Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean (Academic),

I am petitioning to drop STAT268 (Fall, 2022) after the final official date for dropping classes.

On the evening of October 2nd, 2022, with no reasonable basis and in an inconsiderate manner, I was provided an eviction notice of 12 hours from my near-campus residence, being made to leave by the end of day on October 3rd. While landlords are certainly not legally allowed to evict a tenant without a compelling reason and on such short notice, I arranged a non-contractual, informal agreement to rent a bedroom in the landlord’s house. In addition to this extraordinarily brief notice, the eviction process itself was conducted in a manner that was deeply demeaning. While I was meeting on-campus academic obligations on Oct. 3rd, the landlord entered my bedroom without my permission and removed all of my belongings from the room, showing no regard for my privacy and emotional well-being. Once I arrived at the residence, under considerable duress from the landlord, I quickly removed all of my belongings from the house and moved these to a friend’s home. Throughout this hurried vacate process, the landlord stood in my presence and continued to make disparaging remarks toward me, further compounding the emotional distress I was already experiencing from the situation. The landlord also retained my refundable deposit paid to them as a courtesy, not agreeing to return it to me upon my request.

Alongside this eviction, some of the circumstances, namely, major depressive episodes and extended periods of significant anxiety or unease, noted in the previous appeal of submission number 9846, continued to have some presentation in Fall 2022, but was being better managed in comparison to the Winter 2022 time period and subsequent summer season. As stated in the petition letter of appeal 9846, “the improvement [was] in part due to application of strategies developed from many previous sessions with counsellors, personal learnings from my experiences with these difficulties, and the University’s resumption of in-person studies, i.e., a lack of the social isolation referenced previously.” Although there was some improvement since the summer season, the eviction caused a significant short-term exacerbation of the noted depressive episodes and periods of anxiety. Immediately following the eviction notice, I experienced an extended, continuous episode of depression and frequent, prolonged periods of anxiety until late October. The depression, spanning the period from the eviction notice time to late October, contributed to major fatigue and serious feelings of disinterestedness in daily activities, leading to major barriers toward studying for midterm examinations. Additionally, the periods of anxiety impaired my ability to concentrate, making learning of information from lectures and other course materials, such as formal readings and course notes, substantially challenging. On the evening of the eviction date of Oct. 3rd, though the option to stay on the sofa of a friend’s home was available, my state of psychological and emotional well-being was debilitated to a sufficient extent that I travelled immediately to my family home in the Greater Toronto Area, for emotional support from my parents.

The eviction and exacerbation’s unanticipated long-term impact, affecting me until the end of the term, was that I could not find housing for myself that would be considered as reasonable for any student. Some important considerations, certainly applicable to any student, for my living accommodation were:

1. Affordability: a rental should fit within my budget and not interfere with my other expenses.
2. A quiet environment: the living environment should be a peaceful study atmosphere, free from excessive noise or other disruptions.
3. Suitable roommates: at minimum, roommates should be able to accommodate one another’s living styles.

These three factors in housing were extraordinarily difficult to find, given the unusual time of the academic year in which I was finding a new accommodation. Unable to find such a suitable accommodation, I discontinued my active search for housing and stayed, i.e., colloquially “lived,” on a friend’s sofa from mid-October to early November, for a total duration of four weeks. In a spare room made available by a housemate of the friend, following the stay on the sofa, I resided in the spare room for a short duration of three weeks, from early to late November. During the fall examination period, since the room was no longer available, I returned to staying on the friend’s sofa. The move from the sofa to the spare room, and return to the sofa, prompted an underlying, ongoing anxiety related to the stability of my housing. Until the end of the fall term, this anxiety served as an unconscious distraction of attention toward my studies, not consistently allowing me to engage in my course obligations to a meaningful level of my abilities. In addition to this anxiety, most importantly, the disruptive environment encountered on a regular basis while staying on the sofa resulted in severe effects on my academic functioning. Ordered in terms of degree of impact, these effects, as well as the specific reasoning for which each effect impacted my academic functioning, are as follows:

• A lack of a reasonable place to obtain rest during daytime hours. Daytime rest, such as short naps, is a major element that would allow a student to apply their academic abilities toward their studies. Resting resolves fatigue and improves memory consolidation and alertness.
• A lack of an adequately conducive environment to study course material. All that was available to me was the common living space of my friend’s home, which primarily included the sofa that posed as my bed, a non-functional chair, and a dining table severely limited in its size. A private bedroom, however, provides an opportunity for a student to develop an environment that enriches their learning of course material. Important factors of consideration for any student’s environment include, within reason, proper lighting, comfortable seating, desk space, and an ability to personalize their study area for inspiration.
• An inability to have reasonably sound sleep during nighttime hours. “Sound sleep” refers to a deep and restful sleep that does not involve disturbances. Lack of sound sleep tends to lead to, at daytime, decreased attention, impaired memory, and slowed processing.

Two major situational circumstances, also external from my control, occurring by virtue of my sofa stay, increased the degree of impacts noted in the above three components. These circumstances were the departing and entering of different house-dwellers from and into the house, at unusual times of both morning and night, and disruptive activities by housemates in the kitchen and living area, both of which are highly proximal to one another within a single room. In summary, with specific respect to the unanticipated long-term impact, my effectiveness of learning, as well as my exercise of academic abilities in completion of course elements, were significantly impeded by the anxiety related to the instability of the home, and the three above components of my living environment.

With regard to the reason for which STAT268 was not dropped prior to the final academic deadline, I reduced my course load to a number which made reasonable sense to me at the time of drop. Until Fall 2022, excluding summer terms or a term not involving study, I never completed a course load lower than the typical full load of five. In anticipation of potential impacts of the health challenges from appeal 9846 on my studies, in the beginning of Fall 2022, I enrolled in a reduced load of four, two of which, STAT268 and MATH280, were from the Department of Mathematics and Statistics. These two courses were not to be contributed toward my degree and were studied primarily from academic interest. Given the unexpected circumstance of eviction, however, I carefully considered dropping my course load further. At the time, it did not seem reasonable to drop my course load to two or one, as I have consistently been able to successfully manage the demands of full course loads of five in preceding terms, with a certain level of exception to Winter 2022. As STAT268 and MATH280 are corequisites, having sought the needed permission from the head of the Mathematics Department, I dropped MATH280, noticing the relatively high number of deliverables for this course. In the short time period available to me to assess progress in my courses, i.e., from late October, which strictly marked the onset of improved health, to the deadline of November 1st, I did not foresee that the eviction and exacerbation, along with their long-term impact, would be disruptive to the extent that I would be unable to complete STAT268.

In my other fall term courses, although “A” grades were achieved, these courses were indeed also affected by the eviction and exacerbation circumstance, including in the discussed long-term impact, but the impacts on these two courses were able to be much better mitigated, given the substantially lower number of elements assessed. STAT268 consisted of a total of nine elements, two of which were midterm examinations. One of these midterms was assessed directly within the timeline of eviction and exacerbation, while the other was closely aligned with this timeline. However, CISC422 and CISC474 each comprised six elements, having assessment dates evenly distributed throughout the duration of the term. For CISC422, the full contents of four of the six elements, being written assignments, were provided at least a month in advance of their deadlines. The term schedule for these two courses, and the advanced release of assignments of significant duration in CISC422, allowed for substantially more control over my timeline of private study and contribution of work to each of the deliverables in the courses. In addition, CISC474 was originally marked as an IN as a result of the circumstances of this petition, the remaining work being completed in Winter 2023.

Included in the attached documentation is a letter of support from my personal counsellor at Student Wellness Services, Roger Davidson. Also included are electronic communications with two personal friends with whom I was able to arrange my temporary sofa and bedroom stay, my unplanned train ticket booking on Oct. 3rd, email communications with the department head of Mathematics and Statistics to drop MATH280, and the STAT268 syllabus, which indicates the midterm examination dates. All documentation is appropriately titled.

I would be more than happy to timely address any questions or concerns by email or telephone, including any requests for further documentation.

Sincerely,
Anshul Pattoo