Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean (Arts and Science),

My name is Paige Lowman (20233895), and I am appealing to drop BIOL102 (Fall 2020) past the drop deadline.

As you know covid has had a significant impact on all of our lives. I started my online Queens experience in September having lost 3 family members since June. One of covid, one suddenly and my grandmother.

I was the student council president and very involved at my high school. I thought I had everything under control, but actually I didn¿¿t.

Originally I was enrolled in five courses including CHEM112, BIOL102, MATH121, PHYS118, and PSYC100. At the beginning of October, I knew that mentally I was not doing well and started to feel disconnected by my Queen¿¿s experience and overwhelmed navigating the online system and learning. As a result my study habits and academics started slipping and I fell behind. I decided to drop PSYC100 hoping it would help and reduce my stress.

I had a feeling that I could have been missing something in BIOL102. When I discovered that I missed all of the tutorials right from the beginning of the semester I felt sick. My goal moving forward is Life Sciences and biology is important to me. I missed the tutorials in BIOL102 because for CHEM112 and PHYS118 I had to sign up for my tutorials on Solus. With Biology I signed up through Solus and wasn¿¿t directed to sign up for a lab. I am new to this so I guess I didn¿¿t navigate the site well. It isn¿¿t on my schedule either as my other tutorials were

I wasn¿¿t coming out of my room much or seeing friends and was feeling overwhelmed with everything but not wanting to talk about it. By the time thanksgiving break came I was extremely overwhelmed and mentally drained and stayed in bed. I have never experienced this type of feeling before or these types of academic issues. Being at home I haven¿¿t felt connected to Queens. I don¿¿t have any peers around me to ask for help with my classes and studying. If I was on Campus, I am sure someone would have talked to me about the tutorials and I would have known what I was missing much sooner.

In the third week of November I confided in my parents that I was having mental health issues and trouble with school. My parents set up an immediate appointment with a mental health specialist for me to talk to, I am having weekly appointments to get back on track. I have had multiple meetings with Academic counselling and SASS. Those departments helped me come to the decision to drop PHYS118 because the drop date had not passed unlike BIOL102 and to reach out to the biology department for suggestions with regards to catching up and completing the missed tutorials. We did this to help relieve some pressure off me mentally and academically and to contact the biology department asking for help.

I emailed my chemistry and biology professors on November 20th saying that I was struggling mentally and academically and asking for help. I did not hear back from biology but heard back from chemistry immediately with the suggestion that I apply for academic consideration. My consideration for confidential extenuating circumstances was approved on December 10th and immediately emailed to both departments on that day. I did not hear back from the biology professor so I continued to reach out to the biology department with the help of Professor Ko. I heard back from an anonymous TA on December 4th apologizing for the late response and that they had forwarded my emails for help. I did not hear back from them until December 16th. I was able to complete the missed work in chemistry with the help of Professor Brown. My biology Professor, Sharon Reagan suggested that because it was now so late that I appealed to drop her course (BIOL102) and retake it starting January.

I immediately contacted academic counselling and had my schedule adjusted for January start and I am submitting this appeal as recommended to me in order to drop BIOL102 past the drop date.

Future Plan:
Continuing with counselling for mental health
Moving into residence to better connect with the school
Enrolled in BIOL102 (Winter 2021)
Continue with reduced course load (Winter 2021)
Enrol in BIOL103 (Spring 2021)
Deferring major selection until end of 2nd year
Retake PHYS118 (Fall 2021)
5 year plan instead of 4
Keep in contact with SASS and academic counselling

I am looking forward to moving onto campus and getting involved in student life. With the support from my parents, student services, and my counsellor I am working toward better mental health, and with this new plan I feel I will be a successful Queen¿¿s student.