Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Dr. Johanne Bénard,

I am appealing to drop ARTH 228 (Winter, 2016), ARTH 305 (Winter, 2016) and ARTH 348 (Winter, 2016).

A chronic illness has plagued me for the past few years, one that has unfortunately been exacerbated as symptoms take on a life of their own, increasing the severity of the primary illness in a rather vicious cycle.

I continue to deal with the psychological challenges mentioned in my previous appeal and though the year I asked for leave allowed me to address such challenges, it was only by testing myself this year that I learned the issues that cropped up in its wake.

Social anxiety shifting from discomfort to actual fear made attending classes far more difficult than anticipated. An irregular sleep cycle caused by the stress associated with anxiety and vice versa began to affect my health, physically and mentally, drastically affecting the acuity of the latter making it quite difficult to learn as much as I was accustomed to in the classes. The classes that I forced myself to attend anyway would leave me twice as fatigued. All of this made it so that despite continued effort I eventually burned out leaving me further behind in classes which in turn caused further flare ups that made it increasingly difficult to restart my efforts. All in all it could have been far worse.

I have taken all the steps I outlined in my previous appeal to mediate the prior issues and they did indeed work, for a time. Unfortunately, coping methods for psychological challenges can only be tested during trying circumstances and there is always the chance of failure.

Fortunately, it did not fail completely and I have learned quite a few things as a result. The necessity of figuring out in which circumstances I perform best in to lessen the overall mental and physical burden is one thing. More importantly however is the budding ability to anticipate flare ups that I hope can be better mediated by an early response in the future. I was even fortunate enough to salvage one class with the help of Student Accessibility Services and Professor Tomasone. All that I can really do, what I MUST do at this point, is acclimate myself to these trying circumstances through exposure and continued academic, social and personal challenges.

Steps like frequent visits to a healthcare professional, periodic check ins with SAS, clear communication with my Professors regarding my circumstances, medication, adjusting my habits academic and otherwise to work around chronic psychological challenges and even regular exercise are steps that I have taken to improve my circumstances. This year I hope to begin figuring out how it all fits together and though this will likely be a transition that take years, I hope that you will allow me to continue making progress this year.

Sincerely,

Gabriel Lapena