Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dr. Johanne Bénard, Associate Dean of Studies

My name is Katie Garland and I am a student in Kinesiology. I am also a member of the Queen¿¿s Varsity Women¿¿s Rugby Team.

I am appealing to drop KNPE251 (Fall 2016) after the academic drop deadline.

I would like to drop this course due to a concussion I incurred while competing for Queen¿¿s in mid-October, 2016. Due to my concussion, I have not been able to properly study and learn the content for my courses. I am at the point where I am catching up after taking some time off and I won¿¿t be able to catch up enough in KNPE251 to succeed in this course.

The symptoms I am currently experiencing are not being able to focus, headaches, not being able to sleep, memory impairment and emotional problems associated with depression. Working on a computer screen for long periods of time aggravates these symptoms. After a day of classes and some reading, my head is exhausted which does not allow for normal studying time in the evening.

I understand that the drop date was on Friday November 4th. However, early last week I was feeling better, and thought I could stay in my courses. My concussion took a turn for the worse later in the week and into the weekend which has led me to decision to drop this course.

The more work I try to do to catch up in this course unfortunately makes my symptoms worse. Focussing on this course while experiencing concussion symptoms takes up a majority of my time, which does not allot enough time for me to catch up in my other courses. When I experience my concussion symptoms, I have to take a break where I cannot do any work or focus on anything which causes me to dedicate more time to this course then to others. Therefore, I am hoping by dropping this course, I can maintain a smaller course load and be academically successful in my remaining courses.

Having fewer courses will allow me to take the breaks I need while studying, which helps me manage my concussion symptoms. My GPA is very important to me and I believe by taking this step to drop this course, I will be able to maintain a good GPA in my other courses and overall.

With this appeal, I am submitting two medical notes from Dr. O¿¿Connor, the sport medicine doctor in athletics. The first is from October 18th when I initially received the concussion and the second is from November 1st which outlines my continued symptoms.

Thank you for your consideration with this appeal.

Katie Garland