Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean (Studies),

My name is Brett Snowden, I will be entering my fourth year at Queen's University this fall with a focus in Applied Economics and Statistics and I am appealing to drop ECON 351 (Winter, 2015) from my transcript.
Following the passing of my grandfather in November 2014, I began to shut down; I became distant from my closest friends and even my family and became uninterested in activities I always enjoyed. When I returned to Queen's after the Fall 2014 semester, I constantly felt exhausted both mentally and physically. I regularly had problems sleeping and found it nearly impossible to get out of bed in the morning. I had no energy to leave my house which resulted in me missing most of my lectures and not handing in assignments no matter how heavily weighted they were. I found myself unable to handle the workload and I was forced to drop my first course in University because I hadn't handed in any of the assignments. Only having four courses I still found myself unable to cope with the workload and found it just as difficult to concentrate or get any work done as before. In ECON 351, I did not hand in or complete most assignments and received very poor grades on the few I did submit.
On March 19, 2015 I finally spoke to my parents about how I was feeling at school and my mother asked me to speak to someone at Queen's Health Counselling and Disability Services (HCDS). On March 20, 2015 I spoke to a personal counsellor and a health care professional, I was diagnosed with depression and began taking antidepressants the same day. I spoke to my personal counsellor again on April 10, 2015 and the health care professional again on April 16, 2015. That was when I was given a verification of illness to send to my professors in order to defer my exams, as my performance would've been considerably affected. Since I have written one of my four exams and have planned to write one in August and one in early September. As for ECON 351, the professor has stated that I would be unable to write the exam at any time other than in December with the Fall 2015 class. A different professor teaches the class in Fall 2015 so the exam may have stronger emphasis on different topics and I feel that due to my affliction I would be at an unfair advantage going into the exam having not seen the material in 8 months without any feedback on my knowledge of the course.
I plan to take ECON 351 next semester (Fall, 2015) because it would give me a chance to complete the assignments in the course and receive feedback on my performance. Taking the course in the fall would also give me a better knowledge of what the new professor is looking for on the exam. As well I have maintained biweekly meetings with a personal counsellor and monthly check-ins with a health care professional at HCDS, I plan to continue these meetings as they have helped me to not only return to being healthy mentally and physically but to continue to be healthy too. My future plans will allow me to perform at the level I know that I can and would put me in a position to succeed and achieve my academic goals. Thank you for your time.

Best,
Brett Snowden