Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: My name is Brigham McKerron, I am a Queen's student in the second year of my Bachelor of Arts Honours History degree. I would like to respectfully enquire if it would be at all possible to have my marks from the classes ARTH 212, 214 and 215, as well as the full year seminar course HIST 312 to be dropped from my academic record. I hope that this letter will at least help you to understand the emotional problems that I have been dealing with this past year. I experienced great difficulty in focusing on my academic studies during first semester because of important external factors. When I returned from a two-week trip in Europe at the end of last summer I was told by my parents on the way home from the airport that my father had been diagnosed with prostate cancer. The anxiety that resulted from this knowledge prevented me from being able to get up and go to class during the first few weeks of September. As a result, I quickly fell behind in the classes I was taking. My parents were visiting me in Kingston as much as possible before his operation in December, which sadly acted as a constant reminder of the problems that were occurring back home. His operation was part-way through December so I became increasingly distracted while trying to study for my fall semester exams. Thankfully, the operation was a success and he is currently free of cancer.
Unfortunately, due to the stress relating to this event and several arguments I had had with my parents over financial issues, I found it increasingly difficult to maintain personal relationships with close friends at Queen's, and I was seriously concerned over my plummeting marks. I believe that the guilt I felt over these two developments, as well as the difficult relationship I have had with my parents this year, was a significant factor in my growing feelings of depression. This depression greatly impacted my ability to function academically because I was rarely leaving my home, causing me to miss many classes and the assignments that were given out. I must regrettably confess that I found it very difficult to admit at the time that I needed to access the counseling service that Queen's offers, because I believed that if I did not put a label on it, the problem would cease to exist. I also felt like I was unable to approach my parents about this problem, because of their beliefs about depression. Once I was removed from the situation when I moved back to Waterloo for this summer, I was finally able to realize that I absolutely required counselling if I intended to continue my intellectual future at Queen's.
Since that realization, I have had two appointments with a counsellor within the Queen's counselling service, as well as an academic advising appointment over the phone to discuss my future academic options. I have stated to my counsellor that my primary goal is to complete my degree at Queen's and to ensure that the anxiety and sadness I have felt this year would not happen again in future years. These appointments have already begun to help me achieve psychological well-being. My counsellor and I have agreed to continue having appointments when I return in September, and she has agreed to give her support during this appeal process. I am also planning on participating in the peer student mentoring program offered at Queen's when I return next year, in order to develop better methods to focus on my studies. I am confident that these decisions will enable me to have much greater concentration on my academics next year, and prevent future academic problems from occurring. If you have any questions regarding the information that I have given in this letter, do not hesitate to contact me through my home phone (519-648-2941) or my email address (brigham_mck@hotmail.com). I would like to thank you for your consideration, and I am looking forward to hearing your assessment.

Sincerely,
Brigham McKerron