Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Jack Gillett
Student No. 20180871

Dear Office of the Associate Dean,

I am writing this letter as a petition to drop the course IDIS 173 from the Winter 2023 Semester after the course deadline and receive a DR in place of the final grade on my transcript instead. The reason why I am writing this letter to have the course dropped now is due to the unforeseen circumstances that I encountered around, and specifically on the cut-off date for dropping courses this semester. I hope that you can consider my circumstances as you read the details that are outlined below and grant me permission for my request to late drop the course.

To provide a timeline and some context, over the past few months, my family has been dealing with a rather complex set of issues surrounding my father??s physical and mental health which, as I??m sure you can understand, has directly impacted myself as well. Being 72 years-old, my father has started to experience significantly more profound effects of the bi-polar disorder that he has been living with for quite some time. I??m not sure if you are familiar with this condition, but essentially it causes an individual to have extremely high highs, extremely low lows, partake in risky behaviour, and act impulsively just to name a few of the many behaviour traits that an individual with this condition may exhibit. These traits typically tend to manifest themselves intensely over long periods of time and are commonly referred to as ??episodes?. For my father, his most recent episode began in January of this year (2023) and has been the most devastating one for him, my family, and myself especially as I wrap up my final semester of my undergraduate studies here at Queen??s University. I would often receive phone calls from my two older sisters who no longer live at home (one in Vancouver and the other in Niagara working full time) where they would express how deeply concerned they were about my father??s wellbeing. Because of this, I had been attempting to make trips back to Toronto whenever I could to take pressure off of my family, specifically my mother because she is business partners with my father, and to. also spend time with my father to support him.

The week of February 27th I was informed by my family members that they were incredibly worried about my father??s mental state, and I decided again to take the upcoming weekend off of work and go home as I sensed that this time it was a rather serious situation and that I had to be there for them. This weekend was of course the same time as the cut-off for dropping courses for the semester. At this point I had dropped my two previous courses that I was enrolled in for the semester when I changed my degree from an ??Honours? to a ??General? BA, but I had intended to continue taking the IDIS 173 course and complete it before graduating because I enjoyed the content and field of study. I, however, did not know that the events of that weekend would go on to affect my ability to complete assignments and assessments for IDIS 173 in the future, and in knowing that now I would have dropped the course before the deadline. Essentially, that weekend my father had made comments about and/or implied to us that he was considering taking his own life. He currently lives on his own without any direct support which has clearly taken a toll on him so much so to the point that he completely isolated himself from our family that weekend during the peak of the episode. I spent the whole weekend making efforts to contact him, ask his neighbors and staff in his building to check on him, and other things without contacting emergency services due to them escalating these situations in the past. I had pretty much spent the whole weekend wondering whether or not my father was alive and that was devastating. Following this weekend, it became difficult for me to return to Kingston and focus on my studies when I was continuously making an effort to support my father, help him access/find resources that he was comfortable with and that would help, balance my full-time job which I now had to put more hours in to pay my living expenses due to the multiple weekends I took off to go home, and still pursue other passions and interests outside of all of this. I hope you can see and understand how difficult it was to balance academics with all of this going on, even if it was only just one class. Because I had missed the deadline to drop it, this course felt like an obligation to complete and succeed in, but it was an obligation that I could not fulfil which added to my already high levels of stress and anxiety in this time. At this point I had fallen so far behind in the course that it would only affect my mental health more should I attempt to ??cram? or play catch up. Instead, I decided that writing this letter and petitioning for a late drop would be by best course of action for my academics and mental health. I understand that this is a serious matter and that there are no guarantees that my request will be granted, however, I hope that you can consider the extenuating circumstances that have been outlined above when making your decision. Furthermore, I would like to mention that the credit that I would have received from completing IDIS 173 is no longer required for me to receive a diploma and complete my degree due to my recent change as mentioned above, so there will be no impact on my academic progress should my request be granted. However, should this course not be marked as a ??DR? on my transcript, it will have significant effects on my cumulative GPA. I understand that as a student I am expected to be responsible and accountable for the completion of courses and the grades that I receive for all courses and course work, but when faced with circumstances such as mine that are relatively out of my control, facing the consequence or ??punishment? of a diminished cumulative GPA is a rather harsh addition to an already difficult situation.

With regards to supporting documents, I am not exactly sure what to provide or how to provide it to support my petition. I understand that a medical certificate or other statements from authorized individuals assist in supporting my request, but I do not feel comfortable, nor do I even know if I am permitted to submit any medical record of my father??s condition for this matter. I can possibly provide some sort of documentation from my workplace that I had taken time off and was indeed home over several weekends this semester. I can also provide pay stubs that show a drop in my income due to taking time off if needed. Additionally, I am unfortunately unable to provide any medical documentation for myself from this time period with regards to how it affected my mental health and ability to complete course work. This is because I was unable to afford the cost of returning to my usual therapist/mental health councillor, which was something that I had typically done in times like these, but I have not been able to afford that expense for quite some time and finding or starting with a new mental health professional would??ve presented an additional set of challenges that I would not have been prepared to take on.

Again, I ask that you please take this all into consideration when reviewing my petition and request to late drop IDIS 173 - Winter 2023 from my transcript. I am willing to take any steps necessary to ensure that my request be granted and if there is any further information you require from me, I am happy to provide you with it. I am also open to discussing any alternative options that may be available to me, or even suggestions, especially regarding supporting documentation.

Thank you for taking the time to read my petition and consider my request. I appreciate your understanding and consideration with this matter. I look forward to hearing from you soon.

Sincerely,

Jack Gillett