Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: My extenuating circumstances began at the end of my first year at Queen's. I had suffered from anxiety before, however being away from my support system was extremely hard for me, and I was sexually assaulted months previous, leading to an onset of severe depression. Coming into my second year, I was still suffering from the effects of these circumstances, and was often unable to attend class or get out of bed at all. This culminated in two suicide attempts, one in October and one in January. Multiple times before I had attempted to get help. I had reached out to the peer support centre, gone to Student Wellness services with suicidal thoughts, gone to the clinic at Hotel Dieu Hospital and eventually ended up at KGH, only to be turned away and told to see my family doctor. I did not have a good support system at Queen's at the time, and eventually had to move out of my student housing because the people I had chosen to room with were overtly hostile and actively contributed to my depression and suicidal thoughts. I eventually went on medication for depression, however this only made my mental health worse, and I cycled through several medications before deciding to go off of medications in general. Throughout this time, I was a full time student and doing my best to succeed at Queen's, but my anxiety had gotten to a point where I was unable to attend tutorials, and I could not find motivation to attend class. I attended counseling, and spent the summer after my second year volunteering in Turkey. Coming back from this, I actively prioritized my mental health and began to build a support system, and since then I have become extremely active in the clubs on campus, I have been achieving high grades in my courses. I attended the BISC and was the top of my class, and received the universities Canada award for my contrbutions to the community. I am extremely lucky to be where I am today, and am appealing because I see the possibilities for my future. I plan on applying to grad school and applying for competitive jobs, however my grades from second year are now detrimental to those goals. Looking at my transcripts, it is easy to see that I can achieve at high levels and I am currently invested in succeeding, and I don't want my mental health issues to affect my future. I want to clarify that I don't expect to get credit for the failed courses I am appealing, I only want to remove the failed grades from my transcript and get CR in the courses I did not fail. I also know you will be reaching out to my professors, however I am afraid that since it's been three years and they were large second year classes, they may not remember or support my appeal. Regardless, I am appealing because I know that I had the potential to achieve, and the only reason for my falling grades was my mental health.