Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean of Arts and Sciences,

I am writing this appeal to request to drop ANAT215 (Fall 2017), BIOL330 (Fall 2017) and BIOL341 (Winter 2018), in addition I would like to request credit standing in PSYC271 (Fall 2017). My reason for this appeal is due to pre-existing psychological issues that impacted my functionality in the courses above. I suffer from depression, and social anxiety which together makes day to day functioning very challenging, especially in public settings. These conditions make attending lectures very difficult and if I do manage to attend I often find myself too distressed to properly focus on the material being presented. The depression also hampers my ability to get consistent sleep, making early attending early morning lectures all the more problematic. All of the listed courses had heavy emphasis on lecture content and many had early lectures as well, which made my absences all the more damaging.
I have connected with Queen's student accessibility services to try and get some assistance with my issues, and have found some success through their assistance, as my success in BIOL369 shows, however there is only so much they can do, and despite their efforts it was not enough to succeed as well in the aforementioned courses. The assistance provided through note takers by Student Accessibility Services is largely inconsistent as the quality of the available notes varies; I was fortunate enough to have access to a very thorough set of notes in BIOL369 that made my absences from lectures less impactful to my overall performance. The structure of BIOL369 was also more conducive for my overall success as a larger portion of the grade was focused on essays and assignments versus few heavily weighted examinations. Additionally I have been in contact with Student Wellness Services, getting a referral for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy which I intend to pursue over the Summer and continue into the next academic year with the aim of overcoming or at least lessening my mental difficulties. I also intend to work with my family doctor back home to modify my existing prescriptions to try and achieve relief from my mental illness. It is my hope to improve enough over the Summer that I will be able to retake some of my failed courses and achieve success in them. It is also my aim to change my major to one that better focuses on my areas of interest, with the hope that it will help motivate me to push through my mental shortcomings and attend classes despite my anxiety in social situations. I also intend to try and enrol in some online courses in the coming year, as the lack of lecture sessions should assist me in performing, due to my social impairment being less of a factor in those situations.





Thank you for your time and consideration,
Sincerely,
Mitchel Shaughnessy