Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To Whom it May Concern,

I am writing to request permission to please withdraw from both of my Winter Term courses, the deadline to do which I was under the impression was late March.

I have been employed full-time since the summer of 2021 at various community service providers while attempting to complete my last few credits?? worth of degree requirements on a part-time online basis. I was projected to graduate last spring from the Life Sciences Specialization stream and earned an A in the Fall term of my PATH499 project, but received an incomplete after some Winter correspondence with my Supervisor, questioning my capabilities to participate effectively due to COVID constraints, my necessary employment to cover rent and living expenses, and family death/mental health issues.

Seeking to graduate with a Major in Life Sciences instead and complete credits while working full-time in high-stress and high-risk environments became unmanageable for me when my work rotation (including 12-hour night shifts) changed in October 2022, impairing my sleep schedule and compounding symptoms of seasonal effective disorder (SAD) by Nov/Dec 2022, which I have previously sought out counselling for and successfully managed with CBT-informed strategies. I had to drop my 2nd Fall course, which was an Indigenous studies course requiring creative and personal reflection in assignments. I was not accustomed to this style of learning and did not have the mental space for engaging while working 40+ hours/week in addictions and mental health, and was able to complete one course last Fall.

Financially, it has simply not been realistic for me to dedicate myself to full-time studies and stop working. I enrolled in these two Winter courses hoping that more natural science-based courses would be more familiar and easier for me to manage. The draining nature of my employment, SAD, and unsustainable sleeping patterns affected productivity outside of work, leading me to accept that I needed to withdraw again, but this was after the deadline for financial penalties. As such, I did not feel any urgency to go through the motions and I truly believed, based on memory of previous academic years at Queen??s, that the academic deadline was before April/exam season and have not been monitoring my school email since making the decision that I need to focus on work and my own mental health.

It is certain that factors outside of my control such as the pandemic, death of close family members, and illness have disappointedly affected my performance and academic experience at Queen??s, but in hindsight, I should have coordinated with an academic advisor or SASS as my circumstances evolved rather than planning my degree changes independently on the fly and stretching myself too thin.

Of note, I am resuming counselling and seeking diagnostic assessment via psychologist sessions first available this April to identify what else I can be doing to improve my time management and general wellbeing, but am hopeful that collateral documents will not be required to approve this petition. I am grateful for my community-based experiences in that they helped me realize that I am no longer interested in pursuing a Doctor of Medicine degree, but I would have other doors closed for me with two zeros on my transcript due to this simple mistake. I have made financial and work arrangements to be able to take two months off this Summer term to complete my degree requirements in online electives and focus on improving my work-life balance through therapy so that I do not encounter these challenges and consequences in any future post-graduate endeavors. Please let me know if there is any further action I could take to rectify this matter, or if you would like collateral forwarded at a later time. Otherwise I am sincerely hoping you will consider affording me the opportunity to learn from and move forward from these struggles without significant and permanent deficits to my official transcript.

Thank you very much for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Myriam Oliver (she/her)
20102302