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Petition Letter: Jalen Sikkema 20489756 Bachelor of Arts (Honours) Faculty of Arts and Science

June 16, 2025

To the Associate Dean of Queen’s University Faculty of Arts and Science,

My name is Jalen Sikkema, and I am in the Bachelor of Arts (Honours) program. I am writing this letter of request to drop WRIT 125 and receive credit (CR) standing for SOCY 122.

I am a student-athlete on the Queen’s Men’s Basketball team and just finished my first year. There were several reasons for my underwhelming grades for which I hope to receive your consideration. As a top player on the basketball team, navigating my transition to university while balancing my academic responsibilities was incredibly challenging, especially nearing the end of the Winter Term. As one of the top two teams in the province competing in the OUA Championships and qualifying for nationals, I was forced to miss several classes at a critical time of the school year, as playoffs coincided with exams.

Additionally, the TA strike was in effect, which made the learning experience increasingly more challenging. It was never made clear which assignments counted toward a final grade and which assignments were being dropped. With WRIT 125, there was a major communication issue. While it was an online course, my emails would sometimes take several days (up to two weeks) to respond to, and it wasn’t clear what the plan for the remainder of the course was. For SOCY 122, I missed several classes due to my athletic commitments. Once the strike began, all tutorials were cancelled and classes were made into online lectures, making it more difficult to understand the course material. This lack of communication and change in format posed a significant challenge for me.

Lastly, My Dad had just lost his job in early January, making my tuition and resident payments constantly late. Meanwhile, my mom had gone through a big surgery that removed her from her work for roughly 8 weeks (February 19 – April 15). These were difficult issues to deal with at the time, adding tons and tons of stress to my life while also forcing me to dedicate less time towards schoolwork.

I plan on retaking a writing course and majoring in Film and Media. In dropping WRIT 125 and moving SOCY 122 to credit, this would allow me to recover my AFA and enter my second year in good standing. Thank you for your time and consideration.

Jalen Sikkema 20489756