Although the idea of petitioning the Administrative Board of Harvard College sounds a bit intimidating, it should not be any more so than the many bureaucratic procedures in which you already engage throughout your regular life.

A typical petition requires:

• a formal student statement presenting your request with emphasis on what you would like to achieve and why it is necessary. It should be in the format of a business letter addressed to the Administrative Board.
   
• support materials.
  Although specific petitions may require specific support materials, the general idea is a formal statement by a related party in support of your petition, for example, a statement from the professor who teachers your course.

These materials are sent to your Resident Dean (lowellhousedean@fas.harvard.edu) and Academic Coordinator (lowell@fas.harvard.edu) who create the petition and submit it by Friday noon for the Administrative Board meeting the following Tuesday. It is important that you get these materials to them in timely fashion so as to not delay hearing your petition for another week.

Reach out to your Resident Dean and Academic Coordinator as soon as you feel you have need to petition something. You don't have to know fully how or if your request is possible. We will let you know if your request is likely to be granted, and what materials are needed to support it, and then you can get to work on crafting your student statement and requesting other statements as needed from your professors or advisors.