Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To: Associate Dean (Studies)

I am appealing to waive the 21 day deadline to drop: DRAM2015 (Winter 2014/2016), IDIS210 (Winter 2014), POLS212 (Winter 2014), POLS280 (Winter 2014), FILM303, DRAM251 (Winter 2017), DRAM400 A/B (Fall/Winter 2016/17), DRAM448 (Winter 2017), FILM110 A/B (Fall/Winter 2016/7), MUTH210 (Winter 2017), ENIN301 (Summer 2017), and FILM300 (Summer 2017).
Essentially theses are a large number of courses that I have failed, primarily spanning two large chunks of time. My extenuating circumstances as to waiving the 21 day deadline are the same as those for dropping the courses.
I suffer from an auto-immune disease called ulcerative colitis. Though sometimes controlled, my condition ¿flares¿¿ unexpectedly; usually at stressful and inconvenient times. Many of these flares result in extended hospital admissions, bed rest, and missed classes. Even when not experiencing a flare, I tend to be in a general state of ill health and am frequently dealing with side effects from medications as well as complications characteristic of auto-immune diseases.
More significant to my appeal however is the toll that my physical illness has taken on my mental health. I suffer from depression, general anxiety, and panic attacks. The only way I¿¿ve been able to make sense of this is through recognizable triggers in my physical health. One of the largest struggles I¿¿ve had with this is the compounded pressure of health and school. Every time in the past that I have sat down to write this appeal letter, I have been crippled by anxiety, unable to look at the failures on my transcript.
I have however been working very hard on improving the relationship between my mind and my body, and in accepting my past failures as having been uncontrollable side effects of mental and physical challenges out of my control.
I hope that this appeal is successful so that I can continue on and have the failures removed outright, and so that I can graduate this year. I have consulted an accademic advisor regarding my graduation and this appeal, and so far in the semester I am on track to do so in April.

Thank you for your time and your consideration,
Shannon Margaret Klumak