Manage Appeals
Petition Type: New
ID: 3639
Submitted: June 27, 2017 at 5:02:44 PM
First Name: Samantha
Last Name: Allen
Student Number: 10181599
Email: 14sda8@queensu.ca
Degree Program: BAH
Plan: HIST and MUSC (Medials)
Level of Study: 3
Petition Categories
Petition Categories: Drop a course after the academic deadline
Code: HIST 215
Term: Winter
Year: 2017
Petition Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline
Petition Letter
Petition Letter: Dr. Johanne Benard
Associate Dean (Studies)
Queen's University
Dear Dr. Benard,
I am appealing to drop HIST 215 (Winter, 2017). Due to extenuating circumstances regarding my mental health, my academics within HIST 215 were extremely effected.
My struggles with my mental health have been chronic for the past eight or so years. Within the past two years I have been receiving support from the healthcare community, via medication and regular check-in appointments. In the past I have received therapy though never found someone I connected well with, due to my declining mental health this past year, I restarted therapy in February 2017 and made an instantaneous connection. I fell physically ill with a nasty flu at the beginning of March that essentially left me bedridden for a week as I ran a high fever just below the line of needing to be hospitalized. For me this was the tipping point. Throughout the semester I had already missed classes due to mental health issues, but in March after a week bedridden, incapable of anything other than sleeping and drinking fluids, my mental health became even more unstable than before. This combined with family and personal conflicts lead me into one of the worst episodes with my mental health struggles I have ever experienced. Over the course of March I was only able to attend about half of my classes and became very far behind on all of my assignments, which deepened my mental health problems. As April picked up I was beginning to feel a tad better, to the extent I was able to get to more of my classes, though my stress level was at an all time high as my assessments were drawing nearer. With the help of my therapist I was able to receive extensions for many of my assignments and my professors were all quite understanding and very helpful. Even with this, there was still a lot to accomplish. During mental health struggles in January, HIST 215 was the class that I had put slightly on the back burner as I had taken 6 units of history courses over the Summer 2016 term and had scheduled in another 6 units for Summer 2017. All of my other classes had attendance and participation marks so if I felt that if I could only make it to one of the classes for the day but not the other, I would choose to miss that class, for the sake of my well being. When it came down to prioritizing my time I focused on HIST 316 which was a full year seminar course, two MUSC classes essential to my degree and GNDS 280 which most of the course had already been evaluated. HIST 215 still had approximately 60 of the course yet to be evaluated come April. Since I had already missed so many classes my therapist and I discussed the practicalities of this with the impact on my mental health and we agreed that it would be a wise decision to drop the class. To relieve some of the workload I stopped attending the classes and did not hand in the last assignment or attend the exam. This provided the relief I needed to accomplish the works for my other classes (though the grades were lower than my usual standards).
For the upcoming terms of Fall 2017 and Winter 2018, I intend on taking a lesser course load as by the end of Summer 2017 I will have completed 15 units during summer terms. Additionally, I intend on continuing therapy and regular check-ins with my doctor to ensure I continue receiving care for my mental health. Also for the coming year, my therapist and I intend on filling out the paperwork for academic accessibility services as I am not currently registered. Thus ensuring I receive the support I require for the upcoming year.
Thank-you for taking the time to consider my appeal, I appreciate it greatly as this is not within my character to make such requests.
Sincerely yours,
Samantha Allen
3rd Year History Medial and Music Medial
Student 10181599
Associate Dean (Studies)
Queen's University
Dear Dr. Benard,
I am appealing to drop HIST 215 (Winter, 2017). Due to extenuating circumstances regarding my mental health, my academics within HIST 215 were extremely effected.
My struggles with my mental health have been chronic for the past eight or so years. Within the past two years I have been receiving support from the healthcare community, via medication and regular check-in appointments. In the past I have received therapy though never found someone I connected well with, due to my declining mental health this past year, I restarted therapy in February 2017 and made an instantaneous connection. I fell physically ill with a nasty flu at the beginning of March that essentially left me bedridden for a week as I ran a high fever just below the line of needing to be hospitalized. For me this was the tipping point. Throughout the semester I had already missed classes due to mental health issues, but in March after a week bedridden, incapable of anything other than sleeping and drinking fluids, my mental health became even more unstable than before. This combined with family and personal conflicts lead me into one of the worst episodes with my mental health struggles I have ever experienced. Over the course of March I was only able to attend about half of my classes and became very far behind on all of my assignments, which deepened my mental health problems. As April picked up I was beginning to feel a tad better, to the extent I was able to get to more of my classes, though my stress level was at an all time high as my assessments were drawing nearer. With the help of my therapist I was able to receive extensions for many of my assignments and my professors were all quite understanding and very helpful. Even with this, there was still a lot to accomplish. During mental health struggles in January, HIST 215 was the class that I had put slightly on the back burner as I had taken 6 units of history courses over the Summer 2016 term and had scheduled in another 6 units for Summer 2017. All of my other classes had attendance and participation marks so if I felt that if I could only make it to one of the classes for the day but not the other, I would choose to miss that class, for the sake of my well being. When it came down to prioritizing my time I focused on HIST 316 which was a full year seminar course, two MUSC classes essential to my degree and GNDS 280 which most of the course had already been evaluated. HIST 215 still had approximately 60 of the course yet to be evaluated come April. Since I had already missed so many classes my therapist and I discussed the practicalities of this with the impact on my mental health and we agreed that it would be a wise decision to drop the class. To relieve some of the workload I stopped attending the classes and did not hand in the last assignment or attend the exam. This provided the relief I needed to accomplish the works for my other classes (though the grades were lower than my usual standards).
For the upcoming terms of Fall 2017 and Winter 2018, I intend on taking a lesser course load as by the end of Summer 2017 I will have completed 15 units during summer terms. Additionally, I intend on continuing therapy and regular check-ins with my doctor to ensure I continue receiving care for my mental health. Also for the coming year, my therapist and I intend on filling out the paperwork for academic accessibility services as I am not currently registered. Thus ensuring I receive the support I require for the upcoming year.
Thank-you for taking the time to consider my appeal, I appreciate it greatly as this is not within my character to make such requests.
Sincerely yours,
Samantha Allen
3rd Year History Medial and Music Medial
Student 10181599
Documentation
Professional Letter: AllenAppeal-0.pdf