Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean Dr. Jenn Stephenson,

I am appealing to drop ANAT 315. Thank you for allowing me the opportunity to explain my circumstances.

I have been battling depression and anxiety for a long time now, and as of this year, my mental health has been worse than ever. During the beginning of the semester, I felt excited for this new term and was devoted to doing well in my classes. However, as a few weeks passed by and the excitement wore off, I could feel my mental health declining. I was eventually unable to get out of bed, I began undereating, picking fights with my friends, and I fell into a place of constant hatred towards myself and others. It was nearly impossible to leave my room- let alone my house- to attend lectures or labs. These were emotions that I hadn¿¿t felt for about 2 years but that I recognized all too well. I was very scared that I wouldn¿¿t be able to get out of this dark mental state. As I couldn't leave my house, I missed many lectures and unfortunately some labs as well. ANAT 315 is weighted only through tests and lab-exams, which made it very difficult for me to keep my grades up as the only way to get a mark was to show up in person. The fact that I wasn¿¿t doing well in ANAT 315 only added on to my stress and it eventually became unbearable to even think of going to class. Mid-November, I finally gained the courage to tell my friends and family how I was feeling, and they encouraged me to call my counsellor from back home in Vancouver. After multiple sessions, I was in a much better mindset and was able to start attending class regularly again. Unfortunately, however, since ANAT 315 moves at quite a fast rate, I had already missed a lot of content and failed 2 tests, making it nearly impossible to recover. For this reason, I am appealing to drop ANAT 315. There are a few explanations as to why ANAT 315 went much worse than my other courses. First, I was able to keep up with fairly good grades in other classes because there were more projects, assignments and quizzes online that I could do and submit from home. On top of this, I learn much better through reading and writing compared to memorization and visualization, although I can always find ways to make it work. ANAT 315 is mainly memorization and visualization which therefore made it even more difficult to navigate when my mind was already foggy from my illness. I am thankful that Queen¿¿s is so understanding when it comes to mental illness, and that there were ways to succeed in my other courses regardless of how I was feeling mentally.

As for the future, I am going to continue regular counselling sessions in order to excel in all my classes. I will be retaking ANAT 315 in the fall of 2020 and to ensure that I won¿¿t be overwhelmed with 6 courses, I am going to take a 3rd year elective- HLTH 230- online in the summer of 2020. With these plans set in place, I am confident that I can achieve my goals as a student and specifically make up for the lost marks in ANAT 315.

I sincerely appreciate the opportunity to discuss my circumstances, and I will be submitting documentation of my illness at the end of December 2019, when I am able to see my counsellor in person.

Thank you,
Ella Curran