Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Osayende Omoregie
Associate Dean of Arts and Science,
I am appealing the Faculty¿¿s decision that I must withdraw from Queens for a minimum of one year, as well as having a credit standing in LLCU 200, and MUSC 104. I first learned about Queens during my transfer process in July 2017; Jermaine Smalls, former Men¿¿s Basketball Assistant Coach contacted me on Facebook one afternoon asking me if I would be interested in playing with Queens during the upcoming year. I decided on Queens based on its academic reputation throughout Canada; I had a 3.2 GPA coming to Queens which allowed me to get into a majority of programs. I chose economics as my major as many of the programs I wanted to join had long been filled, and while I was confident in myself as a student, I was not prepared for what Queens had in store for me. Transitioning from a student population of a little over 2000 students to a school with over 20,000 students was quite difficult. Adjusting to Queens only became more difficult as during the first week of September 2017, a close friend of mine passed away in a tragic car accident. Back home my parents had to deal with a lot of problems including marital and financial problems and it was hard for me to deal with because I was not able to be home and help deal with these problems. I lost a good friend and I was constantly worrying about my home situation. I became very depressed, found it hard to leave my room, and when I did, I found it hard to focus on important things because I would get overwhelmed and anxious with thoughts of how I would juggle the burden of my problems on my own. Then in November 2017, another friend of mine was killed in my hometown. This death hurt deep because it happened barely 2 months after I lost my first friend; it felt as if the universe was trying to tell me something. It felt as if death just kept getting closer and closer until it would soon enough call on me. I became very anxious and depressed and found it hard to focus, it discouraged me from leaving my room and it resulted in me doing most of my work in my apartment room. It was very hard for me to share my experiences with others because I felt vulnerable letting another person know about my weaknesses and it felt as if confiding in someone would do more harm than help. My parents already had enough things on their plate to worry about and I didn¿¿t want to add onto any of that. I was not particularly close with any of my teammates or coaches, I did not have any friends out in Kingston, and so I did not have a support system. As the school year progressed into the ¿¿18-¿19 school year, I was plagued by 3 more deaths of my friends, losing a total of 5 of my friends in the span of 1 1/2 years. It felt like there was no end in sight until Milana McNamee took the extra step to set up a meeting with Becky, a student counsellor. Through sessions with her, she helped me finally cope with the tragedies I¿¿ve had to face and I became more open to seeking help from not only Becky, but my professors as well. Donato Santeramo and Thomas Davidson understood the problems I was facing and understood that it would be difficult to perform well under these circumstances. It was after the course drop deadline, so they helped me with an Academic Consideration report. Unfortunately, I missed the deadline as I was not aware of there being one so early, which led to GPA not meeting the required 1.6, thus prompting the Arts and Science to make their decision on me. Nonetheless, I felt rejuvenated and as if a weight was lifted from my shoulders. I found that through meeting with her, going to other student service sanctioned events; such as exam prep time, organizing weekly schedules, and actively seeking help from my professors helped greatly.