Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To the Associate Dean (Studies) of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences,

I am writing this letter to appeal to drop Geography Statistics 247 (Winter 2015). This is due to extenuating circumstances to do with my health throughout the past year and in specific during the Winter Term of 2015 which led to me missing the deadline date to drop the Statistics course.

My second year at Queen's University in which I was enrolled in the Geography program at the Faculty of Arts and Science took place during the school year of 2014-2015. My academic performance was severely hampered by issues that I struggled with in regards to my mental health. In the summer prior to 2014 Fall term, I was afflicted with serious depression which subsequently led to me being hospitalized under the Mental Health Act in the psychiatric ward at Grand River Hospital in Kitchener, Ontario for 8 days at the end of August/early September 2014. I was slated to attend Queen's university for my second year in the Fall term of 2014 but with the illness I was suffering from, my family and medical professionals suggested it would be best to refrain from enrolling until I recovered a proper mental state. I did not return to Queen's for the Fall 2014 term but instead still struggled with my illness. I took prescribed medication and had weekly sessions with a psychologist named Daryl Upfold in Waterloo who aided me in trying to improve my mental state. I resolved to get back to school for the Winter 2015 term. When I arrived back at school, I decided to take a full course load of five courses, which in hindsight may not have been the best idea as I still was struggling to cope with my aforementioned depression, and now had the added anxiety and stress of my courses. I struggled to deal with the course load and debated dropping a course to ease myself of some stress and anxiety but my psychological state at the time from February to March could not be considered to be sound and I made the mistake of not dropping the course in the hope that I could push through. I felt extreme anxiety and depression at the thought of dropping a course and felt paralyzed to seek help or guidance on this issue. Eventually, after the drop date, I realized that in three of my courses (English 237 and Econ 122 in addition to the aforementioned, Geography Statistics 247) I was struggling to maintain solid academic performance. In this event, I realized it would be the most logical solution to focus on two of them, as I felt that I was spread too thin and could possible fail in more then one course. I completed the English 237 and Econ 112 with the grades of C and D+ respectively. In hindsight, I realize I should have also sought out more help from Queen's Mental Health services during the Winter Term 2015 as I was only being monitored by family doctor, Dr. Martin Kane, in Kitchener, who I would visit when I was home on break.

My future plan for academic success will depend on a few important steps that I will implement for the Fall term, 2015. Firstly, I intend on taking a lighter course load for the 2015-2016 school year. Instead of five courses I will instead enrol in four courses to ease my stress and anxiety which will subsequently increase my likelihood of academic success. Secondly, I will actively seek out the help of local medical professionals in the Kingston area to aid me and ensure I am in the right state mentally to successfully perform academically. Finally, I will also seek out academic guidance to aid me in my courses in the event of falling behind or struggling as this will increase my likelihood of success.


Thank you very much for considering my appeal,
Andrew Elgin Kelly