Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean (Academic),

I am appealing to drop CISC 251 past the academic and financial deadline for the fall term of 2020.

The primary reason I am appealing to drop this course was due to an acute physical illness that began on Friday October 30th. I was unwell until Monday November 9th and received a doctors note that I submitted for a week of extenuating circumstances. I will be uploading this doctors note to the academic appeals page for your verification. My symptoms resembled that of the corona virus and as such, I was forced to self-isolate. For the 11 days I was unwell, I had a high fever (104 F), migraines, cold, dry cough, nausea, vomiting, chest pain and difficulty breathing, diarrhea, hot flashes, and body aches. Luckily, after my isolation period, my COVID-19 tests came back negative, so my doctor suggested that I was sick a severe case of the flu.

During the time that I was unwell, I missed my BChem 218 midterm on November 4th. I reached out to my professors who told me that they would arrange an alternate assessment for me when I was better. This past week, when I reached out to them saying I felt better, they asked me to write my midterm this past Thursday (yesterday November the 12th). I was intending on using this week to catch up in the course work that I had missed when I was ill, but I had to re-allocate my time to preparing for this midterm.

At the beginning of the year, I was eager to take the data analytics certificate along with my life science major. Reflecting back on this decision, I believe I was over-ambitious with my goals. This was the first year where I have lived alone, so I incurred the responsibility of cooking, cleaning, and caring for myself and my overall well-being independently. I did not realize how much stress this would cause me and how much of my time it would take up.

After learning the first few weeks of the course content, I found that I was extremely uninterested in the course material. My disengagement with the course began quickly and was exacerbated due to my ADHD and severe executive functioning disorder, specifically in my struggles with time management and the prioritization of tasks. To date, the assessments in CISC 251 have only comprised 10 of my final grade. The last assessment was due October 16th and the future assessments that remain are a big project, worth 40 of my grade (due November 20th) and two final exams worth another 50. The format of the assessments in this class alongside my unforeseen illness has consequentially caused me to fall extremely behind in the course content. I do not foresee myself being able to succeed, let alone pass this course. I am a high achieving student that is aspiring to go to medical school after I graduate. I consider myself a determined person who likes to persevere through all challenges, however I believe my success in this course is impossible. I believe that my continued enrolment in CISC 251 would continue to cause a deterioration in my mental health due to an immense amount of stress and anxiety with my success in this class. I am extremely passionate about the rest of my courses that are all centered around Life Sciences and truly believe that dropping this course would allow me to allocate my focus into excelling in my 4 courses for the rest of the semester.

I would also like to add that this past summer I obtained 2 summer credits and also received 2 transfer credits coming into Queen¿¿s. Therefore, dropping this class will not prevent me from graduating on time or cause me to have a lack of credits.

I appreciate your time and consideration with my situation.
Sincerely,
Penny McCreath