Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: The purpose of this appeal is to drop and expunge the courses Psychology 100 and Physiology 215 from my permanent transcript due to a concussion. The injury occurred on October 17th, 2020. I was assessed by a doctor in Student Wellness Services and provided documentation for an estimated one to two weeks of recovery.

Concussion recovery is a very unpredictable process which makes it difficult to estimate a date of recovery. It was not foreseen that my symptoms resulting from the brain injury would last longer than the doctor's initial predictions. This is supported by the timeline of my Short-Term Academic Consideration (STAC) documents. The alterations and first adjustments I had made to my academic plan were no longer feasible.

Over the course of my concussion, I have been experiencing severe sensitivity to light and sound, difficulty looking at a screen for an extended period of time, eye-strain, fatigue, dizziness, nausea, vomiting, neck and back pain, headaches, pressure/fullness in the head, difficulty with focus, memory and higher-level cognitive thought.

Before the academic drop deadline, my doctors, health-care professionals and academic advisors supported my decision to reduce my course load by one. At the time, this seemed to be an adequate reduction in the course material. Allowing me to accommodate my limited capacity and focus on recovery.

As exams were approaching by the end of November, I was still struggling to complete work throughout the day. I was now six weeks behind across all three courses and it was clear that further actions needed to be taken. I required a great deal of assistance in order to resolve my extenuating circumstances.

I met with each professor to discuss possible actions moving forward. In PSYC 100 and PHGY 215, it was mutually agreed upon to drop both courses and take them again at a later date. My current limited abilities, the nature of the course curriculum and the duration of time missed, all played a factor in the decision.

In ANAT 380, the professor, TA and I were able to work out some accommodations by deferring my exam to the winter term. I am currently able to focus on a single course as I continue to heal and transition back into my academics. I have taken a large number of steps to aid in my recovery process as I will detail below. At present, I am continuing to follow up with appointments and rehabilitation exercises every day. I am still suffering from concussion-related symptoms, however, on a good day, I am beginning to be able to dedicate three to four hours throughout the day towards my academics before causing my symptoms to worsen. I am greatly improving since the initial injury and I am eager to return to full-time studies.

Moving into the winter term, I have taken the additional precaution of reducing my course load down to three in order to accommodate for the unpredictability and potential long-term effects of my injury.

The process of dealing with a medical issue as a university student is heavily reliant on the student and online resources. My impacted ability to think through my circumstances made it difficult to come up with a plan for recovery. I was unsure who to see to answer which questions. Each specialist I saw focused on one specific part of my situation. Requiring me to put together the whole picture.

Throughout my recovery, I have been focusing on both my medical and academic recovery. Beginning with the medical aspect, I have been working with doctors in SWS, an athletic therapist in Q Sports Medicine once a week, following up with a concussion specialist, working with an Occupational Therapist and even visiting a chiropractor in the community a few days a week to help relieve symptoms. On the academic side of my recovery, I have worked with my QSAS advisor to update my accommodations, talked with a learning strategist, met with adaptive technology specialist, coordinated alternate formats for course content, worked with academic advisors and academic skills specialists in SASS, updated and communicated with my course instructors. All of these people and resources have helped me to move forward.