Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To: The Associate Dean (Studies)

Re: I am appealing the Faculty¿¿s decision that I must withdraw from Queen¿¿s for one year. I am also appealing for a credit (C) in Psyc 100 and I am appealing to drop courses after the academic deadline.

I understand that the intention to withdraw is to give the student some time to reflect and assess the challenges they faced so that they can create a realistic and effective plan to help them have a successful return to school and complete their degree. I am appealing this requirement because having to withdraw from school will result in me losing my scholarship which will effectively end my academic career because I have a need based scholarship and I will otherwise not be able to finance my studies. The cause of my poor performance was mental illness. While I am in school, I have access to the Student Wellness Centre where I have been and can continue to receive professional help and guidance so that I can better manage my illness and excel not just I my academics, but in my personal life as well. As a student, I also have access to health insurance which affords me healthcare whenever I need it when I otherwise would not be able to afford it. Being an international student on a student visa, I will be forced to go home if I am not a full time student. I will not be able to afford professional help at home and I will not have the right support from family and friends due to ignorance and stigma towards mental illness in my community. In short, having to withdraw from schools for a year will not help me come back to school and succeed; on the contrary, it will definitely stop me from ever continuing my studies. If allowed to stay in school, I will have a chance to improve my academic performance, work on my mental and physical health, retain my scholarship, and improve the general state of my life. I have attached an academic plan which outlines the steps I plan to take to ensure academic success in the coming years and how I will manage my illness so that I can have a happy and productive life outside of school as well.

I have consulted an academic advisor, my doctor at the student wellness centre, my contact at the scholarship program, and some of my professors who all suggested that the best course of action is dropping the courses that I did not complete, and then I can retake the required courses in upcoming years. I am compelled to agree with their advice because with the exception of PSYC 100, I was unable to complete enough of these courses to be eligible for academic accommodations such as asking for a credit (C) or an Aegrotat standing (AG).

I am appealing for a credit in PSYC 100 because even though I was able to complete the course, I was in really bad shape when I was sitting for my tests and exams which resulted in really poor performance.

I now know better than to ask for extensions to complete the rest of the fourteen (14) courses that I have taken over the past two years as this will not be realistic and it will lead me to this exact situation next year. Part of the problem in the past was that I was ignorant to what depression was and how it affected me. At the end of each episode, I wanted to believe that I was cured, and that I could resume life as usual with one hundred percent productivity and never get another episode ever again. My first big episodes were throughout my first year on campus but I did not even know what was happening to me. I knew that something was wrong, but I did not know what. Towards the end of my first year, I had my biggest episode yet and I was diagnosed with depression, but it coincided with my father being very ill so I thought that that was the cause of my breakdown and nothing else. I believed that since he got better, then I would too. I was forced to differ most of my exams and assignments from first year to the fall semester of my second year because I was not in any condition to sit an exam or write any assignment. I came back in September hoping to finish ALL my exams and assignments from first year ON TOP of the five courses that I was taking that semester.
In my culture, mental illness is not a thing. It is an abstract concept that one cannot fathom ever happening to them. I believed that so long as I worked really really hard and isolated myself from everyone and everything, then I would have no distractions therefore I must succeed. But obviously this is not the case, so I would get another episode, and then another, and the end of each episode, I would tell myself the same things. That I just have to keep working harder and that I am OK now. I ended up deferring my exams and assignments from the fall term into the winter term ON TOP of the five courses that I was taking that semester. By this point, I was trying to finish fourteen (14) courses in one semester. There is no room for failure so I kept working hard believing that I could do it all. And under normal circumstances, I could take on that much work and succeed in ALL of it. But I was so sick that I could not perform even the simplest of day to day tasks. All the deferred assignments and exams were accumulating in snowball effect fashion and eventually, it all became too much. Especially considering my fragile mental state. I crushed under all that work that I was taking on and I fell into the biggest and scariest depression episode so far which led me to miss all my exams and assignments.

I have had bad academic performance because for most of the last two years, I was too sick to sit for any of my exams, or to attend most of my classes, or to complete my assignments. I failed not because I participated in the courses and got bad grades, but because I was unable to complete enough of, if any, of the assessments in order to be evaluated. I would like an opportunity to retake these courses and get a fair assessment.

The reason why I kept on taking up more courses each semester is because my scholarship deal stipulates that I must be a full time student enrolled in five courses in order to be eligible. It also stipulates that they will not pay for the same course more than once, therefore if I were to drop a course, I would have to pay for it myself to retake it. On top of this, I would be at risk of losing my scholarship if I failed a school year. This is why I kept on enrolling in five courses each semester and deferring exams and assignments instead of dropping courses; I felt that there was no room for failure. Before writing this appeal, I submitted my medical records (which I have also attached here) dating back over a year ago and a letter of support from my doctor outlining my extenuating circumstances to the scholarship program asking to be allowed to drop courses and to take a lighter course load in the future semesters. I have also carefully and realistically crafted an academic plan to ensure that I do not end up with unfinished courses in the future, and that I maintain great academic standing from here on out.

I am now more knowledgeable about my illness. I am more realistic about what I can and cannot handle, and I am in a position to better identify when I should seek help and support, and from whom. I plan to start utilizing the different academic resources such as peer support, asking for help from professors and teaching assistants, and the learning centre so that I can perform better. I also plan to maintain regular therapy and exercise to ensure that I am of sound health because if I am feeling better, then I can perform better. I am pleading with you to give me a clean slate so that I can have a chance to continue my studies. I promise to do everything I can to ensure that by the end of this coming winter term when my academic standing gets evaluated, that I will be performing much better than I ever have.