Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: April 22, 2018

Dr. Atkinson,

I am appealing to drop BCHM 218 (Winter, 2018) and receive a CR standing for BIOL 201 (2017, Fall), BIOL 243 (2017, Fall), and ANAT 100 (Winter, 2018).

I have been having family problems since I have started attending Queen's University in Fall 2016. I regularly saw a counsellor second semester of first year regarding issues with my mother. However, this has become more prominent and stressful this year. As I got placed on academic probation, tension levels increased between my mother and I, receiving threats to get kicked out of my home and frequent phone calls consisting of solely negative remarks and yelling, consuming much of my time and energy throughout the semester. This has placed an emotional toll on me, and caused further stress throughout the year. These events left me feeling exhausted both emotionally and physically. My family problems on top of school stress caused me to have a difficult time sleeping, resulting in many sleepless nights or minimal rest. More specifically, I was kicked out of my house the weekend I had to write my online midterm for BCHM 218 and told to pack my stuff as I was in the process of writing an online practical evaluation for ANAT 100. This caused me to lose valuable time to write the timed evaluation, and made it much more difficult to finish the assessment while crying. I believe that I was not able to perform to the best of my capabilities in these evaluations due to the emotional impact this event had on me. I only recently received my midterm for BCHM 218, just before writing my final, and thus was not able to drop the course based on my midterm mark before the course drop deadline. After receiving this mark, I immediately saw an academic advisor and was encouraged to apply for an appeal based on my circumstances. It is for this reason that I had not applied for an appeal earlier. As this family drama was apparent throughout this school year, leading up to a more impactful event, I would like to appeal for a CR standing for my earlier classes this year. It was not until talking about my circumstances with an advisor, counsellor, and an adult close to me, that I realized that the unexpected events I went through this year have caused stress that is not common for the average student. I believe I was set at a disadvantage, making it much more difficult to succeed in my courses this year.

In the future I believe that it would be beneficial for me to meet with a personal counsellor regularly, and take on a lighter course load to reduce potential stress. I would also like to look into transferring, or taking courses at Nipissing University which is closer to home and known for smaller class sizes. I would have a better support system if I attended school closer to my hometown, being surrounded by family and friends with a more one-on-one learning experience in school.

Sincerely,

Kyesha Fong