Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To the Queen¿¿s Faculty of Arts and Science,
My name is Max Butterworth and I was a student at Queen¿¿s University for the 2018/19 year. I am requesting an appeal so that I may drop my courses late due to extenuating circumstances involving a chronic medical condition. My hope is that with this appeal I will be able to minimize the negative long-term consequences of my disappointing first year.
Last summer I was employed as a National Lifeguard and began to experience mild to moderate stomach issues in mid-August. I believe that the chemicals that I was exposed to during my work could have something to do with the cause of my illness. However, as I will explain later it has been very difficult for me to get finite evidence of the cause and/or solution to my illness.
I went to see my doctor near the end of the summer and he prescribed medication for acid reflux explaining it would also treat an ulcer but he wasn¿¿t really sure what was going on with me. I had blood tests, an ultrasound and an x-ray and all the tests were normal. I took the medication as prescribed but it did nothing to relieve my stomach issues. However, my stomach problems still seemed manageable and because of the timing of the symptoms my parents thought I was just nervous about going away to school.
When I began my studies at Queens, my diet underwent massive changes which I believe contributed significantly to my stomach problems worsening. I went from home cooked meals every day to eating cafeteria food which often upset my stomach. The way the dining hall operates I had to eat large meals at prescribed times instead of what is better for my medical issue which is eating smaller meals when I feel my stomach can handle it. After a couple months at Queens, what was once manageable stomach pains became every day, chronic pain that would affect me throughout the entire day. Symptoms would include diarrhea from 4-8 times a day, severe pain in the lower abdomen, vomiting on an average of every other day and a lack of energy. As I think would happen with anyone, my mental health started deteriorating as I tried to cope with this illness. For the first time, depression became an extremely controlling part of my life. I coped with most of my pain with either self-harm or a ridiculous amount of sleep.
I want to clarify that because my stomach problems worsened gradually, it was not very clear to me how negatively I was being affected until I was already in a very difficult situation. I did however, seek help from very early on. I made sure to communicate my issues with my parents and they insisted I go back to see my doctor who decided to refer me to a gastroenterologist in Kingston. He obviously thought I would get in to see the specialist, Dr. Hookey, before I would be returning to Whitby again in the Spring. However, I still haven¿¿t been seen by this specialist. I called Dr. Hookey¿¿s office around March Break to make sure their office received my referral and they explained that they have a long waiting list. As a result, my family doctor referred me to a clinic to have a colonoscopy and endoscopy at the end of the school year. These tests like the others failed to reveal why I have chronic stomach pain and digestive issues.
As my attendance plummeted and my grades followed suit, it became clear to me that medical help was not the only type of assistance I needed. I wanted to seek academic help, but as clearly outlined in the Student Wellness Services page on the Queens Website, ¿¿Any student with a documented disability can register with QSAS¿documentation will be reviewed¿ (queensu.ca/studentwellness/accessibility-services/accomodations-explained). Unfortunately, my family doctor was unable to find anything wrong with me, so I was left to wait for my appointment with the Gastroenterologist in Kingston in order to get proper documentation. It is now August, eight months later, and I am still in queue for that specialist.
It also important to note that I was roommates with a varsity soccer player. He would have to wake up at 5:30 nearly every morning so he could make it to soccer practice. Unfortunately, my roommate was a very heavy sleeper, meaning he would set multiple alarms for the morning to help him wake up. This meant that nearly every morning, I would be woken up by my roommate¿¿s alarm. This may seem harmless, but due to my chronic pain, when my roommate would wake me up at 5:30 every morning, I would find that the pain was so severe that I would be unable to fall back asleep. As a result, many of my days would start off by being woken up at 5:30 am, and the rest of the morning would be spent either in the washroom or lying in bed trying to fall back asleep through the pain. This was extremely detrimental towards all of my courses, as sleep deprivation quickly became a problem and I struggled even more with attendance. That being said, I did seek help from Queens; I sent an appeal to have my room changed to a single room for medical reasons. Similarly to the Gastroenterologist, it took multiple months for this room change appeal to be accepted and it was already far too late by the time Queens was able to offer me any help.
I would now like to go into specific details pertaining to how my illness directly influenced my academics at Queens. First, however, I would like to bring up an issue that I had with my first Psychology exam that added to my stress and heavily demotivated me. I spent many hours studying for my first psychology final. Psychology was my projected major, and I was very passionate about psychology and still enjoy the subject greatly to this day. After peer studying with my roommate who was also in psychology, I felt extremely confident because my roommate was impressed with how knowledgeable I was and how much I was able to assist him in his studies with psychology (unfortunately, my roommate had a economics exam on the day before as his psychology exam, so he actually did not study as much as he wanted to/should have). After writing my psychology exam I felt overwhelmingly confident in my work, and I was sure that I would at least receive a mark above 80. Yet to my surprise, my exam mark was a 60. It did not occur to me right away that a mistake could have been made marking my exam. In fact, it wasn¿¿t until I returned to school after Winter Break and spoke with my Psychology TA about my low mark that I realized this was a possibility. I emailed the Psychology department requesting to see a copy of my exam. While reviewing my exam, I noticed that 2 full pages of work were left completely unmarked. I immediately brought this to the attention of my psychology TA, and he said that not only was my exam clearly not fully marked but I wasn¿¿t even the only one in his lab who had unmarked pages on their exam. So I started researching what I would have to do in order to get my exam marked and started the appeal process which required me to write a report describing all the issues with my exam. I felt this was unfair and it really made me feel disrespected and added to the stress I was already coping with. I didn¿¿t understand why I had to write a detailed report about my exam just so it could be marked fairly. On top of that, I also was required to send Queens 50 just to send an appeal. My Psychology exam had absolutely nothing eligibly wrong with it; all my writing was very clear, my scantron and cover pages were all filled out properly, and whenever I continued a question on another page, I was very clear and left directions for the marker so that no problems would occur. I did not complete the appeal process for getting my exam marked and did not tell my parents. I realize now this was a mistake but at the time I felt extremely depressed and defeated.
Psychology was not the only course that was affected by my extenuating medical circumstances. As I stated, my attendance began to drop severely which affected me in all classes. I began to feel shame around my peers because I would often have to abruptly leave class because of stomach pain and suffered from a lack of access to a private washroom. Also, I started to feel increased anxiety about living in residence because of my stomach issues. I would often find myself in a tiny crowded washroom either vomiting or having diarrhea while hearing footsteps, partying and other random noises constantly reminding me that I was surrounded by all my friends and peers. This shame affected me so much that I began to not show up to class because I knew I would have to abruptly leave. Every TA or teacher I talked to would tell me essentially the same thing; which was that they needed the formal accommodation completed to help me. I automatically failed psychology, which was my favourite subject that I cared about deeply, because I did not have the minimum lab attendance and was unable to receive an accommodation.
I would like to finally provide reasons as to why I did not immediately drop out. As I stated, I was hopeful during the first semester that I would be able to get an appointment with a specialist and receive an accommodations for all my classes. I was also hoping that I would adjust to the change in my diet and would be placed with a different roommate. I was confident in my academic ability and was sure that as soon as I could get an accommodation I would be able to earn my credits once my illness was put into consideration. I absolutely did not expect to be waiting for eight or more months to see a specialist. Withdrawing after second semester started did not seem like an option at all since I would be losing so much money. Honestly, I didn¿¿t think this was something my parents would accept. I should have reached out to them to explain how bad things had become both academically and with my health but I felt very depressed As I mentioned, shame was a major factor negatively affecting me and my ability to advocate for myself and seek help.
I hope that I have provided ample explanation regarding my extenuating circumstances throughout the school year, and that I have provided enough information that justifies a late drop on my five courses.
Thank you for your time,

Max Butterworth