Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To Whom it May Concern,

My name is Tessa McMillan and I would like to submit an academic appeal, specifically a retroactive withdrawal for the Winter 2025 semester. I failed the courses HIST 210, HIST 306B, PHIL 296, and RELS 226 due to extenuating circumstances beyond my control, which impacted my academic performance significantly.
The period of time I was struggling was February to April 2025; the second semester of my second year. I was diagnosed with anxiety and OCD a few years ago, and depression around November 2024. I tried two different anti-depressants from November 2024-April 2025, however one caused extreme fatigue (often sleeping over 14 hours a day), and the other one caused severe insomnia. My depression symptoms were detrimental to my health during this time, as it affected my daily functioning and prohibited me from having motivation to get up in the morning, or even leave my house.
In February 2025, arguably the worst point for my depression, I got into an extremely abusive relationship. I experienced emotional and physical harm, leaving me with bruises all over my body which he told me to lie about. He prevented me from attending class and doing course work by taking me away from campus for extended periods of time, and not driving me back until he wanted to. Even when he did drive me back, he stayed with me in my student house and consistently put me in unsafe situations; for example his reckless driving, his drunk driving, and bringing me to places I felt extremely uncomfortable being. He was an alcoholic, and discouraged me from valuing school, in a manipulative and brainwashing way. He isolated me from all my support systems, I lost all of my friends, I stopped talking to my parents and my sister, and I felt as if he was all I had.
During the relationship I was not on any medication as I could not find one that worked for me, so my depression was extreme and made worse by the constant abuse I was enduring. He directly interfered with me completing my coursework or attending classes, and my mental health was so bad that I had no strength to fight against it. I missed a significant amount of classes, I was unable to focus or complete assignments/exams, and I had a lack of basic functioning. I had immense difficulty getting out of bed, I was eating very poorly, and I did not see my situation improving which affected all four courses constantly.
At one point, my mom was able to convince me to come home for a weekend. She sat with me and made me complete course work to try to help me get back on track. This allowed me to pass my PSYC class, as it was the one I was most interested in and was able to do enough to complete work with the help of my mom. When I was temporarily away from my situation, I had the support to do well, but when I went back to Kingston after that weekend, despite my mother begging me to stay at home and not return to this person, I fell right back into the previous patterns.
I did not recognize the severity of my situation until I came home for the break in April. He was manipulating me into thinking everything was normal, and my mental health was so poor that I did not feel like I was in my own body. I was unaware of academic options like appeals or withdrawals, and my mental health made it difficult to seek help or make decisions that would benefit my life. During this period I was also disengaged in therapy. I was not trying to neglect school, but I was unable to respond and interact appropriately.
When I returned home in April and left the abusive relationship, I was still very fragile and emotional. I was unable to function like a normal person and my family was very worried about me. Over time, I re-engaged with therapy and began to slowly recover with the help of my therapist, my family, and a couple close friends from home. I also started working again which helped me gain structure and stability in my life again.
I felt my mental health had improved so much by August. My parents had originally said for me to take the next semester off to continue to recover, but I felt ready to go back to Queens for the Fall of 2025. Not only did I feel ready, but I was excited and looking forward to re-engaging with school and all it has to offer. My parents and therapist agreed, with the conditions that I have online therapy appointments from school, and call them regularly to check in. Currently I am on anti-depressants that have been working very well for me, and my mental health has significantly improved. It is still being managed with therapy, and I have strong and consistent support from my family who are invested in my health and well-being. I joined the dance club in third year, and attended all my classes. I feel that my life is consistently improving and I am taking every measure possible to ensure that this continues.
My therapist wrote a letter that confirms my mental health struggles, abusive relationship, treatment, impact during that period, and my improvement now. My grades from that semester do not accurately reflect my academic ability, which is why I am requesting either retroactive withdrawal for the four courses, or removal of grades.
Thank you for your consideration.