Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To Whomever It May Concern:

I am writing this letter to sincerely appeal for permission to drop two courses - MATH 211 and MATH 339 - past the academic deadline.

Due to extenuating family circumstances I had to return to Toronto on the 12th of February and was compelled to miss the rest of the semester. With the situation beyond our control, both my mother and I were very emotionally distressed and I had to prioritize my family circumstances over my academics. It was a very challenging period for us and as we had to cope with a series of issues, it took its toll on me as I was just unable to keep up with my school work.

I briefly returned to Kingston and visited the Queen's Counselling on Services on April 10th to seek support and accommodation to defer all of my final examinations. Thankfully, my professors were more than understanding and my exams were scheduled in September. Subsequently, we left everything behind and relocated to India in May with very little at hand. It was deemed to be the best solution for us at the time, only to be met much more imposing challenges shortly after - our circumstances worsened significantly over the summer and at many instances was unbearable.

With no place to stay in Kingston, I returned to Canada to write my final exams that I was unable to prepare for. With all the burden, I was deeply depressed and I failed three of my five exams. The two courses that I passed (STAT 463 and STAT 462) are related to computational statistics - a field that I have been passionate about since joining Queen's and have attained a high-level proficiency through self-study prior to even registering for the courses.

I spoke to my ECON 390 professor and am retaking the course this semester. Anne Burns, the secretary of the Mathematics & Statistics department who facilitated all my exams, contacted me on September 24th to personally notify me about my grades, but was also kind enough to schedule an immediate appointment with Sue Blake. It is because of the advice, support and direct intervention from Ms. Blake that I am writing this letter to you with a sense of hope.

Additionally, I am grateful for the support that I am receiving from the Queen's counselling services in order to cope with family circumstances that are beyond my control. I will be attending a counselling session tomorrow morning and my counselor, Arunima Khanna, will also be submitting a letter to the faculty office to support my appeal.

My family background places a lot of emphasis on education and it will always sadden me that life's setbacks have denied me the opportunity to realize my potential. I wholeheartedly thank you in advance for your understanding during the most challenging period of my life and I would also like to thank you for the opportunity of submitting an appeal.

Sincerely,
Arun Narasimhan