Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To Whom it may concern,
I am requesting that courses from my past semesters at Queen¿¿s be changed to dropped on my transcript. The reason for this request is my mental health during these periods was extremely poor and I fell victim to serious depression and anxiety, conditions which I am still trying to understand and manage today.
As is well documented in my transcript already, my issues seriously began in the winter of 2016 when I majorly withdrew socially and academically. The result of this was my not attending classes or completing classwork. I sought out the help of my family and a counselor over the summer and rebounded in the fall of 2016. In the Winter of 2017, I once again fell behind, and this pushing me further into a state of perpetual depression, anxiety, and self-doubt. I would prefer to not go into great deal as to the state of my condition over the next 12-16 months, but the result of my mental health state was that I was extremely isolated from my friends and my classwork to the point where I was not attending any of my classes and rarely attending social events. Throughout this time, I was in conversation with my parents and I stubbornly and ignorantly continued to believe that I could turn this slump around on my own through sheer force of will and with slight changes to my daily regime.
I returned to school for the 2017-2018 year and I, once again, fell into a highly depressed state which was exacerbated by the fact that I was now living alone in an apartment because almost all my friends and classmates had graduated the previous spring. Once I realized that I was falling behind again I sought out help from the Health & Wellness center at Queens where I was redirected to an outside counselor, as I was told the center does not deal with recurring or chronic mental health issues and is more of a one time/crisis support center. I was once again optimistic that I could get back on track and recover from my slump in the fall of 2017, however it became clear some time after the final date to withdraw from classes that I would not be able to, and this sent me even further into depression (I actually did attempt to drop a few courses but I was less than an hour past the deadline and I gave up and neglected to talk to the University for help). The next semester the story was the same. I was wrongfully hopeful that things would again change, and I would be able to pull myself out of the emotional and academic pit I was in. This, evidently, did not occur.
I believe that the stark contrast in my academic performance in the semesters in question (winter 2017, fall 2017, and Winter 2018) compared to the previous semesters in which I was engaged with my studies (Fall 2016, and Fall 2013-2015) shows that my mental state was so poor and unhealthy to the point that I neglected to complete any schoolwork in some of my classes. This same state was keeping me from withdrawing from said classes as I was mistakenly unwilling to admit defeat and altogether withdraw from classes to address my mental health. Withdrawing completely from classes would have been admitting to myself that my depression was overwhelming, something I was fighting against doing at the time. Stigma around mental health undoubtedly played a roll in this decision.
Since my last semester at Queen¿¿s I have begun a regimen of anti-depressant medication and counselling and my mental state has improved drastically. I have attached letters from my current therapist (Mr. Blake) and G.P (Dr. Nannar) giving testimony to their experience with me as well as one from the counselor I was referred to by the Health & Wellness Center at Queen¿¿s and saw frequently in the 2017-2018 school year (Ms. Horsford). I am currently planning on attending classes at UofT to complete my B.A degree while living at home in order to attend to my mental health needs with my family, therapist, and doctor as my support group.
In conclusion, I hope the Associate Dean of Studies understands my situation and is able to drop the courses from catastrophic semesters from my transcript, or change them to ¿¿dropped¿, whichever protocol permits.
The specific courses are:
ECON 351
ECON 360
ECON 370
POLS 211
HIST 295
ECON 390
ECON 484
HIST 222
HIST 252