Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Attention: Associate Dean (Studies),
In this letter, I will be requesting to make changes to courses that I have been unable to successfully complete, or complete to a reasonable level, due to a variety of dynamic extenuating circumstances that have been debilitating to my academic performance during this year. I am requesting to late drop DEVS 311 (Winter, 2015), HIST 206 (Winter, 2015), MUSC 289 (Winter, 2015), and POLS 244 (Winter 2015). Additionally, I am requesting Aegrotat Standing in DEVS 240 (Winter 2015), and credit standing in DEVS 230 (Fall 2014).
During this academic year, I have been undergoing treatment for Grave¿¿s Disease. I began this treatment just before the beginning of this academic year. Due to the nature of both my health problem and the treatment method currently being attempted, my health has been highly inconsistent during this year, and it has therefore been impossible for me to maintain a consistent study or work schedule, unlike the one I had in first year. This has made it impossible to maintain a consistent level of academic performance throughout the year, and the symptoms associated with this health condition leave me unable to do a lot of the things that I would normally be able to do. Attending class and tutorials regularly was extremely difficult because of the extreme exhaustion and other various symptoms associated with this medical problem, which made it much harder to learn the material in my courses. Also, completing assignments to my usual standard has been impossible this year because of this ongoing treatment, and further difficult because of the classes missed during the year, as I was continually having to catch up from missed classes due to my illness.
My condition has been inconsistent throughout this year because my doctors have been attempting to stabilize my condition, which has brought along further negative mental health side effects and other debilitating symptoms that I have been undergoing even more treatment for, and this has made it even more difficult to continue my studies. This has further inhibited my academic performance. Furthermore, near the drop date for winter 2015, it became clear that a family member was soon going to pass away. This meant that I was constantly having to travel home and was even further distracted from my studies during this period, and dealing with a huge amount of stress because of this. When he finally passed away early this term, it had a further negative impact upon my studies while I dealt with the loss. On top of all this, there were extreme financial stresses occurring within my family during this year that threatened to upset the security of my family¿¿s housing, which was obviously very stressful and made it even more difficult to succeed academically. This was highly distracting from my academic performance, and very deeply distressing.
Should this appeal be granted, I have a plan of action that I will implement to ensure that this never happens again. First and foremost, I will be working closely with my doctors over the summer in order to stabilize my medical condition. If my condition is not stabilized to a satisfactory level next year, I will register with the DSO in order to get a consistent plan of action in place, or take some time off school, at the advice of my physician. Additionally, I will make use of the counselling services to mitigate any personal problems that may arise. Finally, I will make use of academic support services, such as the learning commons in order to keep good study habits, and, as a last resort, keep a far closer watch on the drop dates. I have never been in a situation academically like this before, and I didn¿¿t notice the warning signs that I was going to not succeed this year because I never saw failure as an option and am unfamiliar with a situation like this. I have dreamt about coming to Queen¿¿s since I was in elementary school and succeeding academically here. I¿¿m putting myself through school, and want nothing more than to get a fresh start and work hard to build a future for myself here at Queen¿¿s.
Thank you for considering my appeal.

Yours sincerely,

Cody Karns