Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To The Associate Dean (Studies),

I am appealing to drop the following courses: ECON 110 (Full-year, 2017-2018), MATH 111 (Full-year, 2017-2018), MATH 121 (Full-year, 2017-2018), and ITLN 111 (Winter, 2018).

Earlier this week, I found myself in a significant mental health crisis, and sought help from Queens First Aid, Student Wellness Services (Health Services and CS-Crisis) as well as an Academic Advisor. This event was not triggered by one specific thing, but was more the combination of many factors over the last 7 months.

I have realized that many of the courses I enrolled in this year are beyond my capability, and as such I ended up falling behind very quickly. By the time I realized how far behind I was, I found myself desperately trying to catch up while still trying to learn the most recent content, and my lack of understanding made it impossible to keep up. This caused a major drop in my motivation that affected the amount and quality of work I did greatly, and caused me to become anxious about how I was going to continue my year. When I tried to find another course to take in late January, Italian was the only course available to fit my schedule, and entailed learning an entirely new language. This was obviously the wrong choice made in a desperate attempt to make up for other courses that were also inappropriate for my abilities.

Added to my course load was an extreme feeling of isolation and not knowing where to turn. When I first found out I had a single room I was thrilled, I thought that this would be an easy place to work with privacy whenever I needed it. However, this was not the case, my room has become a place that I resent. Every time I step foot in my room I feel extremely isolated and alone, which has a very negative impact on my motivation and mental health, and even my eating habits. The isolation and worry about keeping up manifested itself into a crushing feeling of anxiety that I carry around constantly. I felt completely helpless, and suffered a major mental health incident this week as a result.

Should I be allowed to drop these courses, I would be able to focus on completing the current year successfully. My intent would be to enroll as a Returning First Year student for 2018/2019 using the following plan for success:

Academics

- Continue GEOLOGY 106 to completion this year as it is a course that interests and motivates me to do well
- Work with my academic advisor to return as a First Year student, and to select courses that create a long term academic plan that is of interest and motivates me, and to retake any courses that may be required
- Use the PASS, Bounce Back and Learning Strategies programs earlier in the year

Mental Health, Anxiety and General Health

- Wellness and Counselling Services at Queens for rest of term and next year
- Mental Health Assessment booked with Queens Wellness Services April 11th
- Continued care with medical professionals in Toronto during the months between Semesters (Psychologist, Family Doctor, Sleep Clinic)
- Diagnosed Sleep disorder: continue with Sleep Clinic and Doctor in Toronto to find strategies and solutions to deal with disorder. Appointment April 26th
- Learn strategies to combat my anxiety
- Gain weight lost as a result of anxiety
- Combat isolation by living with like-minded students in a house close to campus
- Increased use of gym and extra-curricular activities

Thank you for your consideration in this matter.
Kind regards,
Stuart Lillico