Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Student Services
Dunning Hall, First Floor
94 University Avenue
Queen's University
Kingston, ON Canada
K7L 3N6

Dear Dr. Bénard,

I am writing this letter of appeal in order to request Aegrotat Standing for incomplete assignments in the following courses: BMED380 and ENGL100-700. Both were taken during my fifth year at Queen's, and I believe that my final grades are a misrepresentation of my academic diligence, which was heavily impacted by my extenuating circumstances.

My sister has struggled with her mental health for a number of years and on February 28, 2017 she attempted to take her life for the second time during my time at Queen's. I traveled to my home in Toronto in order to be with her and remained away from Queen's until March 5th. During this week, it was decided that I would be moving to London, Ontario for the remainder of the year in order to support her so that she could complete her studies at Western University. This required that I conclude my courses remotely from London, step back from my positions as a Senior Residence Don, Senior Bounce Back facilitator and front desk assistant at Student Academic Success Services, in addition to completing the assignments that were due during the busy week that I had been at home. I moved into my sublet in London on March 8th and for the remainder of the semester, I made the 6 hour bus trip from London to Kingston upwards of 9 times in order to organize my affairs, complete midterms, transfer my belongings and finally, for exams. With chagrin, I admit that these circumstances had a negative impact on my ability to complete my studies to my full potential, even though I made every possible effort. I set up meetings with my professors in order to ask for accommodations, spoke with an academic counsellor and tried my best to make use of my resources from afar.

Regardless of my efforts, I had one assignment for each of the courses that I was unable to submit in a timely manner. For BMED380 the assignment titled, Case Study: Part 2 was due on April 17th and worth 20 of the final grade. As this was in the midst of exams and I was in the process of not only studying for my exams but also traveling back and forth between London, Toronto and Kingston while ensuring that my sister maintained a positive mental health, I found that I was unable to complete and submit the assignment until April 27th, the day before my last written examination. When my final grade appeared on SOLUS and I had received a zero for the assignment, I corresponded with the professor, Dr. Charles Graham who understandably said that unfortunately he could not make an exception due to the timing of the submission.

For ENGL100, the essay that I did not complete was Essay 3 and worth 15 of my final grade. This essay was due on February 17th, which was just prior to my sister's suicide attempt. At this time, her mental health was declining and as such I was spending much of my time with her. After the incident, I spoke with an academic counsellor and my professor, who granted me an extension. However, as I was tending to my sister while catching up on other assignments that I had missed while organizing my relocation to London, in addition to attempting to complete the ongoing assessments that grew more frequent nearing the end of the term, I was unable to complete the essay.

I am not filing an appeal for my remaining three courses because of both the nature of the remaining assessments that were due in addition to the accommodations that were provided by the professors due to my situation. For BIOL111 the one assignment due on April 12th and 3 online quizzes that I had yet to complete aside from the exam were not time consuming in nature. For PSYC351, there was one midterm and exam, both of which I had to complete in person. For BMED471, the professor was extremely accommodating in terms of due dates, I was able to submit my remaining 5 projects by the end of the semester, on a rolling basis. Both BMED380 and BMED471 had weekly discussion board posts as well, which I tried to actively participate in.

In regards to my future plans, having graduated I am now taking a year to work at SickKids Hospital as a Research Assistant and am spending more time supporting my family. As I am still hoping to apply to graduate programs this coming year, I hope that my transcript may be able to reflect my situation. I would like to apply to law school this cycle and advocate on behalf of mental health patients and their families. In hindsight, more consistent and regular communication from afar with my professors would have been helpful and thus, should a similar situation occur in the future I will make sure to do this.

I admit that I have made past mistakes in not seeking support earlier on in my undergraduate career at Queen's, even though I had required it for similar circumstances. I now hope that I have learned my lesson and am thus filing this appeal. I am embarrassed to confess that this year brought challenges and a pressure that were overwhelming in nature. Thank you very much for your time and consideration, should you have any additional questions or require other documentation, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Sincerely,
Stephanie Cho