Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To whom it may concern,

Due to the recent unexpected circumstances, I have found myself unable to deal with the course load I am taking particularly with the course PHIL259. Entering this year at Queens, I told myself I would lighten my coursework in order to give myself room to deal with other extenuating circumstances and keep a handle on my mental state. However, feeling pressured not to fall behind in credits I decided to take one more course than I originally planned. As extenuating circumstances worsened, I found the course load to become unbearable for me and I found myself between dropping the course and the pressure of falling behind. The drop-deadline passed, I missed assignments, and I became extremely overwhelmed trying to juggle this situation, my other academic work, and everything going on outside of school. I sought after guidance from ASUS Support which lead me to this appeal.

The situation itself is extremely personal to me and has been something that has been difficult to express. My usual outlets - my family - have become the source of the situation. I don't want to be too specific but I'll outline as much as possible for the purposes of this letter. Last year I dealt with the divorce of my parents, which wasn't too difficult in itself but rather the way in which it happened, leaving me astray from my parents and without any emotional or financial support. My family came together as my uncle passed away in August, but it took a huge toll on me and everything has seemed negative since. New things have come up and worsened since then, which tipped me over the edge recently.

For a person like me, family was everything. It still is. But with everything happening in my family it's all I'm able to think about. Recently, I have decided to confide in a couple people here close to me. This is the first of steps that is helping me come to terms with everything and allow myself a more positive outlook. I realize I may need more help, and I have contacted HCDS last year which proved to be a useful resource. In the future, I hope to be able to completely focus on my studies here at Queens and be successful. Though I have begun to realize that it is important to move at the pace that works for me.