SAS advisors are available to advise you on the submission of petitions or appeals. You should review the online information about petitions or appeals before meeting with an advisor.
To schedule an advising appointment please contact the Science Academic Services (SAS) office.
Petitions
Petitioning is a process by which a student, with compelling and well documented reasons, requests exemption from some academic rule or regulation of the Faculty. Petitioning is an exceptional process rather than a normal one. Students are expected to abide by the rules and regulations of the Faculty and it is only under extremely compelling circumstances that a student should petition.
Petitions are considered by a panel that typically consists of two or three professors and often one student. They decide, based on the evidence presented, information from other involved parties, and the student’s academic record, whether to grant or deny the petition.
Petitions are required to be submitted in a timely fashion. Different types of petitions have different deadlines. In general, if a student does not petition by the required deadline but still wishes to do so, the first step of the petition is to request, with strong and well documented reasons, that the deadline be waived.
A decision of the Petitions panel may be appealed to the Appeals Committee based on new evidence or procedural irregularity.
Appeals
Decisions of the Petitions Committee, and of Departmental level decisions related to grade reappraisal, may be appealed to the Appeals Committee. You may do so on grounds of new evidence that you could not reasonably be expected to have had at the time of the original petition, or on grounds of procedural irregularity.