Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To Whom it may concern,

My name is Itamar Kofman and I have just finished my third year of studies at Queens University. I am majoring in political science and minoring in history. I am completing the following appeal for a number of courses from my first years at Queen's that have proved to be a stane on my academic portfolio. This was largely an outcome of a number of major uncontrollable factors.

The first factor is rooted in the lack of accommodation for my permanent academic disability. I was born with a permanent disability and have received accommodation my whole life in efforts to even the playing field between myself and my peers. With that being said when I came to Queen's psychological assessment I had was not recent enough for the school to accept my permanent disability. This then led to a long prolonged process for me to get reassessed. As I am already a financially struggling student the processes could not be done overnight through the privet sector and therefor I only got my assessment back after the academic year had finished. With that being said the newly developed obstacles I faced in my first year at queens where a direct result of the lack of accommodations which made things much harder then they should have been. I was spending twice as much time on tasks as my peers and still not reaching my full potential. This made an already difficult jump from highschool the university near impossible. I was fortunate enough to turn it around in my second year and receive almost a full letter grade higher in my average. Furthermore, beyond the fact that I was already behind the ball, I was also dealing with the reemergence of anxiety and panic attack related issues. I have a history of mental health-related problems and soon after starting my academic journey at Queen's the came right back to haunt me. This made an already difficult situation almost impossible. An in-depth analysis of both my learning disability and the mental health-related problems are highlighted in the Psychological assessment.

In conclusion, my first year at Queen's was very challenging on multiple levels. Beyond the mental health-related struggles and the lack of accommodation, the transition was very difficult for me as I was also adjusting to a new at-home relationship with my family as my parents decided to get divorced the summer before my first year.

Thank you in advance for your understanding and consideration in the matter.

Warm regards,
Itamar Kofman