Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean,

My name is Brittany Connachan, and I am writing to request academic considerations for the fall semester of the 2018/2019 year. I am requesting such considerations on account of my home situation and the impact it has brought to my academic performance.
In May 2018, I had moved into my new home in Kingston. Everything was going well, until my housemates had moved in for the school year. Once they had settled, two of the girls teamed up and began to constantly harass myself and my other housemate. They were relentless in their shouting, tantrums, arguments and tormenting. They even went so far as to admit they were targeting me specifically, trying to make me so miserable that I would move out.
Personally, I do not handle conflict well; there were many times that I returned to my room, unable to stop my body from shaking for hours on end, this prevented me from doing work on many nights. No matter how much I tried to calm myself down, I could feel the impact on my mental health and often contemplated whether I should begin professional therapy. I tried to leave the house as often as I could to work on school, but I would be unable to think of much other than what I would be returning to later.
There were times I worried for the safety of both myself and my property in this house. This was such a concern that my mother and I discussed moving me elsewhere for the rest of the school year. However, we were unable to afford two leases and I was stuck in this environment for the rest of the term at least. I lost so much time and focus on those two girls, whenever I tried to make amends there was no impact.
I believe whole-heartedly and undoubtedly that my academic performance in all classes has suffered from these occurrences. I was recently able to get my landlord to step in and enforce some authority so that the impact of second semester was reduced. However, these conditions were not in place during fall semester, and ultimately, I received a failing grade in chemistry 281. I believe I suffered most in this course as it requires an abundance of my time and concentration; had I not been constantly distracted I would have been able to provide the course the attention needed for understanding. I know, that given the opportunity I can excel in this course and will do so, as I plan to retake the course over summer 2019.
I would like to request that the F in chemistry be reduced to a DR on my transcript. I have many plans to further my educational career and sincerely hope this negative stage does not continue to impact me on future endeavors. At the end of winter semester, I will be moving out of my current accommodations so that these individuals will not be able to continually impact my performance and wellbeing. Thank you for taking the time to read through, I appreciate your consideration of my appeal.

Sincerely,

Brittany Connachan
20071915