Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To whom it may concern,

I am writing to request a review and potential dismissal of the courses I did not successfully complete during the Summer 2021, Fall 2021, Winter 2022, and Summer 2022 terms.

I have recently made the decision to return to Queen’s, as I am quite close to achieving the required credits needed to graduate. With that being said, after connecting with the Academic Advising team, I have come to understand that due to how unsuccessful I was in my final year and a half of studies,I will not achieve the required GPA to graduate. It was recommended that I reach out to request your permission to have the failed courses removed from my transcript, as this would significantly support my path toward graduation.

While I did face academic challenges in the past, beginning in January 2021, my grandfather was hospitalized with sepsis. Upon his release from the hospital in April 2021, he was bedridden due to an accident at the hospital that caused physical injury meaning he required around-the-clock care, a responsibility that my mother and I shared. I took on the role of a primary caregiver until his passing in mid 2022. During this time, I was frequently travelling between Kingston and Ajax, which significantly impacted my ability to attend classes consistently and complete my coursework to the best of my abilities. While upon reflection, I do realize that it would have been best to withdraw myself from my courses to prevent this personal matter from impacting my studies in the way it did, one of the main reasons I did not think this would be necessary is that he was only given one month to live after coming home from the hospital despite him living over a year longer. However, my situation was further complicated by my diagnosis of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD). I have recently learned through treatment that OCD can bring challenges in decision making and lead to significant feelings of doubt and indecision. One of the main parts that I struggle with is overanalyzing decisions, especially ones that involve feeling like a failure or have the optics of