Advising

Faculty Senate Petition Support

Faculty Senate petitions are for students who are deserving of amendments to their academic records via retroactive actions, such as retroactive withdrawals or late-drops, retroactive late-adds, or any other retroactive academic administrative actions. In all cases, the petitions must be based on extenuating circumstances outside of the student's control.

Types of Petitions

• Retroactive withdrawal for a past semester (or semesters) CHECKLIST
• Retroactive Late-Drop of a course (or courses) from a current or past semester CHECKLIST
• Other Petition Types

Documents Required for Petitions

• Your letter of explanation (petition letter). Please limit to one page. LETTER LINK
• Documentation to support the retroactive action, such as:
  • Supporting letter(s) on appropriate letterhead or an email from a counselor, academic adviser, instructor/other — preferably not family members or friends
  • Supporting letter on business letterhead for a medical excuse
  • Obituary or other documentation to support a death in the family excuse

• Registrar forms, such as Drop/Add Form or Withdrawal Form.
• Student Aid Form.

Important tenets of a successful petition

• Brevity: concise and brief; grammatical correctness
• Supporting documentation (letters, emails, medical documents, other)
• A viable and reasonable case that is founded on extenuating circumstances outside of your control

Reasons that will jeopardize approval for a petition

• The course was too hard"; "I was not mature enough to appreciate my education"; "I just stopped attending class"; "I don't need this class to graduate"; "this impacted my GPA negatively"; "I need to raise my GPA"
• An excuse for which you have no tangible written proof; a case that is solely about lost scholarship support with no extenuating circumstances present; unjustifiable request for removal of poor work from years past

Acceptable reasons for retroactive requests

• Death in the family
• Personal or family crisis/situation
• Emotional upheaval/breakdown
• Financial worries/burdens
• Illness or disability (either mental or physical)

How to Submit a Petition

Please email all materials to your assigned academic adviser.

DO NOT submit your petition materials directly to the Senate or your petition will be denied.