Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Queen¿¿s Faculty,

I am writing this appeal letter to explain the reasons behind the circumstances that have led to me not drop my courses within the deadline which has led to my Winter 2015 being incomplete, and along with this led a debt of approximately 2000 on my account due to it.

The problem began when I ordered my books from the Queen¿¿s Bookstore back in January 4th, 2015 for my Winter 2015 term. They were supposed to arrive to Pakistan within 2-3 days but instead they did not arrive until the end of February (Here is the tracking from FedEx where you can see when the textbooks finally arrived to me in Lahore: https://www.fedex.com/apps/fedextrack/actiontrack&trackingnumber6200203900200042&cntry_codeca_english). During this ordeal I not only faced sheer panic and anxiety over not having completed my work, I was diagnosed with anxiety and started showing physical symptoms which never appeared before such as insomnia, panic attacks at night, breathing problems, alopecia and depression. My father¿¿s sudden passing in 2013 led us to move to Pakistan very suddenly so I was still in the process of recovering from that loss and the change in environment. I have never been this stressed as I was this past semester from this ordeal. Overall, it was the second worst time of my life after losing my father. This distance program is my only hope at this point to complete my degree from a Canadian university while still staying with my mother and younger brother here in Pakistan. When my books finally did arrive 2 months late I was extremely overwhelmed that I did not even know where to begin, I spoke to my academic advisor who suggested I talk to professors to work out a schedule. 2 of the 4 only agreed and this only made my situation worse. Not only was I stuck with the course that I could no longer drop, I also could not complete it in the time remaining. Both of these courses are by the same professor, Mark Hostetler, who did not offer much support in this regard. I have completed one-half of DEVS100 but was unable to finish the remainder of my 3 other courses because of the circumstances I faced. I have never faced such a situation and did not understand the protocol of how dropping courses by a deadline work as I have never attended a university before.

At this point I can only appeal to drop all 4 courses so I can retake them, including the DEVS 100 unless I can get a aegrotat standing for DEVS100 because I completed one semester (and was granted 3 of the 6 credits for it). If not, I will gladly retake it given that I am refunded for all the courses. This is so my debt with the university can be waived off as the courses I am being charged for are courses I did not participate in except for the first half of DEVS100, and so I can enroll in future classes. I also think it is not fair to be expected to pay for courses I that knew I would not be able to complete, and at not being advised to drop the courses despite being in touch with the registrar and student services. My plan is to re-enroll in the courses which luckily are being offered this 2016 Winter term: HIST 252, DEVS 221 and DEVS 230. Please consider my circumstances and the difficulties I have faced in the last two years, and also consider the fact that I have a good standing with my previous classes, and most importantly that I have never attended a university before so I never understood the severity of dropping courses on time.

I am very grateful to have the opportunity thanks to Queen¿¿s and OSAP to be able to get my degree from such an institution. Please consider my case and allow me to prove myself another time.

Many, many thanks.

Regards,
Maria Nadeem