Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To whom this may concern,
I humbly request that I be removed from the ENGL 238 course. I feel that over the course of this term there were a number of extenuating circumstances that impaired my ability to succeed within the course: that because of these circumstances my performance in ENGL 238 is not reflective of what I am academically capable of.

In mid-September, as the term was beginning my partner and I discovered that we were with child (picture of latest ultrasound included for confirmation). This forced me to move out of Queen's Community Housing to a more permanent residence. The stress of both discovering and coming to terms with this placed me off my footing right out of the gate. When compounded with the time investment and stress of relocating (finding a replacement tenant, packing up my life, transporting everything, and spending weeks unpacking/settling in) the course-load for the first half of the semester became unmanageable.

On top of moving, the remainder of this term stayed unmanageable due to the financial strain placed upon me by such a chain of events, to maintain financial stability I have been working an average of 29 hours a week (Some weeks up to 34). (included is a note from my employer's financial portal confirming my Bi-Weekly hours). This has left me with little time to attend classes, work, manage course work, and maintain healthy levels of sleep; needless to say: studying course material became incredibly challenging.

If the above was not enough to directly impact my success, my partner suffers from Narcolepsy and is unable to take medication for it due to the pregnancy. This has forced me to act as a care-giver, where I am unable to effectively work on course work or always attend classes because I am at home ensuring that her needs are met, which has been devastating to my success in the course.

While I have been able achieve some marginal degree of success in all my other courses, I have been unable to attain it in ENGL 238. As Dr. Willmot stated in a correspondence about the potential for earning extra credit (which was denied): ¿¿I can¿¿t help but wonder if you are taking more courses than is realistic to succeed as you wish.¿ I realize now that he was correct. I humbly appeal that I be remove from ENGL 238 to lessen the impact on my academic record and lessen the obstacles facing me in my future at Queens.

Thank you,
Aubrey McLeod