Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean,
My name is Matthew Kennedy, I am a fourth year ArtSci student at Queen¿¿s and I am writing to you today to request an academic appeal to allow me to late drop fall term courses.
2020 has been the worst year, in general and in relation to school, that I¿¿ve ever had. Prior to this year, I¿¿ve had hiccups here or there, but overall have been an engaged student who passes his courses. Before the pandemic, I was on track to graduate with a BaH with a major in philosophy and a minor in politics. Ever since the pandemic hit, and classes moved online (starting with the end of last year¿¿s winter term), I¿¿ve been experiencing a downwards spiral in both my mental health and academic performance.
During the summer I was supposed to work a job for the City of Markham, however I, like many others, was laid off and left with no job for the summer. In order to continue doing something productive, I decided to enroll in a couple online courses so that I could get ahead for my fourth year. As I tried to complete these online courses, I quickly realized that my learning style does not mesh with online learning at all. For me to learn properly I require the engagement of listening to a professor speak in person ¿¿ pre-recorded slideshows and modules simply don¿¿t work well for me. This, in addition to zero human interaction, and an increasing sense of lockdown anxiety and loneliness, caused me to not be in the greatest spot mentally. In the end I passed one of my summer courses but failed the other.
I told myself that I would be ok, that it was a new term, and that I just had to force myself to do a full online course load. I have discovered that I have a mentally unhealthy tendency to tell myself that everything will be ok, that I can solve every problem, when in reality I should have asked for help earlier. Instead, I bottle it up and don¿¿t tell anyone I need help, out of embarrassment and as to not be a disappointment to anyone, and tell myself I just need to work harder to fix my problems. That¿¿s what I told myself this term, and it didn¿¿t work out for me.
This term brought with it several significant changes in my life. For one, it was the first time that I would be balancing a full course load of school, and a demanding part-time job. Second, it was the first time in my life living in total social isolation. My two housemates who I have lived with for as long as I¿¿ve been at Queen¿¿s, both either stayed home or got their own place, leaving me completely by myself in our three-person apartment. Third, it was my first time taking an entire course load of online courses. And fourth, and most obviously, the world at large is a very different place due to COVID-19.
The cumulation of these factors led to an extremely challenging semester. The anxiety and loneliness of living completely by yourself during this pandemic made it incredibly difficult to complete online modules. I made the unfortunate mistake of thinking that, because everything is online, it would be ok if I got behind in my courses, because I figured all the resources would be there for me to look at any time. This obviously was also a mistake, because before I knew it the term was halfway done, and I had serious catching up to do. Time surprisingly flies when you¿¿re living in isolation and every day starts meshing into the next.
As the end of the term approached, I knew that if I wanted to pass my courses, I would have to get a good grade on my final essay and exam for all my courses. The reason that I did not drop any courses before the Nov. 2nd deadline is because I believed I would be able to grind out all my final essays and study to get a good grade on the exam. However, as time went on, again I realized that I should have asked for help, or taken action, earlier, rather than bottling it up and trying to solve all my problems myself, because in doing so I allowed myself no wiggle room whatsoever.
In addition to all this, my 85-year-old grandmother who I¿¿m very close to contracted COVID-19 and became very ill. As I¿¿m sure you can understand, this was extremely mentally difficult for me, as I was already in a position of stress, and now had to deal with a much greater stress than work or school could ever create. During the two weeks that my grandmother was ill, I was essentially completely unable to properly concentrate or get any quality school work done. Essay deadlines began to roll by, and I had little or nothing to show for. I was unable to complete my essays, or if I did, completed them with significant late penalty, and would have required 100 or more on my exam in order to pass. It was at that point that I went to go see if there was any way I could still drop my courses, however because it was past the Nov 2nd deadline, I was not able to.
I am ashamed and regretful of my school performance this year. I am a proud Queen¿¿s student, and I am determined to graduate. I have decided to drop my minor and simply go for a BA rather than a BAH in order to not have to take an extra semester. However, I am concerned about the effect that failing several courses this term will have on my GPA, and consequentially, my ability to graduate at the end of this year. This semester has been the greatest failure of my life, but has also taught me valuable lessons about life, and myself. With this behind me, I am highly motivated to demonstrate that I am a good student, who can work hard and can get good grades this semester.
Thank you for reading this letter, and I truly hope that with these considerations, I may be able to late drop some or all of the courses I failed this semester.
Sincerely,
Matthew Kennedy