Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To Whom It May Concern:

My name is Roslyn Brennen I am a third year philosophy student. I am seeking to appeal my final grade in ENSC 103 (Fall 2018) in hopes of a ¿¿late drop.¿ This academic school year (2018-2019) I have been struggling tremendously with my mood dysthymia and anxiety disorder. My anxiety has been a mental health issue that can be dated back to 2016. In high school as well as my first few years in university I was able to sufficiently manage it and succeed academically. Despite this, I was unable to remain in control of my mental health due to a large flare up in my anxiety. I began to struggle at beginning of the 2018 fall semester and noticed that by mid term season (early November) my anxiety was crippling and debilitating where I was not able to make it to many of my classes due to a fear of social interaction. I often find that I struggle with courses that heavily rely on class participation as well as tutorials with a large amount of social collaboration. This course was thankfully the only course I had this year with a large social component. Having such a large social component mixed with a flare up in my anxiety resulted in me struggling to attend tutorials and actively participate. I felt far more comfortable in my other classes as they did not rely on social communication and participation so heavily. It was still challenging for me to cope with my anxiety however it was far more controllable because I knew I would not be called on continuously during a tutorial. Additionally, I did not drop this course sooner because I truly believed I would able to recover from my bad spell of anxiety. Clearly I was wrong. Going forward if I notice a flare up in my anxiety during the academic year and have classes heavily dependent on participation and group work I will immediately contact my professor to devise an alternative plan to get my participation grades in. This is honestly and truly very much out of my character. I have never had any problems with completely courses or struggling academically. I am working hard to get back on track and going into the 2019 fall semester with new coping strategies. I have a letter from my psychologist in support of this appeal who I have been working with on and off since 2016, she suggests that the dosage of my SSRI medication for my anxiety was not working optimally. Thank you for your consideration.