Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean (studies),

I am appealing for Credit Standing (CR) for all courses where C or lower were achieved within the Fall 2017-Fall 2018 time frame.

During the academic terms of Fall 2017 to Winter 2018 I dealt with an ongoing set of extenuating circumstances which negatively affected my mental health, and hence, resulted in a lower academic performance. These circumstances beyond my control, discussed below, had kept me from performing to my full academic potential. Just recently, after proper diagnosis and prescription for my condition (Generalized anxiety disorder) I am learning to manage my illness; thus, positively impacting my current and future academic performance. During most of my teenage years I had dealt with mental health issues. Moving to a university far from my hometown and the consequences from that only caused a decline in my mental health. Along with the decline in my mental health due to moving far away where I did not know anybody, I was also pressured into enrolling into the courses I took. I was threatened to be disowned if I changed my degree plan as it would dishonor my family. The pressure of keeping my family honoured caused my mental health to worsen. I felt anxious every day and had no friends to talk to about what I was going through. My mental health worsened as time passed in this term and it was harder and harder to study or learn anything physiologically as most of my time would be passed worrying, being stressed, or being anxious. During my first exam season (Fall 2017) I did not sleep or eat properly; severely affecting my performance on my exams as I could not think function or focus and end up running out of time on my exams. As I entered my second semester (Winter 2018), I received an email from the registrar's office saying that I had outstanding balance of 9500.00 to pay, which was overdue. Being a student who qualified for the maximum amount of financial aid a student can receive, I had been under the impression that OSAP was going to take care of all my tuition and residence fees. Being a first-generation university student and having a single mother who is an unemployed immigrant, it was impossible for her; my only source of income, to help me pay for this outstanding balance. My mother at that time tried to co-sign for me to open up a student line of credit but it was denied as her funds were met insignificant to be granted a student line of credit. She then was very worried about my situation as she did not understand what was going on as she does not speak English or is able to comprehend certain information; this impacted my mental state even more as I felt like a complete failure as a daughter. I spent all of second term (Winter 2018) worried that I would be forced to withdraw from Queens and how I could gather such a great amount of funds in such a short period of time. Given these circumstances, my mental health state worsened, and I had even more issues falling asleep and just regularly functioning. This went on to continue negatively impacting my academic performance. This mental state and situation carried out to summer 2018 where I was informed and had no choice but to appeal to enroll with a debt as I could not manage to pay the outstanding balance I owed. I completed the form, which got accepted, however, Queens notified me that my OSAP for my next year of study would be directly sent to Queens to pay off the outstanding balance owing. This meant that I had to make enough money in the summer (alone) to pay rent and other necessities for the whole school year. I worked all summer, but my funds were still insufficient to meet all my needs. In the middle of Fall 2018 I had run out of money to pay for rent and food and was forced to contact family friends for financial assistance all while in the middle of the school year. This caused me to focus more on one subject versus another (as can be seen on my transcript) as I did not have enough time to focus on each class equally as I had to also focus on trying to gather up money for rent; this dilemma impacted my mental health immensely. Trying to figure out how to pay rent every month as well as actively trying to improve my mental health was very exhausting for me and negatively impacted my academic performance. Finally, I decided that I wanted to make a difference in my life and my academics because I know that I am a smart student and I am better than the grades that I had and was receiving. I wanted to go seek help, so I went to Queens Wellness services (Fall 2018 going to Winter 2019) where I told a physician about what had been going on with my mental health and she prescribed me medication as well as advising me to go see a counsellor regularly. After about a month of staying on track and actively seeking help, I had started to notice an increase in my academic performance, grades and overall functioning (Winter 2019). This current academic year I has also received OSAP so financial stress had been greatly decreased compared to my previous years. Moving forward and working to keep my academic performance at its best as well as managing my mental health issues, I am going to keep taking my medication, going to see a counsellor, and I am also currently in the process of setting up accommodations for my future exams so I don't run out of time in the case that I do get anxious or have an anxiety attack during an exam. Even though focusing on my mental health is very crucial to me, it is also important that I am in a program that I enjoy being in so I will also be changing my program during the next Change of Plan period. In conclusion, due to these extenuating ongoing circumstances it is evident that within the fall 2017-fall 2018 time period the ongoing financial issues, mental health issues and personal issues I dealt with refrained me from performing to my full academic potential. Given these circumstances out of my control I am appealing to replace all grades C or lower with a CR standing so they do not continue to negatively impact my GPA.

Thankyou.

Mahrukh Sultana
20071980


I was unable to elaborate with additional information due to the restricted word count. I would be willing to further discuss my issue further in person, along with medical documentation. Thank you.