Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: June 17th 2019

Dr. Jenn Stephenson
Associate Dean (Studies)
Queen¿¿s University

Dear Dr. Jenn Stephenson,

Hello, my name is Jiwon (Jamie) Lee enrolled as a fourth year Life Sciences major for the upcoming 2019-2020 school year. I am writing this letter to explain the extent to which my mental health conditions affected my academic abilities and to justify why these circumstances should not determine my academic performance. I am appealing to drop CHEM 282 (Winter, 2018).

The symptoms corresponding to my currently diagnosed mental disorder appeared in November 2017. I was noticeably struggling with restrictive eating, episodes of binge-eating, anhedonia, fatigue, and hypersomnia. Previously in 2012, I have experienced insomnia, episodes of restrictive eating and was significantly underweight while living with extended family members. Since my parents worked and lived in South Korea, I have been dealing with emotional abuse and financial problems caused by my aunt and uncle. This began in grade 8 and lasted until I finished secondary school in 2016. In second year (November 2017), these symptoms that I previously experienced in middle school and secondary school returned when the academic stress peaked during the midterm season and as I was adapting to the new living situation with friends. In December 2017, during the final exam season, I experienced frequent panic attacks for the first time. While consulting with academic advisors, they informed me about the self-declaration of brief absence and academic considerations. I have decided to sign up for a self-declaration of brief absence to postpone STAT 263 (Fall 2017) exam due to panic attacks. Following the final exam season, I believed that the winter break was a chance for me to get better. I believed that hypersomnia, restrictive eating, binge-eating, and panic attacks were not ¿¿physical¿ symptoms of a disease. Thus, I continued to believe that it was my own responsibility to do better academically and to get better. When I returned for the Winter 2018 semester, I was able to take the STAT 263 exam. Since I was able to complete this exam, I presumed that my health conditions were back to ¿¿normal.¿ In the first four weeks of the winter semester, I had a few assignments and midterms. Despite the symptoms of fatigue, hypersomnia, and binge-eating still lingered, I was able to finish the majority of my assignments. Specifically, for CHEM 282, it consisted of a few assessments: online assignments worth 5, weekly labs worth 20, midterm 1 worth 10, midterm 2 worth 25 and the final exam worth 40. In the best of my abilities, I was able to complete the weekly online assignments throughout the semester. Midterm 1 took place in week 4 and I was able to complete it. However, hypersomnia and anhedonia inhibited me from concentrating throughout the weekly labs. Despite all these symptoms, I have attended all the labs and wrote all the reports on time because I would be sacrificing my partner¿¿s grades as well. I have completed all assessments on time prior to the last day to drop the course (Friday of week 8). However, during weeks 7-9, my panic attacks returned, constantly felt like fainting and I found it exhausting to walk to campus. I was unable to complete midterm 2 for CHEM 282 (week 9) and Dr. Carran suggested that my final exam be worth 65 instead. However, these symptoms persisted and worsened as the weeks passed by and I truly was struggling with depressed mood and severe lack of energy. During weeks 11-12, I was unaware of what disorder I was suffering from, what QSAS was, was not getting the right treatments from doctors and thus, was not able to seek for accommodations. When I met the QSAS coordinators for the first time during the exam season in April, they believed that postponing a few of my exams would accommodate for my health conditions. I took BCHM 218 and CHEM 282 exams the following fall semester 2018. The major reason why CHEM 282 grade was severely impacted while other grades such as BCHM 218 was not, is due to the familiarity with concepts. Due to my prior knowledge in biology, physiology and health-related classes, I was able to complete my other Life Sciences courses. However, CHEM 282, which is an organic chemistry course, was a new field of chemistry that I had not focused on before, making it difficult to study while dealing with health problems.

Since the summer of 2018, I have been officially diagnosed by a psychiatrist in Toronto. For a year, I have been meeting with the psychiatrist to discuss my health conditions and my treatment plans. Since Fall 2018 semester, I have been accommodated through QSAS which has helped me tremendously. During Summer 2019 semester, I am registered to take the CHEM 282 course.