Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Dr. Johanne Bénard, Associate Dean (Studies),

My name is Kathy Zhen, and I just finished my first year at Queen¿¿s University. I am writing to you today in hopes of receiving an appeal for credit standing in the following courses: BIOL 103, CHEM 112, MATH 111, and MATH 121.

Because of medical reasons ¿¿ doctor appointments, surgery, and post-surgery check-ups ¿¿ I was unable to attend many classes this semester. From January 4th, 2016 ¿¿ February 19th, 2016, I was in and out of the doctor¿¿s office because of a growing lump on my neck. The following is a list of dates that I was absent from classes due to medical reasons:

January 4th, January 19th, and February 9th, 2016: Pre-surgery doctor appointments
February 12th, 2016: Surgery


In addition to missing classes on these days, I had to miss further classes because of travel time to and from these appointments. Most of the appointments took place on Tuesday. I left Monday afternoon for Toronto and returned Tuesday evening. As a result, I was unable to attend most, if not all, of my Monday classes and all of my Tuesday classes:

January 18th, 2016: Left campus to travel to doctor¿¿s appointment
February 8th, 2016: Left campus to travel to doctor¿¿s appointment

It was never my intention to be absent from all of these classes and I tried to make the most of my situation by scheduling appointments on days where I would miss the least amount of classes and had no labs.
Originally, my doctor had given me a medical note that excused me from classes for the week following Reading Week, in which I used to recuperate from my surgery and attend post-surgery appointments. Not wanting to miss more class than I had already, I returned that week not knowing that all my roommates were ill and became ill myself. I had a sore throat, headache, fever. As a result, I was unable to attend most of my lectures between February 22nd and February 26th. I also had to postpone a test for my MATH 111 class.
This semester has been physically and mentally demanding for me because of my surgery, I was anxious for the weeks leading up to the event and even more anxious and frazzled to catch up on my workload afterwards. I felt that my focus was very scattered because of this event and I would have been able to perform much better academically if this had not occurred. After each lecture I missed, I always made sure to get the notes from my classmates and did my best to stay on track.
Absences such as these will never happen again. I have fully recovered and will not be taking any more time off for medical purposes.
I have enclosed all of the necessary documents as evidence of my absences along with this letter.
Thank you for your time and consideration. I am looking forward to hearing back from you.


Sincerely,
Kathy Zhen

PS. The following two dates on my doctor¿¿s note are not applicable to this appeal since I was still in grade 12 on June 24, 2015 and it was not crucial for my attendance to the appointment on March 22, 2016 so I had a family member attend on my behalf.