Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean (Academic),

I am writing this letter to you today regarding obtaining a credit standing in the course, FREN343. I have taken this course during my third year at Queen's University, which is the 2018-2019 academic year. However, this letter will primarily focus on why I am appealing past the 21-day deadline of graduation.

Initial Stages
I am appealing now instead of before because it has taken a very long time to get medical documentation in order to appeal for this course. I believe that medical documentation is a crucial piece of evidence that will support my appeal case. For this course and my learning in general, I felt that I was experiencing an increase of mental challenges and therefore, I sought help from Student Wellness Services at Queen's University. I normally do not prefer to seek this service because I find more comfort in talking to my peers, but I felt this was something my friends could not resolve.

My Time With Student Wellness Services
I began visiting the counselling services at the Student Wellness Services at the beginning of the winter 2019 semester, as I knew that I needed to ameliorate my mental health. I have used this service periodically during the winter 2019 semester until the summer 2020 semester to discuss my mental health challenges that I was facing. I realized that as a student who is in need of mental health services, obtaining appointments often with counsellors is very hard. After each session, counsellors provide strategies such as the colour chart, breathing exercises, explanations of situations. However, these solutions did not suffice. After trying out these strategies on my own, I would need to book more in person consultations with the student wellness counsellors. I tried to give months to work on these strategies on my own and realized that they did not work, hence I saw more counsellors. Same day appointments were not available, as Student Wellness has recently updated their services. Appointments were extremely spaced out, since many students were in need of this crucial service. I worked with a variety of counsellors such as faculty specific, residence outreach and general counsellors and unfortunately I did not see the progress I was hoping for. As appointments were not that frequent and I approached different types of counsellors, obtaining documentation and a solution to this dilemma took more time than anticipated. After seeking the counsellors twice during the summer 2020 semester, I decided to stop seeking this service and try to consult my respective family physician for support.

Why did I not seek a Family Physician Earlier
In an earlier appeal, I explained how my parents were having relationship difficulties and considered separating during my first year of undergraduate education during the 2016-2017 academic year. This matter can have significant impacts to any individual who is experiencing it.t By frequently going home during the 2016-2017 academic year, I believed that the separation was becoming more real. However, my parents were able to reconcile temporarily for the sake of my sister and I. Even though there were issues going on at home, I decided to stay in Kingston for the rest of my undergraduate degree because I wanted to be in a positive home with the support of my housemates, rather than in my home town which can be toxic at any point of time. I have attached my mother's testimonies appeal package to support my claim to appeal for this course at a later time.

My family physician only started to provide remote medical services during the summer 2020 semester, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. When I found that they were offering medical services over the phone and remotely, I contacted them as soon as I could. I knew that when seeing my family doctor before the pandemic, it involved a series of tests and required me to stay in my hometown. I also knew that based on my experience during my first year, this would not be the best for my academic situation. I have made several difficult decisions such as changing teachables and degree plans in order to decrease the impact of my parental situation. Hence, I continued to seek Student Wellness Services as it was in Kingston and on-campus.
After contacting my medical physician, they listened to my concerns and feelings and provided me with some paperwork and questionnaire documents such as the Adult ADHD Self-Report Scale (ASRS-v1.1) Symptom Checklist and medical tests at the local Life Labs. After completing these medical procedures, my physician was able to inform me that I had adult ADHD which impacts my mental health. Unfortunately, my home situation still is not the best, but regardless of this, I had to come back home for 7 weeks since my teaching placement was in my hometown.
Lastly, I do understand that I did appeal another course by the 21-day deadline, however the documentation that provided was a testimony from my academic advisor and both my parents. This appeal is significantly different because it involves my health and I was not able to receive medical documentation to validate my situation, as there was a pause in medical services and then remote services started to become offered. At the same time, I was still utilizing Student Wellness Counsellors at Queen's University. The 2020 summer was an extremely confusing summer for me and many others due to the pandemic. There was and still is a high level of uncertainty pertaining to the availability of mental wellness resources.
Thank you so much for reading through my appeal letter. I have attached a signed note from a parent regarding the appeal. I have attached my medical documentation and a letter from the Student Wellness Services outlining my appointments. I am hoping that you are able to approve this appeal to further allow me to appeal the course, FREN 343 as a credit standing.
If you have any questions, please feel to contact me or my mother at any time with the contact information provided.

Sincerely,
Jathorsan Lingarajan

If a password is needed for the Student Wellness document, it is 20000709