Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Dr. Johanne Bénard,

My name is Jessica Morris, and I am a second year student majoring in Biology. I am appealing to the Faculty of Arts and Science to drop Organic Chemistry (Chem 281 Fall 2015) and Brain and Behaviour (Psych 271 Fall 2015) from my official transcript due to mental health issues.
In my first year at Queens University I started to suffer from mental health issues that started to affect my academic abilities. In the spring of 2015 I started seeing a counselor at the campus health resource centre. Unofficially the counsellor came to the conclusion that I suffered from anxiety and depression. In the fall of 2015 I returned to Queens for my second year to major in biology after feeling like I had overcome my mental health issues over the summer. In early November I fell into a state of depression and severe anxiety that started to debilitate my abilities in all areas of life. I ended up failing the two courses I am asking to appeal as a result of my mental health issues, I lost all motivation and little energy I had after this event and fell into an even worse mental state. In November when my depression came back I started to have issues with motivation in all ways of life. I stopped eating, stopped going to class and practically living in my bed while still trying to work to keep my grades up and being in slight denial that I was falling back into my depressed ways.
I suffer from severe depression due to my anxiety and reasons that currently are still unknown to me. After I did so poorly academically in school last semester it became harder for me to even be at Queens. I am still coming to terms that I am suffering from mental health issues currently. In January I started to see the counsellor again to try and make things better, we had decided from their that I needed to talk to a medical physician. I saw Dr. Forester who clinically diagnosed me with depression and anxiety, and prescribed me medication. In February when I saw the doctor and physician I had also met with an academic advisor who had advised me that I may want to consider taking the rest of the semester off or at least reduce my course load. I know I should have had this appeal in sooner but I decided to stay with a full course load, I had major work to catch up on and I really wanted to focus on my exams so I didn¿¿t have to go through failing any more courses.
Looking at the future, myself and the people working with me in dealing with my mental illness, we have created a plan in order for me to succeed. The first part of the plan is that I am finishing this semester out as strong as I can, I am finishing my five courses and then taking a step back to re-evaluate where I stand. I also started taking medication to help with the depression and anxiety which has proven to be beneficial as I have started living my life properly again with motivation, energy and not crying in bed constantly. Beside the medication and finishing the year out strong, I am seeing a counselor, plan to work with a therapist once a week over the summer and in the fall I will either return to Queens with a lighter course load or be planning on switching to Queens Distance Studies to continue working at home with my therapist but still pursuing school.
I hope that you can see that me failing the two courses in the fall is not an accurate representation of my academic abilities. My mental health compromised my abilities and performance but I really hope that it doesn¿¿t haunt me by following me around on my transcript. I plan on working harder than ever to make sure my mental health never gets in the way of my academic success again, with the medication and support I foresee my future as being successful. Thank you for taking the time to consider my appeal and I look forward to hearing back from you.