Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I am writing to appeal to drop the ENG 223 course in the Winter 2016 semester. Due to continuing extenuating circumstances, I was unable to successfully complete the course and as the credit is not necessary to complete my program, I would like to drop the course to lighten my work and emotional load.

Over the duration of my degree, I was faced with many setbacks in which reflect my academic performance. Notably, my mother was diagnosed with an acute form of schizophrenia in which her behaviour and mental state rapidly worsen. This led to her setting her home on fire and ever since she has been displaced and within care systems. As her only caretaker and advocate, I have actively taken on the tedious and emotional labour of finding housing, financial support, health care services as well as many other tasks with hopes that her condition would stabilize. This has been a long process and my mental state has suffered along with my academic career.

As of September 2015, the only counsellor, Hagar Prah, that I worked with on campus that provided support within cultural, race and women services was moved into another position in which I have not been able to get consistent and effective counselling since. As a black woman, I found the representation of counsellors of colour with training to engage in racism and discrimination to be crucial yet due to the lack of representation and counsellors doing this work, I have gone without support, which has affected my progress. This change also left me without a counsellor that could advocate and support me in seeking help when needed. Therefore, I do not have documentation to support this appeal and I hope that the appeal decision does not suffer for that reason.

As such, it would be beneficial to lighten my load and ensure that I would be able to obtain my degree after the summer semester and move outside of the university space and seek counselling support elsewhere.

Thank you,

Alannah Johnson