Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean,

I am emailing you in regards to my request to drop a course past the deadline, I have gone to crisis counselling and they will provide documentation of my case to you.

This year was difficult for me as I was faced with a consistent chain of events that not only negatively impacted my personal wellbeing but also hurt my academic wellbeing as well. Throughout the year I found myself having to spend much of my time in Toronto as opposed to Kingston due to some family matters that required me to stay home. This resulted in many class absences that were beyond my control; I had communicated with my professors and was able to still get my written assignments in on time without penalty. I figured that as long as I maintained this direct communication with my professors, I would be able to hold up academically and achieve the grades that I strive for. However, the constant long drives between Kingston and Toronto paired with the stress of catching up academically and the stress of the family matters really added up and took a toll. I was sick multiple times throughout the winter semester which set me back even further as I was not physically able to complete some work or even attend my classes regularly. These constant setbacks exacerbated my already-severe anxiety which I have been dealing with for a while, I believe queens already has medical records of my anxiety as I switched residences in first year because of this. I am planning on choosing politics as my major as I am fond of both the subject matter and being graded on written assignments, the less-frequent formal exams are appealing to me as well as I get very stressed out over the thought of writing exams worth large chunks of my marks. My politics course grades reflect the fact that I was able to achieve good grades in these courses through written assignments and online sources however the same cannot be said about Roman History. For Roman History, our entire grade was determined by two of three tests throughout the semester, each of which were worth around 40-45 of the total mark. This made me feel very anxious as I had not known this was the way the grading process worked for this course when my friend recommended it to me as an elective. I missed the first Roman History test as I was at home attending a funeral and also catering to family needs during a time of sorrow. This took priority over any academics for obvious reasons however you are allowed to miss one of the three tests throughout the semester so I was still OK at this point. My problems arose when it came time to write the second test; I was very sick in the weeks leading up to the test which hurt my ability to study and prepare properly for my exam which was worth nearly half my total mark in the course. Due to my ongoing external circumstances I was also unable to attend class regularly in order to consult my professor in person or even take down proper notes for study. I ended up having to cram for this exam when I began to feel better however this resulted in me falling ill again, as well as ¿choking¿¿ during the writing of the exam as I had not been getting sufficient sleep due to my extenuating circumstances paired with my sickness. This resulted in me not performing well on an exam worth roughly half of my mark, I began to get really stressed out over this course as it is an elective however it was most definitely going to bring my GPA down which would likely prohibit me from being accepted in to my desired major of politics. I am very keen on being accepted in to my major of politics as I have finally found my academic interest however I am extremely stressed and constantly anxious as my elective (Roman History) will bring my GPA down due and prohibit me from being accepted in to the politics major.

Any solution to this would be greatly appreciated, I believe that dropping this course would be most beneficial to my future goals at Queens.

Thank you in advance,

Alexander Aston