Dear Appeals Committee,

I am writing to you today to request that I be readmitted into Southern Michigan University. Given my academic performmance over the last semester, as well as the serious nature of the charges against me, I was disappointed but not surprised to receive my dismissal letter in the mail.

I freely admit that I had a very difficult time last semester, and my grades suffered as a result, though the newspaper and national media accounts were often biased and grossly inadequate in their coverage. While I know you don’t want to hear me make excuses for my poor academic performance, I would like to try and explain the circumstances.

First, I knew that registering for 18 credit hours in the spring would require a lot of me, and that hijacking a tanker truck—even one that I thought at the time was filled with milk and not gasoline—would be difficult to fit into a healthy study schedule. I was also planning on relying on my study group to help me get through, until it turned out that Ramirez had lied about knowing how to hotwire a car and we had to leave him at the Canadian border crossing.

While I thought I could handle the 18-hour workload, and I still think I could have, my godfather became very ill in February. I owe everything I am to my godfather, who has been a mentor and a confidante to me, asking only for the occasional favor in return. While he was at home, injured in an Gambrelli assassination attempt and unable to work, I had to drive over every weekend and some weeknights to help out with business and to care for the Family.

Needless to say, the hour-long drive each way cut into my study time, as did the duties I had to do as a man of honor. Even when I was at school, I was very distracted with the situation and was unable to focus on my schoolwork. I understand now that I should have communicated with my professors, taken a leave of absence, or even postponed the Corsican job altogether. I thought I could handle all of these burdens, and I tried my best, but I was wrong.

I love SMU, and it would mean so much to me to graduate with a degree from this school, which would make me the first person in the Family to complete a criminal justice degree and become an inside man on the force. If I am reinstated, I will focus much better on my schoolwork, take fewer hours, and practice my timetables much more rigorously. Fortunately, my godfather is recovering and has returned to work; one the reprisals again Gambrelli have ceased, I will be free to work on school and my own small-time hustles. Also, I have met with my advisor, and am attaching a letter of support which she wrote of her own free will.

Please understand that the low GPA that led to my dismissal does not indicate that I am a bad student. Once I have had a chance to make my professors offers that they cannot refuse, I am certain that I will get a 4.0 this coming semester. I hope you will follow the lead of the District Superior Court in giving me a second chance. Thank you for considering this appeal.

Sincerely,
Emilio Andolini

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