Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To the Associate Dean,

My name is Daniel Sheedy and I am going into my 4th year at Queen's. I'm in Arts and Sciences majoring in physical geography, which I switched into after second year from computer science. I am appealing the 21 day drop deadline for courses taken in the 2014 Fall and 2015 Winter terms. I failed several of these courses and, while I would like to simply retake them, none of those courses are currently useful because I switched my program and major. Additionally, these courses are significantly impacting my GPA, so much so that I am being required to withdraw for a year despite much improved academic performance.

University is a trying time for many, and I have not been an exception. Going into first year I was unsure of my direction in life and if my program was the right one for me. My grades were adequate in first year, I did well in my computing and science courses, but struggled in math. I decided to continue in computing, and I went into second year with full computing courses. This was a mistake, and throughout the year I was unmotivated, depressed and struggled with my work ethic, substance abuse, and sleep hygiene. Even when I managed to force myself to the library I had a hard time staying productive. After an extremely challenging and stressful year, I switched into geography for third year. I understand that this would have been the ideal time to appeal the 21-day deadline and drop the failures from the previous year, however I was still struggling with substance abuse and motivation at that time, and wanted to focus as much as possible on the upcoming year and try to overcome the impact that they had on my GPA. I believe that my concentration on moving forward paid off, and after addressing both the personal and academic barriers I was facing my grades in 3rd year significantly improved. I passed all of my courses and am 0.07 grade points away from meeting the cutoff.

One of the most significant detracting factors from my academic and personal life was substance abuse. This was something that my family and I took very seriously, and I sought and received professional counselling. This counseling helped me to reevaluate my life and my decisions, and supplied me with tools and techniques to control and overcome my substance abuse problems.

Going forward, I am working on academic recovery. At the end of second year I realized that my current situation was unsustainable and set about changing it. I made use of Queen's student services and talked to Career Counselling, the HCDS (now Health Services) and the Stauffer Library Resource Center. I began to map out the way my life needed to change. It became clear that computing was not a good fit for me, and I applied for a change of plan to geography. I made the switch and have loved my program and courses since. Academic performance is obviously a primary concern, so I when I went for academic counselling at Stauffer my goal was to find ways to improve both my study habits and study effectiveness. I reorganized my notes, both physical and digital to make course information easier to manage and access. To address skipping class and not dedicating enough time to studying I now use a detailed weekly planner to organize my week, and structure my studying around my classes so that I'm on campus before my classes start. My attendance has been significantly improved from second year, I now rarely miss classes. To ensure I make deadlines, I use a monthly calendar with all my assignments and labs scheduled well in advance. I have used techniques from the Stauffer Center for studying more effectively from notetaking (textbook and lecture) to exam and midterm prep (stages of learning, structuring your studying around your exam schedule). I have continued to use these techniques and methods, and used other resources too, such as office hours, meeting people in my classes to study with, and tutoring for courses that I anticipated difficulty with this term. I achieved a term GPA of 2.28 in the Winter of 2016, a significant improvement over previous performance. My goal is to use the assets that are available to me to achieve a 3.0 GPA for the 2016 Fall term, and extend that trend so I can graduate.

Having explained my situation, I would like to stress how strongly I feel about this appeal. I feel that I have set myself on an upward trajectory in both my life and my academics, and would like to continue that trend. I came so close to meeting the GPA cut off (my GPA is 1.53, 0.07 short of the required 1.60), and dropping these courses would bring my GPA within the requisite range. While I understand the value of taking time away from school to reset and reevaluate priorities and prepare yourself for a successful return, I feel that I have already made that step. Of course there is still work to be done, but I am now equipped to face the challenge that is before me, and a year away from my studies would be a step backwards for me, not forwards. For that reason, if it is not possible to waive the 21-day deadline, I wish to appeal the requirement to withdraw.

Sincerely,
Daniel Sheedy