Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Dr. Stephenson ,

My name is Zoë Lebel, I’m a third year student in PPE-E and I have always valued and prioritized my academics greatly throughout my life. I’m also an active member of the Queen’s community as a member of many clubs on campus such as Queen’s Model UN, WIIS-Queens and Queen’s Model Parliament. I am writing to request a CR status in two courses (ECON 250 and ECON 361) this past semester (Winter 2025) due to significant challenging mental health struggles that were exacerbated due to the PSAC strike, extenuating circumstances out of my control. I am not comfortable disclosing the exact details of my mental health struggles however I would like to clarify that these are not minor struggles. I have struggled greatly with mental health throughout my life and these struggles have caused issues which pose significant issues for my overall health and wellbeing, which became debilitating during this term’s exam season.

In Fall 2024 of this past academic year, I began struggling greatly with mental health which made it very difficult for me to keep on track with my studies. I decided then to take a reduced course load for that semester to allow myself to take care of my mental well-being. This was a decision that was supported by my doctors and my close support system in order to preserve my academic success while focusing on my mental health as I did not want my grades to suffer due to my condition.

In the winter of this year I began taking medication for my severe mental health disorders. At this time, I decided I would continue my studies to try to persevere and graduate on time with the rest of my peers. I thus took 6 courses in Winter 2025 to try and catch up on credits (and am currently enrolled in 3 summer courses which will allow me to catch up in time to hopefully graduate with my class in 2026!). I began doing very well in these courses, receiving high 90s on all of my first assignments and doing fairly well (90s-100) on most of my quizzes in my courses. I was still struggling mentally, however, but I was dedicated to my studies and managed to persevere fairly well with new medication. Everything seemed to be going well until the strike started recently after midterms and persisted through exams. One of the main struggles that my mental health issues bring along is extreme test and exam anxiety. I have always struggled with test anxiety however this semester it was exacerbated by my mental health struggles and the added stress of the PSAC strike (which was after the drop date for courses and I did not want to fail my courses by dropping them).

Due to my test anxiety I get physically ill and become mentally fogged during exams and tests which cause me to do poorly regardless of the extent of my content knowledge, studying hard and being an active participant in the course. The PSAC strike and uncertainty of grade weighings and credit statuses also caused exaggerated stress and anxiety during my exam season. Since I was already focusing on making up for missing credits, I was really worried about graduating on time. Unfortunately, this uncertainty and stress caused significant worsening of my mental health disorder symptoms.

The two courses I am requesting a standing of CR in had a higher weighting of exams and tests rather than assignments or papers. I believe the grades I received in these courses do not accurately represent my actual knowledge and understanding of the course content due to the test/exam portions of these courses which were very negatively impacted by my test anxiety. I prioritize my education and hope to go to graduate school after my undergraduate degree. My grades are thus very important to me and I don't want to have any marks on my transcript that I don’t believe accurately represent me as a student. I’m a hard worker and am very dedicated to my studies and hope that I can receive a CR in these courses in order to have a transcript that I believe more accurately represents me as a student.

Going forward I will look into accommodations. I had heard about them during the semester, however I was told the process would take too long to come into effect this exam season. I also plan on taking a regular course load for the remainder of my studies in order to ensure that I don’t overload myself going forward. My learning and academic success are of great importance to me, the granting of these CR would better reflect my academic standing considering my extenuating circumstances.

Thank you for your understanding and consideration.

Warm Regards,

Zoë Lebel