Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Appeal Letter: To whom this should concern,
During the full 2023 calendar year, I experienced severe depression and anxiety as a result of issues faced with the school.
In her decision letter, Dr. Stephenson suggests that because I knew about my chronic health issues and mental health issues prior to the drop dates, I could have foreseen the outcome and actively decided against dropping the courses. While I am aware of my chronic health issues, and how they *can* impact my like and education, the Associate Dean fails to recognize how the distress caused to me by the school contributed to an unforeseen exacerbation of my health issues, and therefore should be considered as an extenuating circumstance.

To summarise very plainly, I had many issues with Queens Accommodations and Professors, which cost me my Bachelors of Music degree, and my spot in Con-ed. The disorganisation and ableism I have faced at this Institution has been surprising, and entirely frustrating as I was promised much more. I gave the school a lot of leeway, as the unprecedented pandemic was difficult for everyone, but when the issues persisted I knew this was a deeper issue of ableism and outright discriminative practices that have been a part of education since the beginning. While I still recognize the pandemic as a part of this I no longer accept that as a reason for the issues never being fixed. For a more detailed version of this, please see the documentation for a letter to the MPP (labelled Queens - Discrimination) .

After all of the issues by the winter semester of 2023, I was lost with where my education was heading and felt like the Institution I trusted no longer cared about me or my well-being- academically and personally. It made everything about life hard- eating, sleeping, sometimes breathing. I was unable to feel human for months.

With the help of some outside health care professionals, and many conversations with the Music Academic Advisor, I found a new path forward and set on switching to a Religious Studies Major. I decided to enrol in RELS 131 and MUSC 171 for the summer semester.

Then, in the summer of 2023, I received a letter stating that I was to withdraw from the school for a year. This was incredibly frustrating, and caused me stress to the point of physical and mental exhaustion. While I was given the option to drop out of the summer courses I was in, I thought that surely when the petitions office caught wind of everything I had been through, they would accept my petition (submission #10636) to waive the required leave, and that I could continue with my education with no more issues. Unfortunately, it was originally denied due to lack of documentation. Only after finding more documentation- spending hours of my time and limited energy sifting through emails from the past two years, and trying to contact advisors who no longer worked at Queens- was me first petition accepted. I am forever grateful for that- however it meant that my energy was so focused on the petition, that my coursework fell through the cracks. I passed RELS 131(with not a great grade), and I failed MUSC 171.

I am not using the petitions process to manage chronic illness, as the Associate Dean (academic) suggests in her decision letter. I am using it to help correct some numerous issues I have had with this Institution. When I am given real help, my schooling goes rather well- as seen by the Winter 2024 semester, where I ended with good grades in 2 of the 3 courses (needing to drop one for other unforeseen issues).

Due to an email I sent to the MPP (Ted Hsu ), I received a reply from Dr. Stephenson directly and was told to speak to Haley Everson about ways to “late drop some of [my] failed courses and get [me] back on track academically” . I was instructed to submit this exact petition, as well as reach out to the respective professors for what work I would need to complete in order to improve my grade in RELS, as well as pass MUSC 171 and LLCU 244. The Professors were enthusiastically supportive and swiftly sent over the work instructions. Which is for the most part complete. I would just like the opportunity to submit it- this would not only help out my GPA, but would also allow me to confidently continue education at Queens.