. I was extremely confused and she claimed that the mark of 78 was high enough because I had failed to post in the online discussion section of the OnQ page. During the syllabus week of classes I raised my hand and asked if the discussions were mandatory because she had said they were for students who did not talk as much in class so they could get some of their participation grade from that as they would be talking less. She did not make it clear and that is evident by the sheer number of students who wrote in the online discussions section. If I had known the discussions were such a large component that would change my participation mark from a A level to a B I surely would have taken the time to post in the discussions but despite the syllabus she distinctly said that it was for those students who did not talk as much. We talked about online discussions once in class and when talking to other students nobody believed that the online discussions were imperative to a participation grade and she failed to make this clear or reiterate to the class or when I discussed my participation grade with her she did not tell me this was something I should be focused on to get it to the next level. When I emailed her to make this clear she said she would raise my participation but only to an 82 and believed it was ¿generous¿¿ but it would not improve my grade. I am not sure if she had a biased against me but as a student of colour at a mostly white school and being the only person of colour in most of my seminars and even at lectures at times I was extremely saddened to see my grade be so low for a class that I put a high level of time into and finally had a chance to connect to.
Secondly, we had three critical reflections to complete over the course of the ten weeks of class. The objective was to engage with class material and to pose a discussion question and draw themes between each of that week¿¿s readings. I am not the type of person to leave things to the last minute so I completed the reflections relatively early. I decided that I would wait to see my first grade before writing the next assignment as I had never received a grade in her class. My first grade was a 78 and I was disappointed as I really tried to engage with class material ¿¿ however, after reading the comments I realized that my grade was lower because of the fact that I did not include a question which was an error on my end. I realized that was my mistake and I did speak to her after class briefly where she agreed that adding a question was imperative to my grade and I believed that it would get my next reflection to the A level. However, after handing in the next two reflections I received the same grades even though I followed the same structures and made sure to include questions yet attained the same grade. I emailed Maria expressing my concerns for the marks I received and also spoke to her after the first critical reflection although she claimed that I failed to reach out to improve my grade. An instructors comments should always aid the student for improvement especially when it is not a full year course. In her emails she took a tone that suggested if I had come to see her earlier on how to improve she would have changed my mark or given me a higher grade. I asked questions within class, spoke to her after receiving my first assignment and further reached out on email. I am not sure what else I could have done to improve my stance and why she arbitrarily gave me specific grades.
The next assignment was a research presentation. As with most presentations I put in a significant amount of work because it would be executed in front of the whole class. I was extremely interested in the research paper because I had the opportunity to focus on Muslim immigrants integration into Canada. I chose this focus because of the fact that a lot of my family is from Sudan where Islam is practiced and when integrating to Canada being a person of colour and being a Muslim poses a double barrier to society. Because a presentation along with my participation is going to be based on my account and her account I am taking the time to address her presentation comments which is something that she failed to respond to in her emails. I attained a 76 and grades should in no way shape or form be compared to classmates but in discussing with some peers some of which who read of a sheet of paper many received the same grade as me. I looked to her comments yet again to understand why I didn¿¿t receive a higher grade. I was extremely frustrated and disheartened reading her presentation comments because it seemed as though she hardly listened to my presentation. She claimed that I should ¿¿justify why religion is important to the study of multiculturalism¿ which I did during my presentation on my second slide. She also claimed I did not outline what values I would be assessing for the paper. This again frustrated me because I explained the values I would be looking at and what research methods I would use to do so. Although I addressed why I decided to discuss Muslim immigrants integration to Canada she asked why I did not talked about Christian or Jewish faiths. Other than the fact that it was my presentation and focus, I discussed why I particularly focused on Muslim women veiling and short of telling her my family are black Muslim immigrants I am not sure what else I was supposed to do. It was the lowest grade I received in the class and her comments did not reflect content of my presentation accurately in the least.
Moving on to my final essay. I would appreciate if this could be revised by another teaching assistant or the person evaluating my case as the grading in this seems grossly unfair. I received high levels on the rubrics except for the thesis and research question where I somehow attained level 1¿¿s. If there is no thesis or research question there is simply no paper. I am in my fourth year of studies I have written countless essays in Political Studies it would be somewhat concerning if I did not know how to outline those two crucial components in a research paper. I did outline those objectives in the introduction and methodology sections of my paper and later in our emails she claims that I missed strong support for my thesis. This contradicts her original statements and I also am unsure of how a paper could even be completed or reach a 78 percent if there was no support for a thesis. The grading seems subjective and relative to fit into whatever she deems correct but when looking at the essay I was unable to understand her justification yet again.
When I assessed all of my grades it became evident that I always achieved high 70¿¿s but never attained an A once in the entire class. Being off of about one two or three percent with each and every assignment. I reached out to her before the course final grade because I had law school and a scholarship with Queen¿¿s to keep in mind and she never reached out to me again. I just had to see the final mark being a B+ with no final paper grade and when I went to the course it was closed. I tried to discuss my grades and reasoning with her as I was really unsure of why she would grade me this way in comparison to classmates or solely on the content that I produced. I enjoyed the class but it seemed as though she had a dislike or biased towards me for whatever reason. There were two other black students in the class and one of which who also had some issues with her as well. I would never insinuate that a seminar leader instructing on Multiculturalism would have bias with race but I do not believe I was supported in this class or accurately treated fairly in terms of grades in relation to my white peers. As a black student at Queen¿¿s University who has had to strive to work extremely hard to occupy spaces in which the dominant groups at the institution get handed I try to work hard for each grade and class I am in. Multiculturalism is part of my life and I have worked hard at Queen¿¿s to even change perceptions on race and inclusion in my time with the AMS. I tried to connect with this class even though some topics were difficult for me to talk about given the fact that I have felt what a lot of the authors had discussed and have had extremely negative experiences and suffered in silence at times. I am not sure if my race had something to do with this but I truly do not believe that this grade is reflective of the content I produced in POLS 434. Thank you in advance for your time and consideration on this matter.
Best,
Tatyana G.