Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Dr. Atkinson, Associate Dean of Studies at Queen¿¿s University,

I am writing this letter to appeal for a dropped course standing for PSYC236.

In December of last year (what would have been the 2018-2019 fall semester) my mental health took a severe downturn and I was forced to defer three final exams- PHGY215, PSYC271, and PHAR280. While I also, at the time, deferred MICR271, I was able to write that over the winter break after taking a small break for my health (something which was not an option for the other courses for varying reasons). The only other exam I had that semester I had written before my breakdown, so it was not affected.

Heading into the winter semester, I fully planned to (and had begun) rescheduling my exams for the first few weeks of January. However, it was at this time that I was diagnosed with mononucleosis. Because of mono, I was forced to reschedule my exams once again to later in the semester when I had more energy and had recovered. I took only one course in the winter semester to try and heal, both mentally and physically (but I have now had to defer my exam for the one course as well so it didn¿¿t entirely work as planned). Unfortunately, my plans to recover from mono and write my exams were waylaid by crippling mental health (and the various medication changes associated with attempting to recover), strep throat, and a terrible cold. Whenever I had seemed to get even slightly better from one thing, I was forced to confront and deal with another, my mental health on a downward spiral all the while as I battled with anxiety and depression on top of various physical ailments.

Despite all of this, I kept one course in the hopes of being able to complete it as I adored the subject matter- clinical psychology. Though I found it incredibly interesting, my health issues resulted in me ultimately having to defer the midterm and final exams. This past summer, I stayed at home and focused on improving my health and attempting to retake some courses (PHGY215 and PHGY216) as well as study for the exams for PSYC236. However, in doing this I ran into a new problem with my health- memory loss. My depression has reached such a point where I will sometimes lose hour long sections of my day. As such, I found it incredibly difficult to study, as no matter what I seem to do I cannot absorb the information. In an attempt to remedy this, I have been working with my health care team over the summer, going as far as to switch my antidepressant in an attempt to increase my ability to focus. As that didn¿¿t work, we are now looking to switch it again, in the hopes of finding a better match. In addition to this, I am looking into setting up accommodations for the upcoming year through QSAS, as well as currently searching for a therapist with whom I can begin CBT. However, as it stands right now I fear for my GPA due to circumstances that I tried my best to control but ultimately were out of my hands.

Thank you for your consideration,

Mackenzie Davidson, 20053330