Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean of studies,

I am appealing 18 courses in total, however, while submitting my appeal online I was restricted to only putting in 12 courses. The rest of the courses are stated in my letter with the instructors' names.

I am writing to you an extensive appeal letter regarding my failure to function academically in the past and the progress I have worked hard to make in the past four months.

From the Fall term of 2015, I am appealing to drop the following courses: HIST 241 (Fall, 2015), HIST 305 (Fall/Winter, 2015-16) and Hist 260 (Fall/Winter, 2015-16) without academic penalty. The one course I am not appealing from the fall term is HIST 210 (Fall, 2015) as I have been granted an incomplete in this course. I failed to appeal within the deadline during the fall term because I was under the assumption in the beginning of the term that I would be able to complete the work. This was not the case. I started the fall term knowing I needed to make changes in order to receive different results than in the past two years. I was on Concerta for the last three years for my ADD but due to personal reasons I decided to come off it; mainly because it was triggering my eating disorder and I was reaching an unhealthy weight. Not only that, but Concerta seemed to hinder my ability to study and function academically. Despite the medication¿¿s ability to help me focus, it made my anxiety much worse and led me to believe that I was simply incapable of finishing any assignment, even after beginning the work and doing the research, it was as though I was never prepared enough to begin the writing process and therefore I never reached completion. These were the effects of my anxiety coupled with such a strong narcotic such as Concerta. Had I continued to take this medication, my health would have been at a great risk. I made the decision to stop taking Concerta in hopes of moving past my eating disorder and functioning better academically. I thought if I was able to move past my eating disorder then I would have the time and energy to focus on school. This was not the case. Once I made the decision to stop taking Concerta in the beginning of September 2015, I started to experience withdrawal effects after discontinuing the medication. This caused several depressive episodes that made it difficult to simply get out of bed. All the hope I had in succeeding in the beginning of the fall term faded away and I was left in a state of hopelessness, unable to take action. I did try to reverse my decision to stop taking Concerta, and made an appointment with Dr. Susan Billing who informed me that I needed to get psychological testing in Kingston in order to get an ADD prescription, despite being on it for the past three years. I called my doctor back home, Dr. Taylor, who was the doctor that gave me the initial prescription of Concerta three years ago in order to get a referral from her, but unfortunately she was out of town. I did not get a call back. Enough time passed, and it was near the end of November that I did not see the point in trying to get Concerta again. I knew I needed to get help from my parents and open up to them about my psychological state as this was the only way I was able to move forward and take action in writing this extensive appeal letter. My poor psychological state was due to the severe mental effects on my self-worth, measured by my academics. Between my anxiety, ADD and disordered eating, I had a lot of trouble accepting how incapable I was in moving forward at the time, simply because I could not keep these issues under control. It was because of what I endured during the fall term that I did not drop the courses within the deadline date. I am asking you to give the chance to begin anew without having my poor academic past haunt over me and hinder my ability to grow as a student in the near future. I am finally at a state where I can firmly say that my mental health is under control and my circumstances such as my living situation and the support I have around me, have made it ideal to thrive. After coming back home on November 25th, I have had two appointments with Dr. Nicholson regarding my ADD, anxiety and depressive episodes at the Cachet Family Physician practice in Richmond Hill. I have been referred to a psychiatrist at the Markham Stouffville Hospital and I am moving forward in treating my mental and physical health.

In addition, the following courses I am appealing are courses I took in the past, beginning from fall 2013 to the summer of 2015. The psychological problems I began to face were triggered by life events regarding my family and me in the summer of 2013. The effects of such events caused several ongoing psychological problems that persisted for the next two years. I am asking if you are willing to hear my request to receive an Aegrotat standing in the following courses: COMM 251 (Fall, 2013), HIST 245 (Fall, 2013), COMM 231 (Fall, 2013). In these courses, I was able to complete at least 60 of the work assigned, and was able to pass these classes, but was unable to complete the final essays, or did poorly on the final exam. Secondly, on the advice of Joyce Hunter, I am appealing to receive an extension of an incomplete grade in the following courses: HIST 306 (Fall/Winter, 2014), ARTH 215 (Winter, 2014), HIST 258 (Winter, 2014), RELS 235 (Winter, 2014), HIST 341 (Fall/Winter 2015) HIST 400 (Winter, 2015) and HLTH 230 (Summer, 2015) Instructor: Jeffrey Lalonde, LAW 201 (Summer, 2015) Instructor: Mary Jo Maur, HIST 201 (Fall, 2014) Instructor: Andrew Jainchill, RELS 214 (Fall, 2014) Instructor: Callie Callon, LLCU 215 (Fall, 2014) Instructor: Donato Santeramo and GNDS 280 (Winter, 2015) Instructor: Cameron Greensmith.

On January 7th 2014 I was prescribed the anti-anxiety medication Prozac after being diagnosed with an anxiety disorder. After taking it for months, it was no longer helping my anxiety but rather making me even more anxious. I stopped taking this medication in the summer without consulting my doctor. I became weak, sleep deprived, and easily panicked. I was unable to sit down calmly long enough to complete work I had already started. I was paralyzed with fear and anxiety and soon I became depressed due to the effect my mental state had on my self-worth, especially as a student. It came to the point where emailing a professor was an achievement in and of itself. In addition to my anxiety, depression and eating disorder, the main reason for the in-completion of my assignments was driven by my irrational fear of failure, despite being granted grace by several of my professors. The thought of not finishing and taking as much time for each assignment was easier than handing it in and receiving a bad mark. I was in communication with my counselor at Queen¿¿s, Marlo Craig, who prioritized my health. I had a history of an eating disorder that was triggered by my academic status immensely in the winter of 2014. I focused on things I could control, and to me, the easiest thing to control was whether I chose to eat or not. I became very skinny in a short period of time. I was having sleeping problems that was driven by my anxious mental state, and not eating made it harder to sleep. Every time I would sit down to start an assignment I had great interest in, I found it hard to focus and couldn¿¿t stop the negative thoughts that flooded my mind. There was no longer room in my head to process any information as I was too concerned with my past marks to move forward and focus on the present. On March 3rd I was prescribed Cipralex by Dr. Lacoursiere, who I continued to see and had several appointments with (will attach details of aforementioned appointments once received from Kingston). It seemed that no matter what, no medication was able to help me move forward until I was ready to deal with what was infront of me. I was prescribed Zopiclone during this time in order to help me sleep, but the problem persisted. My anxiety perpetuated my avoidance and I went to great measures to ignore what was happening around me. In the winter term of 2015, after a counselling appointment, I was encouraged to make a doctor¿¿s appointment to get a physical and blood work done at LifeLabs to make sure my eating disorder did not have permanent effects on my health. The results were healthy and due to that I convinced myself that, I too, was healthy. However, despite being healthy physically, my mental state was on the verge of imploding from the pressure around me.

The reason I am strong enough to write this letter now is because I became honest with my family and those around me. This was what I should have done the moment I began struggling, and I regret being so consumed by my anxiety to realize that I needed to take action academically. I have decided to return home and stay with my parents in order to have a constant support system around me. I am ready to be held accountable by my parents and I am ready to reverse the academic damage from the last two years. To ensure I don¿¿t return to the state I was in, I have decided to transfer to a school here in Toronto; but in order to do this, I need to raise my GPA. This way, I am able to be with my family and move forward in trying to build a future for myself. In dealing with my eating disorder, I plan on attending an eating disorder clinic that my doctor in Kingston once referred me to last year, and again in the summer. I refused to go as I was not ready to accept what I was going through, but now I can finally say that I am ready to become healthy both mentally and physically, and to work hard towards achieving the marks I know that I am capable of.

I am currently trying to get a hold of the all the exact dates I met with my doctor in Kingston with the reasons why stated clearly. I will get proof of the appointments I had with Dr. Nicholson in Richmond Hill as well. I will send the referral I received from Dr. Lacoursiere to go to the eating disorder clinic in Mississauga. Additionally, my counselor, Marlo Craig, has sent in a letter of support prior to the winter break.

Thank you for taking the time to read my letter.

Marina Gerges