Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean,

I'm petitioning to remove CHEM 223 (Winter 2023) from my transcript.

In October 2022, a close childhood friend took their own life. I had been texting my friend Maeve on Friday and we were making plans to see each other over the Thanksgiving holiday. Maeve was attending school in Toronto and we were both heading home to London to see our families. She committed suicide on Saturday morning. I had never dealt with anything of this magnitude in my life. Maeve was an amazing girl who I had been friends with for many years. We first met when we both were members of a theatre group in London and bonded over our love of reading. I was devastated and floored when Maeve??s parents phoned to tell me what happened. Losing my friend so suddenly and in such a tragic way has left me with an ongoing emptiness and pain. It has impacted many aspects of my life including school.

For months, I didn't want to accept what had happened. I didn't want to deal with the loss and the pain I??d be in once I did. I withdrew from all our mutual friends, anyone who reminded me of Maeve - I pushed away. I put all my time and effort into school and felt I did okay academically in the fall semester. I planned to continue this routine in the winter term, but unfortunately, reality can only be avoided for so long. If I could have predicted how much pain and guilt I would face in the winter term, I would have dropped this course prior to the semester starting.

This semester was the hardest of my life and in hindsight, I probably should have taken it off. There were weeks when getting out of bed was hard. Going to class became a second priority when living became a challenge. For some of my classes this semester, my absence didn't impact my grades. I didn't have to show up to succeed. However, this isn??t the case for CHEM 223, to do well in this course you need to show up to every lecture, go to the office hours, read the textbook, and do the weekly homework. I couldn??t bring myself to eat dinner some nights let alone open an organic chemistry textbook. There were weeks though when life wasn??t so gloomy and success seemed plausible. Hence why I continued with this course, but as the semester progressed the reality that I would have to go home and live a life that didn't have my friend in it really took root. Every ounce of progress I had made to pull myself together disintegrated and it took everything in me to make it through this last month.

While I don't believe I will ever fully recover from this loss, I have taken steps to ensure moving forward isn??t a difficulty. I see a therapist weekly and I have joined a support group for those who have lost someone to suicide. I am working to be ok. The outside support has been beneficial and I feel my mental health will be stronger come fall. I want to live a life and have a future my friend would be proud of.

Thank you,

Kate Phillips
20214418