Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: May 14th, 2020
Dear Associate Dean (Studies)

I am writing to you in order to appeal for a late drop of ECON112, MUSC171 and HLTH200 courses after the academic deadline in order to clear the ¿F¿¿s from my transcript. Unfortunately, due to my mental health I missed the November 1st, 2019 deadline for dropping these courses. I had been determined to finish them however, I was not yet in the right place in my overall health to meet the deadlines of assignments and writing tests and exams. I have attached the medical documents explaining my mental health at this time. I am happy to say that this past semester I did complete three courses and I now feel much more confident that I will be able to succeed in my undergraduate studies at Queen¿¿s. I would have dropped these courses earlier but due to the mental health struggles I was dealing with, I had a false sense of where I was and how I was doing in the courses. Over the past four years, I have been on a long and difficult journey of understanding my panic attacks, depression and anxiety. I thought I had a handle on it during the Fall 2019 semester but, but was terribly wrong. I had tried to push through and overcome the issues I was dealing with as a student at Queen¿¿s university, but I did not succeed because I did not have the right support systems in place. I now feel that I have turned an important corner and this appeal is an important part of this process too. I am now trying to organize my course work and transcript to have all of the core courses completed in order to move into the upper level courses. In order to prevent a semester like Fall 2019 from happening again, I will be continuing to follow the strategies I¿¿ve implemented this past semester (Winter 2020) and I will be adding regularly scheduled appointments with QSAS to help me adjust my accommodations and help understand where I am in the course in order to best help me succeed in the future. I truly believe that this past semester was a turning of the page from my past errors and medical issues that held me back and I am trying to continue to build on the success by submitting this appeal to drop those ¿F¿¿ grades in order to close the chapter on those struggles and to help provide me with more opportunities that my past medical issues may have prevented.( In total, this appeal will help me finally move forward with my university degree and help me undergo sustained success.) I have confidence in my abilities as a student now that I am feeling stronger emotionally. I am also working with an academic coach and mental health professionals who are helping me to stay on track with my schoolwork and life. I am also asking to waive the 21-day deadline to submit this appeal due extenuating circumstances regading COVID-19.

I appreciate you reviewing this appeal. I hope you understand how difficult these past few years have been for me. It is gratifying to be feeling better and to be able to be closer to graduating from Queen¿¿s university.