Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean of Studies,

I am appealing to drop PHYS 213 and PHYS 206 from the 2018 fall semester.

I was diagnosed with moderate-severe depression and anxiety in early November with symptoms starting in September. I have been struggling to cope with everyday activities. This has greatly affected my academic ability. I have had ongoing fatigue, low motivation, difficultly focusing and difficulty sleeping. I have been struggling to complete my course work on time and to produce the quality of work that I would like to. Assignments, quizzes, and tests in my courses have been affected. I was finding it difficult to attend my classes due to extreme fatigue and I got behind. I sought help in early November when I no longer had motivation to do anything.

I am now under the care of my health-care provider and she is determining the best ways to help me. I also had a meeting with Martha Dougherty , the counsellor from the Student Wellness Services. She has helped me to start implementing strategies to try to manage my illness. I have another appointment booked to meet with a personal counselor in early December and know I will need to continue with counselling indefinitely. I contacted and met with my academic advisor Kerri Andrews from the Faculty of Arts and Science and Vicki Andrews from the Faculty of Education to create a plan to determine how to continue to be a successful student at Queens and achieve my goal of becoming teacher. Vicki did a four year plan of all the courses that I will need to take to complete my degree taking into account how I will manage the courses that I am proposing to drop. I plan to take my two proposed dropped courses next Fall when I hope to be in a better mental state. I will be taking a lighter course load next semester to have better success in my courses and take care of my mental health. I also plan to take two online courses in the summer to make sure I stay on track with my academic requirements. I will continue to meet with my physician and personal counselor to ensure I am actively working to improve my mental health. I believe I have a good plan to move forward both academically and personally with a support system now in place.