In order for the Committee to agree to review any retroactive withdrawal request past the one-year deadline, the student will need to clearly explain and fully document why they could not comply with filing a petition within the one-year deadline. Not knowing there was a deadline or not being on campus is not a persuasive argument.
Contact the Office of Institutional Equity (OIE) at 520-621-9449, equity@arizona.edu; located at:
University Services Building (USB) Room, 203
Tucson, AZ 85721-0021
There is no set length of time. Once the petition is received in the General Petitions Office, it will be reviewed to make sure that all the necessary documentation is attached (Is the petition form signed? Are all the required instructor statement forms included, did the Dean's Office sign the petition, etc.). If anything is missing the student will be contacted. Other departments or offices at the University may be contacted for additional information if the student mentions them but does not include any information for the Committee (e.g. If the student says in his/her statement, "My advisor told me not to drop the course during the semester", the advisor might be contacted to verify this or provide additional information.)
Once the petition seems complete, it is routed to each Committee member, individually, for his/her review and vote. The committee member can request additional information if they have questions. A petition needs 3 of 5 agreeing votes for there to be a final decision. Each reader takes a different amount of time depending, in part, on how many petitions they are reviewing at once, time of the semester, etc.
Students intending to submit a petition for more than one semester should provide a personal statement for each term to explain how the extenuating circumstances affected the student’s academic performance in that term. Supporting documentation should be specific to each term of the petition but if the support documentation applies to both semesters, they do not need to be duplicated.
For online medical petitions, all submissions require the submission of a personal statement and the medical provider form for each term. The medical provider form may include multiple terms, and can be used in separate petition submissions, but must include dates of treatment or onset that reflect the terms requested.
The Online Retroactive Medical Withdrawal for medical reasons (the student’s medical reasons, no one else’s) is available on UAccess Student Center.
Students can submit the Petition for Retroactive Academic Withdrawal form for sex-based harassment or discrimination by emailing a completed form to equity@arizona.edu. Students can contact the Office of Institutional Equity (OIE) at 520-621-9449
Use the General Petition form for all other requests to waive University Academic Policy.
While many student petitions have some merit, University policy, precedent, or a lack of convincing evidence might justify denying the request. The following are some of the factors that influence Committee decisions:
- The student is ultimately responsible for knowing and following University policies and procedures.
- The student has the responsibility to meet deadlines and to check for errors in course registration in a timely fashion. Demonstrating that this responsibility has been satisfied, or alternatively, that the petitioner could not possibly satisfy the responsibility, weighs heavily with the committee.
- The committee rarely intervenes in situations where individual Colleges can act to remedy a situation.
- The committee will act on the basis of the materials presented. In some cases, the committee cannot grant the request because of missing materials.
If your petition is denied, you may make an appointment to meet with the co-chair of the Committee for additional explanation or clarification of the petition decision. After meeting with the co-chair, petitions may be resubmitted for reconsideration but this is not likely to result in a changed verdict unless the student has something new to add or new documentation that the committee has not seen and should take into account. New information must be submitted in order for a petition to be reconsidered. Meeting with the co-chair does not mean the decision will be overturned.