Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: This is Xiaoying Shi, a 2nd-year Art History student, and my student number is 20150854. I would like to take this opportunity to discuss my situation and seek your kind advice with regard to my stress and psychological problem. And that is the reason that I want to apply a late drop of my two courses.

This has been a special year because the Covid-19 and most of the international students including myself had to take online courses in our own country. After being stranded in Montreal for nearly three months in early summer due to numerus (and sometime last minute) flight cancellations, I finally made back home in China. The stress resulted from this horrible experience had lasting impact throughout this term, although I did not realize it right away. I naively thought I would be able to fight through the challenges and survive the term. As it turns out, the challenge of studying alone without classmates and without in-person learning is too much. All in all, it has been really hard for me to study with similar energy and efficiency in my first year before this semester, especially for art history classes.

Because of online learning format and reduced weight of final exams, we have had much more work throughout this semester. I had a lot of pressure at the beginning of the semester, and I did not realize I might have developed psychological problem because of it. Over time, I could not control myself and ignored the deadline of homework, even though I understood I had to finish them.

I tried to start some assignments and quizzes, but at the end of November I felt I got worse in both my physical and psychological health. I got a bad cold for a long period of time, and I found I missed some important quizzes. Things got progressively worse and made me feel helpless and depressed. I had no will to do anything at that time, and I did not know where or who I could ask for help. Last week, my family noticed my unusual state, and they talked and made me feel much better. They also encouraged me to seek help. I got better these days, but I realize I missed too many assignments and quizzes this semester.

I apologize and I feel bad that I could not finish this semester with a satisfactory result, but I really want to get myself out of this situation and keep studying at Queen¿¿s University. I am aware that I have to take responsibility myself, but I don't want to fail my courses. Therefore I want to apply for late drop for my ARTH272 and ARTH288 so that I can retake them and get a better grade in the following terms.