Petition Letter
I am appealing various things below. Firstly, I am appealing to extend the 21 day deadline to 22 days due to poor mental health as a result of various things. Secondly, I am appealing the decision by my professor and thirdly the sanctions he choose.
Firstly, I was handed an academic integrity departure slip on January 6, 2020. I was given 21 days to appeal however due to poor mental state due to various things I was only able to appeal today, 22 days after the notice.
I have struggled mentally throughout this pandemic in many ways. Firstly, with stress from school work my body and mind have been destroyed as I tried to maintain my high grades with little interaction between professors and TA's. I managed this through working harder than I have in any previous year and finish successfully in my work. When I was given notice I broke integrity, which I didn't, I was mentally broken. This occurred on the 28th, and I struggled to even get an appeal in to my professor on time, as I felt like the system had betrayed me. I worked so hard all year only to be accused of cheating on the exam and threatened with a zero. After my initial appeal, and I saw I was given a zero, I broke down further. Seeing the impact it had on my GPA and mark, felt like I was given the short end of the stick forever, and that one false accusation would ruin my future. I lost 2 job interview as my GPA fell below the required 3.7 both companies had and I lost motivation for work and to even get this appeal off. I have battled back mentally this last week, reaching out to friends I'd lost contact with through the pandemic and talking to grads about how to cope with lower GPA's in the current job market due to covid. Hearing from others and expressing my concerns and just having the ability to talk has helped me recover to an extent and get this appeal in. During my meeting with my professor he told me he showed it to other professors as well and they said my appeal was a lost cause, which made me lose all hope. I realized to stay happy I have to stick to my morals and guns always and thus an appealing anyway. Hopefully due to these reasons I will be allowed to appeal a day late.
I am appealing my professor's, Brian Ling's, decision to deem my actions during the final exam of Stat 268 as a breach in academic integrity. He deemed the following The answers are similar to those on Chegg, including some unnecessary steps and change of notation. It is highly unlikely to be a coincidence. I firmly believe this was a coincidence and expressed my reasoning in a PDF appeal to him on Jan 4th (it is 4 pages long and thus can't be written here). It argued my case in 3 ways, logistically, my story and logically. Logistically I don't have Chegg and never have. My story, I expressed how I came to conclusions and what were my reasons for certain actions. Logically, I had a 3.74 GPA and a 90+ entering this course, what reason was there for me to risk academic integrity after all the work I had put in. More so, the exam was worth 40 of my mark, these 2 questions represented less than 20 of the exam, and I entered with approximately a 94, it was and never would be worth the risk.
In addition, to the PDF I had the opportunity to talk with my professor about the incident and could not convince him differently. I found the material within my notes, the specific breach was about a specific question which was a proof of sorts. I had in my notes a copy of the same proof in a general state, and used this to apply it the the specific question. I was informed this proof wasn't in the OnQ notes. During my online school I have disconnected from learning from professors as I only learn from their notes. This means I do lots of outside research as I love math, and did for this course as well. I'm a strong student, so I talk strong notes and have over 20pages of handwritten notes, much of which is personal research in regards to topic, I used this research to succeed on the assignments. It just happened that the research I had within my notes, which was derived from online sources, was used by someone to answer a question in a similar format to what I did.
It is a coincidence and I am adamant I did not breach any academic integrity as I took my own notes to answer a question on an open-book exam. It just happened to be similar to that of one found online and cost me my grade, my academic integrity history and my mental academic state as I lost faith in the system.
Secondly, if this coincidence proves to be too much to overturn, as can be the case in life. Despite not breaking integrity, if I am deemed to, I believe the sanctions too great. As mentioned above the question at fault was less than 20, of a 40 exam in a course I entered with a 94. I don't believe it is fair for me to get a zero on the exam, for an act I didn't do. Looking at it on a greater scale, this zero, brings my mark from A+ to a D, which in turns destroys my GPA I worked hard for during my other courses. This feels very unfair and punishes me far too greatly for an act I didn't do, and is just a coincidence.
I hope my appeal is accepted and I have the chance to argue my case further. In addition, I would like to find a way to get my previous appeal to the Associate Dean, as it goes further into my actions and story.
Firstly, I was handed an academic integrity departure slip on January 6, 2020. I was given 21 days to appeal however due to poor mental state due to various things I was only able to appeal today, 22 days after the notice.
I have struggled mentally throughout this pandemic in many ways. Firstly, with stress from school work my body and mind have been destroyed as I tried to maintain my high grades with little interaction between professors and TA's. I managed this through working harder than I have in any previous year and finish successfully in my work. When I was given notice I broke integrity, which I didn't, I was mentally broken. This occurred on the 28th, and I struggled to even get an appeal in to my professor on time, as I felt like the system had betrayed me. I worked so hard all year only to be accused of cheating on the exam and threatened with a zero. After my initial appeal, and I saw I was given a zero, I broke down further. Seeing the impact it had on my GPA and mark, felt like I was given the short end of the stick forever, and that one false accusation would ruin my future. I lost 2 job interview as my GPA fell below the required 3.7 both companies had and I lost motivation for work and to even get this appeal off. I have battled back mentally this last week, reaching out to friends I'd lost contact with through the pandemic and talking to grads about how to cope with lower GPA's in the current job market due to covid. Hearing from others and expressing my concerns and just having the ability to talk has helped me recover to an extent and get this appeal in. During my meeting with my professor he told me he showed it to other professors as well and they said my appeal was a lost cause, which made me lose all hope. I realized to stay happy I have to stick to my morals and guns always and thus an appealing anyway. Hopefully due to these reasons I will be allowed to appeal a day late.
I am appealing my professor's, Brian Ling's, decision to deem my actions during the final exam of Stat 268 as a breach in academic integrity. He deemed the following The answers are similar to those on Chegg, including some unnecessary steps and change of notation. It is highly unlikely to be a coincidence. I firmly believe this was a coincidence and expressed my reasoning in a PDF appeal to him on Jan 4th (it is 4 pages long and thus can't be written here). It argued my case in 3 ways, logistically, my story and logically. Logistically I don't have Chegg and never have. My story, I expressed how I came to conclusions and what were my reasons for certain actions. Logically, I had a 3.74 GPA and a 90+ entering this course, what reason was there for me to risk academic integrity after all the work I had put in. More so, the exam was worth 40 of my mark, these 2 questions represented less than 20 of the exam, and I entered with approximately a 94, it was and never would be worth the risk.
In addition, to the PDF I had the opportunity to talk with my professor about the incident and could not convince him differently. I found the material within my notes, the specific breach was about a specific question which was a proof of sorts. I had in my notes a copy of the same proof in a general state, and used this to apply it the the specific question. I was informed this proof wasn't in the OnQ notes. During my online school I have disconnected from learning from professors as I only learn from their notes. This means I do lots of outside research as I love math, and did for this course as well. I'm a strong student, so I talk strong notes and have over 20pages of handwritten notes, much of which is personal research in regards to topic, I used this research to succeed on the assignments. It just happened that the research I had within my notes, which was derived from online sources, was used by someone to answer a question in a similar format to what I did.
It is a coincidence and I am adamant I did not breach any academic integrity as I took my own notes to answer a question on an open-book exam. It just happened to be similar to that of one found online and cost me my grade, my academic integrity history and my mental academic state as I lost faith in the system.
Secondly, if this coincidence proves to be too much to overturn, as can be the case in life. Despite not breaking integrity, if I am deemed to, I believe the sanctions too great. As mentioned above the question at fault was less than 20, of a 40 exam in a course I entered with a 94. I don't believe it is fair for me to get a zero on the exam, for an act I didn't do. Looking at it on a greater scale, this zero, brings my mark from A+ to a D, which in turns destroys my GPA I worked hard for during my other courses. This feels very unfair and punishes me far too greatly for an act I didn't do, and is just a coincidence.
I hope my appeal is accepted and I have the chance to argue my case further. In addition, I would like to find a way to get my previous appeal to the Associate Dean, as it goes further into my actions and story.