Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Himavan Vettivelu
20067649
17hv@queensu.ca

November 24, 2020

Associate Dean's Office
Queen's University
asc.appeals@queensu.ca

To whom it may concern,

I am a fourth-year student in the Political Studies program, appealing to drop my courses for this semester that I am unable to complete due to extenuating medical circumstances. There are four courses I wish to drop: PPEC200, POLS367, POLS388, and POLS406 (Fall, 2020).

Over the past two weeks I have been dealing with a considerable physical illness and although I had up until this point been handling my course work fairly well, it has proved to be an immense problem that has significantly hampered my ability to work. Initially, I attempted to manage by continuing to keep up to the extent possible with the readings, video lectures, and seminars, catching up on any assignments with the aim of finishing them when my health improved at some point. However, since then my illness has only worsened, preventing me from working on and finishing those assignments.

After seeking medical help, I have been told that I will not be able to recover for quite some time, and moreover that the additional strain of attempting to manage my coursework during my illness has likely contributed to its worsening condition. It has been suggested to me that I take some time off to rest for an extended duration and to resume my studies at a later date. This will be for at least the next month and may continue going into the next semester, but hopefully it will not be as severe by that point and I will be well enough to go ahead. As such, at this stage it does not seem like realistic expectation for myself that I will be capable of carrying on for the remainder of the semester and finishing my courses.

Given that this is my final year, this problem has come at a very sensitive time, but the approach to addressing this should be fairly straightforward. To finish my degree, I need nine courses or 27.0 credits, which I had planned to attain with four courses in the Fall term and five in the Winter term. Adjusting to the difficulties posed by the current situation, I plan on taking the remaining four courses in the Spring 2021 term. The Political Studies department is offering six six-week courses during the May-June period, including three 300-level and two 400-level courses, so again the path forward should be somewhat easy to navigate. If conditions permit, I may try to take an additional course in the Winter term to reduce the Spring term course load down to three.

I fully understand that this will delay my graduation by a couple of months, but unfortunately this illness has resulted in the current predicament. Nevertheless, I still remain hopeful that this setback can be resolved fairly smoothly, and I am committed to seeing the matter through.

Thank you for consideration.

Sincerely,

Himavan Vettivelu