Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Dr. Jill Atkinson

I am writing this letter to submit an academic appeal to drop the courses POLS 364 (Winter 2018) and ARTH 215 (Winter 2018) without academic penalty.

Throughout the course of this school year I have dealt with a variety of mental health challenges. This semester these challenges became more severe, and as such I found my ability to complete my schoolwork markedly reduced. Specifically, in the cases of POLS 364 and ARTH 215 a strong feeling of anxiety prevented me from making any meaningful progress on my assignments. In both cases I was unable to even complete the preliminary planning stages of the essays assigned in each course. On the days of March 8th-12th, leading up to the due dates for these assignments, I had a series of severe panic attacks which further prevented me from making progress on any of my schoolwork. The impact of these feelings of panic was so strong that I was unable to write a test on Monday March 12th in a separate course. Since then I have continued to struggle with similar challenges but I am now beginning to undertake a proactive course of action, of which this appeal is part, to improve my mental health and reengage with my academics.

On Tuesday March 13th I began this plan by going to Student Wellness Services and speaking with a counsellor (I had made an appointment for April 2nd a few days previous but was at this point certain that I needed to speak with someone immediately). I made the decision to pursue the option of filing an academic appeal to drop these courses as I felt that my academic recovery would be better served if I could focus on my three remaining courses with which I have also been struggling. Over the Summer I plan to take 2-3 courses which will put me on track to graduate in four years if I take 30 or 27 units of courses in my fourth year respectively. I have also since had two follow up appointments with a counsellor at Student Wellness Services and am continuing to see them in an effort to resolve my mental health issues. I hope that my academic record demonstrates that what happened to me this year in general, but more importantly this semester in particular isn¿¿t the norm for me. In my past semesters at Queen¿¿s I have performed well academically, even making the Dean¿¿s List in my second year. I want to take control of my mental health, I want to begin being able to perform academically again, and this appeal is the first step in doing that.


Sincerely,
Brendan Robson
Student Number: 10193957