Petition Letter
To whom it may concern,
February 6th 2019
I am writing this appeal letter to drop a couple courses from my transcript. The courses I would like to drop are: CLST 201, GNDS 125, and ENGL 292 B.
I am appealing to drop the GNDS 125 course I took online over the summer in 2017. At the beginning of this course, there was a technical error with the server and my syllabus was uploaded incorrectly. I had access to another Gender Studies syllabus and as a result, bought the wrong textbook and read the wrong material. I was reading and working on material for a Genders Studies class that was not the class I was enrolled in, and as a result, was failing every assignment. When I emailed my teacher asking her what I was doing wrong and how I could improve, she told me I was using the wrong textbook. This incident was extremely upsetting to me because the error was completely out of my control. It was halfway through the summer when this issue was addressed and she recommended that I appealed to drop the course from my transcript. In our exchange, I sent her screenshots of my laptop screen which showed the course I was enrolled in, and the syllabus for the wrong course. She sent these images to IT and they could not figure out how this error happened. I emailed this professor recently for help in my appeal, and she has forwarded me the exchange when we caught this error. She supports my appeal, and I have attached images of these email exchanges, as well as the screenshot of my OnQ page with the incorrect textbook listed to this document.
When I was enrolled in CLST 201, I was in the second semester of my second year at Queen¿¿s and still was working towards a Classics minor. I have since dropped my Classics minor after deciding that it would be most prudent to pursue English exclusively and only graduate with a major. During this time, I was experiencing the worst bout of depression I have ever experienced personally. While it isn¿¿t something I have an official doctor¿¿s diagnosis for, my family doctor has told me that he predicts it is seasonal affective disorder. To this end, I do have a particularly difficult time managing my work in the winters. This has resulted in my grades slipping in the winters due to my difficulty focusing, lack of motivation to attend class or do my work, and an increased ineffectiveness to retain information I hear in class or teach myself. This did not affect my success in my other English courses because I have always had an easier time grasping literature-based studies. It did not require as much work or effort to learn the material as my Classics course did. That being said, since then I have developed a more acute awareness of the signs and symptoms and have been able to stay on top of it. I no longer fall behind in class, in fact, I am able to maintain my schoolwork, my part-time job, and my job at The Queen¿¿s Journal as assistant arts editor. It seems now, that the more work I have to do, the better I am at finishing it all. Since I was taking this class while I was still pursuing my minor, and I was suffering from my mental health, I am appealing to drop it as it is an inaccurate representation of my abilities and my academic focus.
Lastly, I would like to appeal to drop ENGL 292 B. This course was a full year course and it was marked majorly on our attendance. This was a detail shared to the class in the first week of September. I missed this week, as well as many other classes in September because I was sick with a throat and sinus cold. When I returned to class in late September, early October, I was not aware of this requirement and was already behind in crucial attendance grades. Throughout the year, I missed classes but kept up on my course readings. I was not under the impression that I was falling behind. The attendance requirement was 20, which is an absurd percentage of our grade to be devoted to merely our availability. If I had been graded on my work and my participation in class, I would have passed, but when I spoke with my professor, he said that I had missed too many classes to pass the course at all, there was no option for me to repair the damage. This was a class designed to set students up for failure, and considering I was a working student with a part-time job for the first semester of this course, I was not as available for a class as other students may have been. I am appealing to drop this course because the grade I received does not reflect my academic performance, but rather it penalizes me for being sick with a throat and sinus cold, and for being a student in need of working a part-time job to pay to attend this class in the first place.
These three classes are the worst representations of my academic career, and for the reasons I have outlined above, I am appealing to drop them. I would like the opportunity to graduate from Queen¿¿s University with a GPA accumulated through courses that accurately represent the hard work that I have done here and the classes which have shaped me. The courses I am appealing to drop are in no way indicative of the quality of the education I have received otherwise, and they are exceptions to the excellent experiences I have had in my other courses. These three courses did not contribute to my education, nor did they reflect the standard of academics expected by so many people from Queen¿¿s University. I sincerely hope that you see reason in my request to drop these courses, and allow me the opportunity to graduate with a more respectable reflection of my time here.
Thank you sincerely from,
Brittany Giliforte
February 6th 2019
I am writing this appeal letter to drop a couple courses from my transcript. The courses I would like to drop are: CLST 201, GNDS 125, and ENGL 292 B.
I am appealing to drop the GNDS 125 course I took online over the summer in 2017. At the beginning of this course, there was a technical error with the server and my syllabus was uploaded incorrectly. I had access to another Gender Studies syllabus and as a result, bought the wrong textbook and read the wrong material. I was reading and working on material for a Genders Studies class that was not the class I was enrolled in, and as a result, was failing every assignment. When I emailed my teacher asking her what I was doing wrong and how I could improve, she told me I was using the wrong textbook. This incident was extremely upsetting to me because the error was completely out of my control. It was halfway through the summer when this issue was addressed and she recommended that I appealed to drop the course from my transcript. In our exchange, I sent her screenshots of my laptop screen which showed the course I was enrolled in, and the syllabus for the wrong course. She sent these images to IT and they could not figure out how this error happened. I emailed this professor recently for help in my appeal, and she has forwarded me the exchange when we caught this error. She supports my appeal, and I have attached images of these email exchanges, as well as the screenshot of my OnQ page with the incorrect textbook listed to this document.
When I was enrolled in CLST 201, I was in the second semester of my second year at Queen¿¿s and still was working towards a Classics minor. I have since dropped my Classics minor after deciding that it would be most prudent to pursue English exclusively and only graduate with a major. During this time, I was experiencing the worst bout of depression I have ever experienced personally. While it isn¿¿t something I have an official doctor¿¿s diagnosis for, my family doctor has told me that he predicts it is seasonal affective disorder. To this end, I do have a particularly difficult time managing my work in the winters. This has resulted in my grades slipping in the winters due to my difficulty focusing, lack of motivation to attend class or do my work, and an increased ineffectiveness to retain information I hear in class or teach myself. This did not affect my success in my other English courses because I have always had an easier time grasping literature-based studies. It did not require as much work or effort to learn the material as my Classics course did. That being said, since then I have developed a more acute awareness of the signs and symptoms and have been able to stay on top of it. I no longer fall behind in class, in fact, I am able to maintain my schoolwork, my part-time job, and my job at The Queen¿¿s Journal as assistant arts editor. It seems now, that the more work I have to do, the better I am at finishing it all. Since I was taking this class while I was still pursuing my minor, and I was suffering from my mental health, I am appealing to drop it as it is an inaccurate representation of my abilities and my academic focus.
Lastly, I would like to appeal to drop ENGL 292 B. This course was a full year course and it was marked majorly on our attendance. This was a detail shared to the class in the first week of September. I missed this week, as well as many other classes in September because I was sick with a throat and sinus cold. When I returned to class in late September, early October, I was not aware of this requirement and was already behind in crucial attendance grades. Throughout the year, I missed classes but kept up on my course readings. I was not under the impression that I was falling behind. The attendance requirement was 20, which is an absurd percentage of our grade to be devoted to merely our availability. If I had been graded on my work and my participation in class, I would have passed, but when I spoke with my professor, he said that I had missed too many classes to pass the course at all, there was no option for me to repair the damage. This was a class designed to set students up for failure, and considering I was a working student with a part-time job for the first semester of this course, I was not as available for a class as other students may have been. I am appealing to drop this course because the grade I received does not reflect my academic performance, but rather it penalizes me for being sick with a throat and sinus cold, and for being a student in need of working a part-time job to pay to attend this class in the first place.
These three classes are the worst representations of my academic career, and for the reasons I have outlined above, I am appealing to drop them. I would like the opportunity to graduate from Queen¿¿s University with a GPA accumulated through courses that accurately represent the hard work that I have done here and the classes which have shaped me. The courses I am appealing to drop are in no way indicative of the quality of the education I have received otherwise, and they are exceptions to the excellent experiences I have had in my other courses. These three courses did not contribute to my education, nor did they reflect the standard of academics expected by so many people from Queen¿¿s University. I sincerely hope that you see reason in my request to drop these courses, and allow me the opportunity to graduate with a more respectable reflection of my time here.
Thank you sincerely from,
Brittany Giliforte