Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Appeal of Grades Clayton Tomlinson, Student 10152511
Re: ENGL 321, ENGL 436, ENGL 471, ENGL 481, ENGL 442 and also ENGL 411, PHIL 318, LLCU 319, and ENGL 217

Winter Term 2019:
During my undergraduate program at Queen's I have experienced sever depression and anxiety. This resulted in me struggling at times to meet deadlines and comply with course requirements. I attended therapy in March of 2017, while in 3rd year, at the Queen's Health Services and received the maximum number of counselling sessions. I then moved to weekly meetings with a private therapist which continued until May of 2019. I have remained in contact by phone with my therapist since leaving school. I have also explored medical treatments as well. In April of 2019 I was experiencing serious mental health challenges and found myself unable to complete the essays and exams for the 5 courses I was taking at the time, the first courses listed above.
I was in contact with Dr. Shelley King, the head of the English Department in April to explain the situation and my challenges. I was put in touch with an Academic Accommodation Counsellor and received the attached April 25th email in response to my request for accommodation.

In accordance with this email I reached out to my professors to discuss dates for handing in the outstanding essays. It is my understanding that the instructors for the courses I was taking in the Winter 2019 term have agreed that I could submit the essays upon my completion of the rescheduled exams.

In May of 2019 I was contacted by Tammy Donnelly in respect of the exams and advised that the deferred exams would be arranged in September of 2019 (see attached email dated May 3, 2019). On July 12 I was advised by Ms. Donnelly that the ENGL 481 exam was scheduled for September 4th. There was then some back and forth about arranging for the exams and whether two could be written a day with a break in between to allow for preparation (see attached email chain between myself and Ms. Donnelly). As you will see there was some confusion about whether I would write on September 4th as this day was suggested but not confirmed. On August 29th at 11:53 Ms. Donnelly suggested Sept 12th for two of the exams and Sept 19th for the other two. This was the schedule that was agreed to.

Unfortunately, as I experienced extreme anxiety while preparing for the September 12th attendance, my mother contacted Ms. Donnelly to explain the situation and it was agreed that this date would be rescheduled. It was agreed on the call with my mother that she would call on September 16th to confirm attendance on the 19th. To assist in my preparation and ensure my ability to attend I was in contact with my therapist over the phone with extra appointments scheduled leading up the 19th.
However, on September 16th the attached email was received from Ms. Donnelly setting out that my IN grades had been converted to an F, that the September 19th exam times were cancelled, and that my only recourse was to request an appeal. I would note that even if I had completed two of the exams on the 12th this would not have resolved the IN grades.

I was shocked to receive this email given the ongoing conversations to schedule the exams which had been taking place since May. I was confident that I would have been able to attend on the 19th to write these exams and had been preparing and booked train travel. Further there was never a hard deadline attached to submission of the essays. Submission dates were planned around the exam schedule arrived at with the help of Ms. Donnelly.

I would like to make an appeal to the Office of the Associate Dean (Studies) so that I can complete the exams noted above and submit the essays. Despite my mental health issues I remain committed to completing these courses. In each, my course performance shows a willingness to not just complete the assignments but to complete them with much success heading into the final essay/exam component of the course.

Since May I have believed that I would be given an opportunity to complete my exams and essays starting in September. It seems unreasonable that Queen's would only have allowed 9 school business days to complete these exams given the circumstances of my request for accommodation. I relied on the schedule being set by the Queens administration and the representations of Queens employees. I find it extremely frustrating and unfair that a further appeal is now being required and that my ability to complete my course work is now in question. I cannot adequately express how difficult this situation has been for me.

Prior Courses:
In addition to the above I would also like to explore the possibility of appealing 4 other grades on my academic record and set out below a brief history related to these courses. I would not however want the raising of these courses to delay the receipt of a decision regarding the 5 above courses and would ask that that be addressed first.
Phil 318 (fall 2016) I did not attend this class but failed to drop within the required timeframe.
LLCU 319 (fall 2017) this was an on-line course. I completed the course work but failed to complete the essay or exam.
ENGL 411 (winter 2018) I completed all work but failed to hand in the final essay.
ENGL 217 (winter 2017) My mental health issues that were documented by my therapist to the Academic Accommodation Counsellor affected my ability to take appropriate action or complete these courses. I was unable to perform or even to successfully drop these classes and so I ask only that they be removed from my transcript for they are severely detrimental to my GPA and successful completion of an honour's bachelor's degree.

I have registered for and am currently taking the last course that would provide me with the required credits to complete my degree at Queens. I am hopeful that if provided an opportunity to complete the 2019 Winter term work that I would be able to graduate from Queen's and move on to pursuing my goal to work as a writer. I believe that my course work illustrates that I have been taking positive steps towards achieving a stronger academic performance as I have worked to address my mental health issues that started while an undergraduate at Queens. Consideration of the 4 past courses listed above would assist me with moving forward.

Thank you in advance for your consideration of this appeal,

Clayton Tomlinson