Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To Whom It May Concern,

I am writing today to request an academic appeal to drop my ECON240 Canadian Tax Policy course. At the start of second semester, I began to find my motivations with life slowly slip away. It got to the point where I didn¿¿t even have the motivation to get out of bed until 3 in the afternoon. I was over sleeping and neglecting my own personal heath and academic priorities. After I would finally build up the courage and strength to get out of bed, I would go to the library and do my required work as it was posted on OnQ. This created an endless cycle of guilt, stress and anxiety on top of my lack of motivation. I am currently doing well in all five of my courses, as I would still go to the library to complete my work, but this is where my sixth course (econ240) began to be neglected. My econ240 course does not have an OnQ page, as the professor is very ¿¿old school¿ in his teaching style. All notes were taken in classes and not posted in any online forum. I have the textbook and started trying to catch up using the textbook content, but when comparing my notes with my peer¿¿s it became very apparent that the test questions were specifically focused on things taught in class. My anxiety and depression made it extremely difficult for me to make it to classes as it is, and the technology barrier for econ240 made it even harder for me to stay on top of the course work. It wasn¿¿t until the last week of February when I felt as though I was neglecting my other courses as well. The beginning of March was when I decided it was time for me to make the first step and acknowledge that my behaviour and thoughts weren¿¿t as they used to be. I contacted my family doctor and informed him about what was going on with me emotionally and how it was affecting my academics. My doctor and I then devised a plan together on how I can get back on track with school, while still looking after my mental health. We came to the conclusion that six courses aren¿¿t possible for me to maintain in my current state and that it would be best for me to drop my econ240 course, as it was the one course that I had done the least for due to the restraint on my ability to leave my room to go to classes, as well as the technology barrier. My doctor strongly advised me to focus all my attention solely on my other five courses and try to drop econ 240 otherwise fail the course. I have always been a motivated, goal orientated person, and these new emotions that I have been feeling lately caught me off guard. I dug myself deep into a hole by denying the facts that things weren¿¿t okay for a while, but I realized that the only thing I need to do is get a ladder and climb out. Seeking help from my family doctor, utilizing the help offered on campus and dropping econ240 would be my ladder out. It isn¿¿t a want, but a need to succeed academically and I don¿¿t want this one hurdle that everyone experiences at one point in life to be the factor that holds me back from doing so. Since talking to my doctor I have woken up before 11:30 every day and attended all my classes except for econ 240, and I have also been emailing my doctor with a three-day report of how I¿¿ve been feeling. My doctor and I decided that it is best that I finish this semester strong, speak weekly with a campus counsellor, and see him immediately when I am home. Through this whole experience I have learned that at times it is okay to not be okay, but it isn¿¿t okay to deny this fact and let things build up, because mental health is fragile and should always be put first, as it affects all aspects of our lives.

Thank you,
Antonia MacBride