Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean (Studies),

I am appealing to drop BIOL 103 (Winter, 2015), and receive a CR for BIOL 202 (Winter, 2015) on my transcript.

During the Winter 2015 semester I had been dealing with problems within my family. My parents were going through marital troubles, and I was brought into the middle of it all. It began around February 7th, 2015 and is still continuing. At first I did not tell anyone about my situation. I didn't want to believe any of this was happening, nor did I want my friends to know about my family, and life at home. I had gone home for reading week in February, thinking that it would be a good idea to see what was happening with my parents. I spent the week at home, constantly going between both of my parents to try and understand what was happening. I was not able to study efficiently for my midterms while I was at home, and I came back to school feeling worse than ever. The first week back I tried to distract myself, put my family life in the back of my mind, and focus on my courses and the midterms that I still had to write. I kept telling myself that everything was fine, and that I could pull through this by myself. I realize now, that the more I had kept telling myself this, the more anxious I was becoming. My anxiety level had risen significantly and I was having a lot of trouble staying focused, I could not fall asleep, nor could I stay asleep at night. I was living in a constant state of worry and fear, not knowing what was going to happen next. I had lost motivation to do my work, and meet up with friends. Since I could not fall asleep or stay asleep at night I would end up taking naps during the day to catch up on sleep. I could not make myself get out of bed; I was exhausted before I even got up. My attendance in lectures, and participation in tutorials had started to lack due to my insomnia, and I was slowly falling behind. I carried on like this, trying to get through the rest of the semester. April came around, and I was given more bad news. My mother was being scheduled for a cancer related surgery. After finding this out, I did not have any motivation to complete or participate in anything, school or social related. Almost everyday there was a fight or an argument of some sort between one or both of my parents and I had started spending more time trying to talk to my family members than working on assignments or studying for exams. I had been keeping everything bottled up inside of me for so long that by this time the stress of it all had just become too overwhelming.

A couple weeks after reading week, I started mentioning my troubles to my housemates, and then started going to Health Counseling and Disability Services (HCDS). I regularly went in for appointments for the rest of the winter semester, and continued to go during the summer. I tried studying with my peers instead of alone, and I talked to my friends and my siblings about what was going on. I really wanted to try and fix things between my parents, but there was only so much I could do from a far, and given the circumstances that caused the relationship problems, I wasn't sure if there was anything I could do.

I am planning on continuing my appointments with HCDS during the school year. I will continue to go as long as the problems continue, and will also go after a decision has been made between my parents. I plan on decreasing the number of clubs I join, this year I was a part of three, next year I only plan on doing one. I wanted to switch from a Chemistry Major Plan to a Biopsychology Specialization Plan. I had already taken BIOL 103 during the Winter 2014 semester of my first year at Queen's, but intended to boost my grade in the course in order to switch into the new plan, and take the required BIOL 205/206 courses. I had already received credit for BIOL 103, and knowing that I would not receive credit for it again, I decided to retake it anyways. BIOL 202 was also only required if I had been in the Biopsychology Specialization Plan. After reviewing the courses I had taken this year, I've decided that I am not going to take more classes of Biology, and I will stick with being a Chemistry Major. This coming school year I will try taking five courses for the Fall 2015 semester, but if I feel it is too overwhelming I will drop one and only take four courses each semester. I will not try to force myself to continue with five, knowing that I will not be able to do well. If I am having trouble with my courses I will be seeking the help of a tutor, or the Chemistry department. Moreover, I've decided that I will not be continuing my job during the school year, I will keep it only for the summer as it takes up far too much time, and will be no help in doing well in my classes this coming year. I also plan on speaking to an academic advisor to discuss my options for a leave of absence or switching faculties even. I've figured out that Biology is just not what I was intended to do, and if Chemistry does not seem to fit either then I plan on taking a leave of absence form Queen's until I figure out what it is that I really want to do.