Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Dr. Stephenson,

My name is Mikayla Quigley (20340207) and I am currently completing my second year in Political Science and Global Development joint honours and I am appealing for Aegrotat standing for POLS 285 (3.0 units). If this is not approved, I would like to petition for Credit Standing.

I am making this request because on March 2nd I was sexually assaulted and this has had significant repercussions on my life including negatively impacting my academic performance. I have also had several other extenuating circumstances occur in the same time period which I have included predominately for context.

In the time immediately following the assault, I did not sleep, I couldn’t eat, I was still going to class and doing everything I could to maintain some of my regular structure and routine including writing the POLS 285 midterm. However, I was also suffering from intense flashbacks, sleep deprivation, social isolation, and other negative symptoms directly related to this event. This began very quickly to impact my academics and led me to eventually have a complete breakdown on campus so I went to Mitchell where I was sent right away to see Jo-Ann in SWS for crisis. This was on March 13th. Jo-Ann followed up with me via email but I never met with her again. In the coming weeks, I missed most classes, quizzes, and smaller assignments, all of which prompted classmates and even people I was not close to ask me what was wrong and check in because my absence was so uncharacteristic. During that week, I reached out to Barb Lotan at SVPR because everything was getting worse - the sleeping, the eating patterns, the thoughts, coping mechanisms, the school work avoidance, cramming, being late, or not being done at all.
I met with Barb initially on March 20th and she promised to check in a week or so later. Not having heard from her, I emailed preemptively for academic accommodations because I had avoided admitting I needed them and taken the hit on everything so far, which was no longer sustainable - I felt I was doing everything in my power to stay on top of my workload and it was not enough. I admit to Barb that I was struggling academically in the email where I say “they've been slipping for a while I apologize for not being completely up front about that when we met.” Later that week we met on zoom and she gave me the document I required to “get me to the end of term.”

In addition to this, on March 21st (the day after I met Barb) I stress fractured my foot running. As an athlete, I am heavily reliant on exercise as an outlet so with that gone I hit a new low from a mental/coping mechanism standpoint and also my general physical wellbeing. I did not seek accommodations for this, I bought myself crutches and tried to stay on campus as much as possible, which also forced me to go to class, this injury lasted almost exactly a month. This is relevant to understand the context of my mentality and to explain how my attendance was perfect. I also felt better being with my peers at school than home alone so I prioritized this.
I was able to write all my exams and assignments (aside from 285) during this time with the help of deadline extensions and communication with instructors. I did receive an extension on the POLS 285 assignment this petition is based on, however, I had more time to complete that than the others so I prioritized my other courses. I also had a good grade in that class at the time, and I was overwhelmed by the assignment because it was building on the material as we progressed through the term - as I mentioned I was not sleeping and once I missed enough material or didn’t understand the content anymore and it just kept getting added to, I became incredibly stressed and pushed this assignment to the side. Also this assignment does involve coding so asking for help would mean a zoom or office hours because it's hard to explain in email. I did eventually attend this and I chipped away at the assignment but again I was prioritizing my other courses for all the reasons I previously mentioned. I also elected to defer the POLS 285 exam and this was solely based on the fact that it was my last one in person and my first one did not go well and it proved to be a poor choice to take it. I had full support from Professor Hanniman in this decision, I wrote a lengthy email explaining why I felt this was my only course of action. After the rest of my assignments and exams were in I spent my time studying for the 285 exam and catching up/reviewing everything I missed or did not understand for the exam and to complete that assignment. Please keep in mind I was still not sleeping much, I was doing the work and not processing anything, and I was still suffering from all the things I have already mentioned, some to a lesser degree because of the help I got, some worsened by time. A few days later I had to go home which I try and avoid because it is extremely abusive in several respects, I do not have any support there, and I take on additional stress and duties. Already getting very minimal sleep, being in an abusive environment, away from Queen’s resources with no support system, not at liberty to call or zoom anyone, and still failing to keep up with academics, I reached the point where I was just trying to get through till I could get back to Kingston. While I was in Oshawa (my hometown) I was assaulted again in a completely different context (May 5th), I informed Barb of this event in a check-in zoom on May 14th. I had planned to spend the time at home and the week that followed doing this assignment and studying but this event in addition to everything else going on derailed me. My symptoms of the second assault were similar to the first, except I also had to endure being away from Kingston. I still forced myself to study which I found to be easier because my mind would drift less and I wasn’t filled with intense feelings of failure that the assignment would give me, the assignment became a reminder of the first assault so I avoided it, the exam was worth more, I felt like I was gaining knowledge as opposed to feeling like I had none, and I figured studying would also help me when I eventually continued with the assignment. Despite all my studying, intense review, notes on all video lectures, textbook etc I completely failed my exam. I remembered nothing I had spent all that time working on. Whether this was because I still am not sleeping well or because my mind was elsewhere or likely a combination of both, I got significantly below any other grade I have ever received and the grade in no way reflected all the hard work I put into this course. With that being said, I completely accept this grade and this is not part of this petition at all.

I am asking to be graded on what I have already completed, I am struggling so badly with this assignment because it is reminding me of that time in my life, it is making me feel terrible about myself, it is looming over me and prohibiting me to recover/heal but I also can’t bring myself to start it because I am trying to avoid all the feelings, memories, and intrusive thoughts it brings me which is making it worse. I am stuck in this cyclical loop where I try and work on it and shut down but then the not doing is making me feel also terrible but I am not mentally well enough to complete it currently. I feel that I have familiarized myself with all the course content that would be required for the assignment, I have done every other part of the course, I was at almost all lectures, I was at every tutorial, I have sought help, it is simply the physical doing the assignment that is the issue and ultimately I feel that doing it is not a viable option for me. I also don’t want this to carry over into subsequent terms or a further extension because this assignment is a constant reminder of all of everything I detailed above and it is affecting my ability to move on and get better.

I also do attend therapy at Queens, my first appointment was April 10th with Nadia Sawaya Fehr and I am continuing to go to her bi-weekly (approximately), I still keep in contact with Barb relatively regularly, and I did see a Dr at SWS for sleep and did not receive help because he believed sleep to be a “symptom of something” (in my case mental distress) and not an issue in and of itself.

Thank you for your consideration, and I hope you can understand why I am asking for this and how I have gotten to this point.

Kind regards,
Mikayla Quigley