Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To whom it may concern,
I am writing this letter to appeal to drop SOCY 210 (Fall, 2019). I am a third-year Sociology major who has taken SOCY 210 twice. This class is mandatory and needed in order to graduate. Although I did not fail it the first time I took it, I did not receive a C, which is required in order to move forward.
Last semester, I obtained accommodations through Queen¿¿s Student Wellness on two separate occasions. Starting in September, I moved into a new house with six other girls, one of which was also new to the house. The individual who was also new to the house, who I will not name for confidentiality reasons, caused many issues, resulting in the downfall of my academics. From the months September through December, there were many events which occurred that caused my housemates and I to lose time to complete assignments and attend class regularly as one should. This individual was suffering from mental illness which we were not aware of until around a month into school, causing many things to happen which we took upon ourselves to deal with. My housemates and I, gave her many resources to reach out to, and was supportive through all of it. The severity of the issue escalated the night she attempted suicide in our home. She was later admitted to Kingston General Hospital under the supervision of physicians in the Psychiatric unit. As a result of many incidents, such as her sneaking into our bedrooms when we we were not there, lying about things regarding her identity, etc, I was left feeling extremely unsafe in a home which I did not have much option but to stay living in. This caused me to go back home to Ajax most weekends and sometimes during the week. In addition, we were forced to make countless appointments with counsellors, group and individual, as well as off-campus housing helpers. This resulted in constantly being forced to miss class, and lose time to complete assignments or study. As a result of this, I retrieved academic accommodations twice, as I felt I was falling too far behind. I believe these events effected my grades in all of my courses, however SOCY 210 was the only course in which I had to write an exam. My other four classes which I was taking required final papers which I was able to write with more time, while being at home in Ajax away from the poor environment which I was living in while in Kingston. In addition, as a result of SOCY 210 only consisting of a midterm, paper, and final exam, I had less opportunities to boost or increase my grades as i did in other courses.
In the case of having this course appealed from my transcript, I plan to retake it in the fall semester of 2020. The reasons which impacted my overall grades and success in the course SOCY 210, have been resolved and are no longer impacting my current and future academic performance. Although these extenuating circumstances resulted in the downfall of my grades, I believe that I will be successful when retaking the course as I will not have the same issues in my way of obtaining the grade needed and doing well in the course.