Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I am humbly writing this appeal to request to waive the one term deadline so that I can successfully submit a late appeal to drop selected courses after the last official date for dropping classes and request Credit Standing in a few other selected courses.

I had a lot of responsibilities throughout the 2016/2017 Academic Session and one of them was having to be an emergency contact for my little sister who has special needs. These responsibilities also involved having to be around for my younger siblings while both my parents were in Nigeria, necessitating frequent trips between Kingston and Toronto to join my aunt in my sister¿¿s medical appointments.

During this period, precisely between October and December 2016, my sister had a lot of crisis and had to be taken to the ER multiple times at Oakville Trafalgar Hospital. She eventually was hospitalized at McMaster Children Hospital from the 9th to 15th of December 2016 (See attached emergency bills and discharge summary). The stress from all these events took a huge toll on my academics but mostly affected my mental health. After my performance in the Fall Semester, I was traumatized, scared and in a state of shock to let any of my family or friends know about the difficulties I was going through. I had never failed in any of my previous academic endeavours, so it only made it that much harder to come to terms with the situation I happened to find myself. This being a new situation to me, I did not know to seek professional help from academic advisors or medical professionals. Having to deal with the anxiety, panic attacks and lost sense of purpose that came with the stress all alone only made the Winter Semester so much more difficult.

My mother having arrived into Canada from Nigeria on the 23rd of May 2017, noticed my unusual behavior and started asking questions until I finally let her know all about my difficulties after several weeks. She advised that I immediately contact the Arts and Science department to schedule an appointment with the Academic Advisors. It was during this scheduled session (June 28th,2017) with Heather that I was informed of the appeal process and the several steps I needed in order to take back control of my academic future.

Together with the events that occurred during the year, the medical emergencies (document attached) and the ongoing scheduled medical appointments (document attached), these extenuating circumstances beyond my control rendered me unable to appeal before the one term deadline. I hereby plead the waiver of the one term deadline to enable the processing of the late drop course and credit standing appeal of the 2016/2017 Academic school session.