Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: KATIE MICHELLE SANDRIN
149A Collingwood Street
Kingston, Ontario
February 14, 2018

This letter is written to follow up on my meeting with Associate Dean Benard on February 8, 2018, to offer some information on a number of health challenges which I had been dealing with through the Fall 2017 term at Queens University.
Since late September, 2017, I had been affected by persistent and combined symptoms that have at various times left me practically unable to speak, nauseous, and in pain, with severe fevers, cold sweats, a terribly sore throat, badly-swollen lymph nodes and sinuses and persistent overwhelming fatigue. During my initial visit to the Hotel Dieu Hospital in September, which involved spending 8 hours in the hospital, the doctors on duty were unable to offer me any type of diagnosis. The following week my symptoms worsened, and once again I attended the hospital to seek some help and advice, and the physician on duty ordered a series of diagnostic tests.
In total, I visited both Hotel Dieu and Kingston Hospital 6 times, not including follow-up referral appointments.
I did not expect that this illness, and particularly the severe fatigue, would persist until nearly the end of the Fall term. Eventually I was referred by Kingston Hospital ER doctors to an internal medicine specialist, chest x-rays, an ultrasound which showed my liver and spleen were both enlarged, and many blood tests which showed my liver enzymes were over 30 times normal maximum levels.
I was not able to obtain appointments with the internal medicine specialists (or test results) until quite late during the Fall term. Once I did however, despite these tests, the doctors in internal medicine were unable to diagnose me with any specific illness, but informed me they believed I had contracted a serious viral infection which was followed by another serious bacterial infection and a reaction to some of the prescribed medications. Through these weeks, I tried very hard to continue to attend classes and keep up with assignments and projects in order to not fall behind in my courses which was extremely difficult and during the time I studied for and wrote my midterms was at the peak of my illness. At least on one occasion I went from my exam to the hospital. Upon speaking with the internal medicine specialists both they and I agreed I likely should not have tried to maintain my course workload, due to the severity of my illness, and that my symptoms most probably negatively impacted my academic performance. Through this period, my days and nights consisted of struggling to get some sleep despite fevers and pain, waking each morning to prepare for and attend my classes, returning to my room to lie down between classes, doing my evening schoolwork and studying for exams before trying to treat symptoms, and to sleep again.
I believe that as a result of my prolonged symptoms and frequent hospital visits, my academic performance suffered in all my courses, but most particularly in my Health 230 and Anatomy 315 grades. These courses were weighted heavily on exams, and my exam marks in these courses were lowest during the midterm period, at the worst stages of my illness. My Health 230 course was predominantly weighted by the midterm exam and final exam, and my poor performance on my midterm exam proved to be detrimental to my grade in this course. This was similarly the case in Anatomy 315, and my frequent visits to the hospital during this time period very clearly affected my ability to attend classes. While my worst marks were during the midterm period, my illness continued to affect my exams until the end of the term at which I was experiencing symptoms of a secondary infection.
Because of the extenuating circumstances of the severity and duration of my illness during this period, I am respectfully requesting that the grades I received in these two courses not be included in my GPA, but that I still be allowed to receive credit for completion pf the courses as I did complete all required work. After speaking with a number of academic advisors I was told this was the best approach. I have provided documentation from both Dr. Chan from the Division of General Internal Medicine, verifying my illness.
I am hoping that under these circumstances, my case can be reviewed and my appeal of the grades in these two courses can be approved. I am hopeful that Queens can agree that my GPA should not be reduced further as a result of health challenges which I did not expect and could not control.
Thank you for your kind consideration of this request.
Yours sincerely,

Katie Sandrin