Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean (Studies),

I am writing today to appeal to drop ECON 223, CLST 205, and HLTH 101 from the Summer 2020 session without academic penalty.

This summer, I decided to enrol in three courses to keep myself busy during the pandemic and reduce my workload during the upcoming school year. I was doing well in all my classes and managed to get a grade of A+ on my ECON 223 and an A- for my assignments for CLST 205. Things were going along normally, and my expectations were to complete all my coursework this summer and score high grades of A- and above in all the courses that I was on track to achieve.

About halfway through the summer term, around June 22nd, I began to experience my functioning impaired. I went days without being able to function at my normal capacity, which ended up lasting weeks. I wasn¿¿t sure what was going on with me as I could not even perform basic tasks or even do things I enjoy. I also began to have issues with my sleep, which worsened my condition, and I eventually sought help. I reached out to Queen¿¿s Student Wellness Services and spoke with a medical professional, Dr. Billing. She diagnosed me with going through a major depressive episode, prescribed me medication, and recommended counselling. At this time, I was assigned a counsellor by Queens Student Wellness, Christina Ruggiero, and began meeting with her regularly to seek help for my depression. At this time, both Dr. Billing and my counsellor recommended that I focus on my health for the time being as my functioning has been drastically impaired, and I could not meet my academic obligations. They informed me to reach out to my professors to let them know that I will be needing some time to focus on my health but still intend to finish my academic obligations. I informed all my professors of my situation, and they were understanding and willing to accommodate me.

Seeing both Dr. Billing and my counsellor, Christina, I was doing my best to follow their recommendations to improve my functioning to the point where I can complete my daily tasks again. To this day, I am still seeing them regularly. Unfortunately, my situation was not improving immediately during the summer term, and I could not perform any of my academic obligations from June 22nd till midway September. I intended to finish my summer courses as I am in a dire financial position and cannot afford to lose money by not completing the courses I paid for. As I began to improve my condition due to the incredible support I received from Queen¿¿s Student Wellness Services, the fall term had begun. I decided to take a full course load this Fall 2020 term, all of which are mandatory courses for my program. I decided to move forward with my Fall term courses and drop my Summer courses. It was not feasible for me to keep up with my current academic obligations while making up for my previous summer obligations. Consulting with my counsellor, they agreed that being behind in my summer term contributed negatively to my health, and it was best for me to drop my summer term courses and focus on keeping up with my current work this term.

Due to the help from Dr. Billing in helping me receive the right medication for my health and my counsellor, Christina, I have been able to make a drastic improvement in my condition. I am continuing to seek their services regularly till I can fully function my best again. At this point, I have been keeping up with most of my academic obligations this Fall 2020 term while maintaining a full course load in much more challenging courses. Additionally, I have been working with Deb Bruce from Queen¿¿s Student Accessibility Services. I have registered with them to communicate with my instructors about my disability and the accommodations I need.

I hope that the committee can understand the difficult situation I was in and permit me to drop my summer term courses ECON 223, CLST 205, and HLTH 101 without penalty. I did not anticipate being in this situation and, therefore, could not drop the courses by the official drop deadline. I am grateful for the services Queen¿¿s has to offer their students in seeking support for situations like this as without it, I can¿¿t even imagine where I would be today and the progress I was able to make. I do not anticipate this situation happening again as I am continually using the services offered by Queen¿¿s Student Wellness and working with Dr. Billing and Christina to improve my conditions. Additionally, I have registered with QSAS and will be working with them and my instructors to ensure I am provided adequate accommodation going forward.

Sincerely,

Fahad Khan