At the beginning of the spring semester, I discovered a non-prerequisite class I took last semester gave me an F. I was shocked as I had not received any notifications about it, until I checked my transcript. This class has very few elements in terms of evaluation (<5 homework assignments and a few quizzes) in addition to the final exam. I had missed 2 quizzes and 1 homework assignment due to my very recent ADHD diagnosis, which I was not aware at the time. This class has a very vague grading scale (either satisfactory or not, no defined numeral scale), it’s completely up to the professors. I had contacted the dean’s office about it, and they basically told me there’s nothing they can do but to open a conversation with the professors. The professors suddenly responded with a more defined grading scale that was not stated in the syllabus. The dean’s office has not examined the syllabus of this class nor told me about my option to appeal until I nudged them. The professors stopped responding completely and deleted their Blackboard course page as soon as I started inquiring about this. Additionally, I do recall two things 1) I could not find one of the quiz/homework tabs at the time, nor did I receive a reminder email about it which the professors have claimed to send 2) the missed homework grade didn’t show up on my Blackboard grades, prior to the course page deletion. The worst part is, one of the professors is the head of the department, so even if they appoint somebody else to rule the appeal, he would have some kind of influence. The dean’s office seems to be reluctant to help, they said I don’t have a strong case for appeal.

To add some context, I used to belong to this department. Since I transferred to this college, I have been consistently getting bad grades only from classes offered by this department due to problematic instructors (several of which I had to fill out a bias/discrimination form for), meanwhile I have had no problem getting As and Bs from difficult STEM classes. (Prior to transferring to here, I received all As from classes in the same field of study.) This resulted in me changing majors to get away from this department completely. This F was the last straw for me to change my minor as well.

Should I appeal? How badly would this F affect me? I’d appreciate any advice on this, I really don’t know what to do in this situation. Thanks in advance.