Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean Dr. Jenn Stephenson,

I am writing to ask for an exception to the course drop period in order to drop HLTH445 from my schedule for Fall 2020 term. I was under the mistaken belief that I had already dropped the course on November 2nd and treated the course as such. As a result, I have not completed any of the assignments or attended any of the lectures. On November 9th, I realized that the course was still on my schedule and immediately emailed ASC Registration and my academic advisor, Vanessa McCourt. In an academic advising meeting on September 28th, Vanessa and I had discussed me dropping HLTH445 and had decided I was going to do so. This led me to completing none of the assignments, with the idea that I was dropping this course. I had a reminder to drop this course before the November 2nd deadline, and I truly thought I had done so on SOLUS. I am genuinely unsure of what happened.

I accept responsibility for the mistake I made, I should have double checked to ensure the course was in fact dropped from my schedule. This error has caused me significant distress and I can assure you due to this experience I will never make a mistake like this again.

I am asking to drop this course largely because if I am required to keep it I will suffer a substantial drop in my GPA since I have not submitted any assignments and am more than half a semester behind in the course. I do not feel it is possible for me to catch up in this course if I am required to take it, as I am enrolled in 5 additional courses, and I am already struggling to adapt to online learning and this semester is proving more challenging than usual for me without the added pressure of this course. I additionally have many mental health issues as I have been registered for disability with QSAS since my second year at Queen¿¿s. These issues affect me heavily with my school and personal life, leading me to avoid aspects of both lives. These accommodations do help me a lot with school, but I suffer extensively and this has worsened due to this specific situation with this course. I intend to apply to graduate schools this winter and fear that my zero in this course would impede my ability to get into the graduate programs I aspire to take.

Thank you very much for considering my request.

Sincerely,

Alexandra Chatzifilalithis
20052978