Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I am appealing my three courses I have taken over the winter term due to undue hardships and circumstances out of my own control.

I am an OAP worker within a hospital being affected by the brand new government programming proposal for the Ontario Autism Program. I was working full time, and dedicated my two year diploma to specializing in this field with children with Autism and got my dream job working for at the time a government funded agency at Mackenzie Health. News broke out about the cancellation of all government funded agencies last month with the new Ontario Autism Program from the Conservative Government, at the time which pushed me to drop two courses as I was not sure I would be able to handle the stress of my full work load and uncertainties in the work environment. We were all under the impression and understanding that programming will still be provided to clients, and there was optimism the government would extend their deadline and we could transition our clients back to the school system more smoothly.

Today, unfortunately there is even more uncertainty and have been notified of potential complete lay offs as of April 1, and restructuring beginning April 3 in my department. This absolutely is coinciding with final exams and I may now be completely out of a job and need to be focusing on this reality, and applying and finding another job to have an income, which could then supplement my schooling. My boss has been having weekly meetings with us in regarding to changes happening and the outlook looks grim, as no one still understands or knows what is truly happening, other than what is happening in the news. When I spoke to my director he was inclining I start looking for work elsewhere. Kidsability, another government agency has officially stated layoffs will be in effect. This is something that has been all over the news, and it has been incredibly difficult for me to concentrate on schooling, when during the day my job may now be a non-existent field, which I dedicated so much of my time and former schooling to. I had a clean 4.0 GPA record at Seneca, and unfortunately have now succumb to not handing in assignments, missing deadlines and my anxiety levels have sky rocketed. I am also an accommodated student with the diagnosis of PTSD as of 3 years ago, and all of this added uncertainty from the government has triggered immense attacks that have now affected my school work.

I would like to take a pause, and hopefully return back to studies when I have time in the next few weeks to find a new job and stability back in my life. Everything that is happening has been out of my control, I thought I could push through and complete my courses but the effort is not there as there is a huge other aspect of my life I need to cater to before resuming to my studies. I just would like to have my courses dropped rather than have (F) that affect my transcripts as this is not the student I am.

Thank you for taking time to read my appeal, I really appreciate it.

Kind Regards,
Salome Greenberg