Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: March 31, 2019

Dr. Jenn Stephenson

Associate Dean (Studies)

Faculty of Arts and Sciences, Queens University

First Floor, Dunning Hall

Kingston, Ontario



Dear Dr. Stephenson,



The purpose of my appeal letter is for the late drop of the following courses: BIOL 103, CHEM 112 and PSYC 100. Previously, I dropped the courses PHYS 117 and MATH 121 before the course drop deadline, in hopes that a reduced course load would make my work more manageable. With support from accessibility services, I attempted to catch up in my remaining courses, but I found myself still unable to perform at a sufficient level to pass.



The extenuating circumstances I am facing are relating to psychological challenges that I have been facing since early January 2019. The event that initially caused the challenges happened several years ago, but my ability to deal with them and their severity has varied. Going into my undergraduate year at university, I had believed that the challenges had mostly passed and that I was good to go, therefore I did not feel the need to reach out for support earlier in the semester. I was proved wrong as they started to return with the beginning of second semester. I do not recall any specific event being the trigger for the return of my challenges.



The main way my psychological challenges have impacted my academic performance are regarding concentration, as they have made it very difficult for me to focus on work both in and out of lectures. This has made it nearly impossible at times to be productive, despite my efforts to stay on task. In addition, my challenges have led to a decline in mood causing me to regularly isolate myself. This has resulted in me ignoring deadlines and missing most of my classes. Finally, I have been feeling constant fatigue, further resulting in missed attendance. These symptoms have affected all types of work in each of my courses.



In order to deal with my challenges, I reached out to Queen's Wellness Services as well as Queen's accessibility services. I could not get an appointment with a counselor within a reasonable timeframe, besides a same day appointment. With support from accessibility services, I received accommodations to catch up with the material in my courses. I also visited my family doctor to update my medication. I decided to drop two of my five courses with the hope that less courses would increase my chance of passing the remaining three, but my psychological challenges continued to hurt my productivity.



If my appeal is granted, I hope to make several large adjustments in my life to better accommodate my studies. I have underestimated the severity of my issues and it has become clear that I need to put more energy and time into resolving them. I will do this by seeking out more frequent and regular counselling throughout the summer, while also giving myself more personal time to apply what I am learning from them. This will help me as I will be much more able to concentrate on academics when I return to school. If the challenges are still not completely resolved, I will have learned techniques to better cope when times get difficult. Furthermore, I plan to take an online course over the summer. I feel an online course will be much more manageable for me as I will not have the same issues I had with attendance. Also, I will have more time during the summer so my difficulties with productivity will be less of a problem. When I return in the fall, I hope to retake most of my first-year courses. These steps I am taking will surely help to manage my psychological difficulties, if not resolve them in their entirety.



Please let me know if any more information is required.



All the best,

Sean Cooke