Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To Whom It May Concern,

My name is Kristin Matchett and I am appealing to request permission for a late drop from my Fall 2018 term course, PSYC 397, History of Psychology. I am supported in this request by the suggestion of my teaching team and the follow up support of my Academic Advisor for Continuing and Distance Studies.

This term has been riddled with both unforeseen and extenuating circumstances, greatly outside of my control. These have been a myriad of medical, financial, technological, professional and personal.

Early on in this term I suffered a really bad flu that turned into chronic bronchitis and laryngitis. From this, I developed a dual lung infection which took a timely and painful toll on me whilst trying to recuperate. My energy was spent just trying to get through my work days so that I could come home and rest due to the shortness of breath and chest/back pain that I was in. The doctors note from my initial diagnosis is included. This was the first major setback that really caused me to fall behind in my course.

Coinciding with my lung infections, was a series of technological issues that were plaguing my computer. I understand that having access to an internet connection and a computer is part of the expectation of Continuing and Distance Studies; however, I do have both of those things and have not had issues with either one of them until this term. My computer started overheating and shutting off independently, had issues maintaining connection to my internet and started having glitches that would freeze the computer or shut it off unexpectedly. As I don't have the financial freedom to get a new laptop, I got it serviced to try to get it working appropriately again; however, even with the maintenance it is still not operating properly. This was another major set back. This issue had me missing deadlines for quizzes and assignments. Once realizing that I missed an assignment, I did reach out to my teaching team, which is when they suggested that I apply for a late drop. At this point I somehow still thought that I could compensate and manage to successfully complete the course, even if it was not to the standard I usually would have. It was only after missing more quizzes and being greatly absent from group work situations that the gravity of my situation set in.

Professionally, I am a Child and Youth Worker and during November have had a very serious situation occur that in turn required a lot of extra attention and dedication to my work. Extenuating factors in trying to strategize, resource, and implement support plans for all affected by the situation. This not only affected me professionally but personally as well as it is such a heavy job at times to separate yourself from, especially when dealing with trauma.

On top of these aforementioned situations, I have also been trying to help a friend who recently has found out that she has a blood clot in her brain. While she and her husband are trying to navigate this new medical situation, I have been trying to assist with her two small children as much as I can.

This combination of situational influences on my life have left me spread very thin physically, mentally and emotionally.

As I write this, I just want to mention that this is difficult for me. I am not one to perform poorly or to ask for help. I know that I should have realized that I could not salvage this course prior to the drop date; however, when all of these situations were happening simultaneously I feel like I was surviving on adrenaline and more so trying to put out fires as they arose, not truly aware of the damage that was building or time that was passing. Once I took a breath and looked at the situation as a whole, I knew that I couldn't be successful with earning my credits.

If you look at my transcript, you will see that this is definitely not typical for me at all. I, due to financial situations, usually take only one course per year. With that being said, I do take my courses seriously as I want my financial commitment and my personal commitment to my getting my degree to be held in priority in my life, no matter how slow my path must be to traverse. This term, and the events that have happened during this term, have taken me completely off course; I have never been in the situation to need to ask for leniency.

I truly hope that even though I have lost my tuition and have not earned the credits from this course, that the impact could be lessened in regards to its effect on my GPA. I would be so grateful for the opportunity to gain the permission for the late drop and maintain the integrity of my GPA prior to this course.

I hope to retake this course in the future in order to actually benefit from its instruction.


I appreciate your time and consideration.

Looking forward to hearing from you soon,

Kristin Matchett