Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To whom it may concern,

I failed to drop my course (POLS 211 Fall 2019) by the add/drop date and was quite hoping that I would be able to get it dropped. I originally wrote down the date of the add/drop as a week later than it actually was, which was entirely my own fault. I have been having a particularly difficult school year because of mental health which I assume is the reason for my error in dates. I am currently taking steps to make sure that mistakes like this are not made again and part of this process is taking on a more sustainable workload. I am doing work for income, am part of a club, and in 5 courses which may have been too much for me to handle with the current state of my mental health. At the time of signing up for these my mental health was not an issue, and I feel as though it will return to normal in time, but I need to take on less for now. This course specifically is an issue for me as I am having a more difficult time with it and cannot devote the time and energy I would like to into it. My other classes are going alright, of course they could be better, but I feel that dropping this class will allow me to put my full efforts into my classes as well as getting my mental health back on track before this turns into an even larger issue. I have never been someone who is disorganized and unable to juggle a number of responsibilities which is why this is a particularly difficult time for me, and an issue I myself am having a difficult time understanding. I have a lot of support behind me from family and feel as though if this particular appeal goes through I will have a great chance at getting back on track. I am making an appointment with a mental health professional as I feel that that will help to help me to figure out why I am finding these issues to be particularly overwhelming and will provide documentation of this as soon as I have it. For reasons I do not feel comfortable disclosing, November is a particularly difficult month for me and historically I have had a more difficult time in this time of the year. This year this has become particularly apparent and I am working on sorting this out by talking to and leaning on those around me who understand.
I understand the mistake I have made, and in writing this letter I intend to explain why this happened rather than to feed you excuses. Going forward, I will of course be diligent in confirming important dates in the future. I did reach out Saturday morning to rectify this situation as soon as I realized my error, which I hope might count for something I have certainly learned a lesson in all of this, and have found myself incredibly stressed out trying to rectify this situation.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

Sinead Duignan