Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To the Associated Dean:

My name is Keyueqi Long, and my student ID is 20200053. I feel quite sorry to bother you in the Christmas and New Year period. I am writing this letter for the purpose of appealing to drop RELS 140 (Fall, 2020); ASCX 101 (Fall, 2020).

As I am currently residing in China taking synchronous and asynchronous courses online, it is of great difficulty to achieve and keep at good academic performance. I finished my high school study in China without any experience in taking online courses especially for courses under the Canadian curriculum, so I really felt struggling in this term when I had to take classes after midnight, which made me in the situation of the bio-clock disorder. For my 5 courses this term, the study process was very tough even from the beginning. I just felt extremely uncomfortable with the online learning environment and the issues with the time zone difference. During the learning process, I've tried to keep up with every courses weekly requirements. However, after the midterm exam, I found it almost impossible to well understand some of the course contents. Furthermore, the bio-clock disorder made me poor in remembering the learning contents, so the score of my assignments and tests are significantly influenced. Although plenty of Chinese international students are facing the same situation during the Covid-19 Pandemic, I have to tell you that my situation is even worse as a result of Somnipathy. Correspondingly, I did not have any efficiency when I tried to summarize and memorize the knowledge in the daytime after taking hours of class at midnight before.

The reason why I did not drop those courses and make the decision of gap earlier before the withdraw deadline is that I did hesitate when considering if I should gap this academic year. From my subconsciousness, I hope to finish these courses with pass scores and not to give up that early. Recently, I realized that passing these courses is really difficult or even impossible for me. The scores I received in November was too low to pass these courses. I do have to make the decision that I should gap the academic year and appeal for the late withdrawal of these 3 courses that already passed the withdraw deadline.

If my appeal was granted, as well as the gap application, I would return to Queen's University in September 2021. Before that time, I will participate in some social volunteer organizations, which allows me to do something meaningful. In the meantime, I will collect some learning materials especially on the contents of Calculus, Algebra, and Economics, and accomplish the preparation of these courses, since I still need to retake these courses in Fall 2021. I also believe that, with the gradually general inoculation of the Covid-19 vaccine, it is probable that I could board in Canada and have classes face to face with professors. At that time, I could also believe that I would be in good conditions for study, supporting my academic goals.

I do hope you could understand my horrible situation in these days and grant my appeal application. If you still have some questions, please do not hesitate to contact me via email: 19KL20@queensu.ca

Sincerely,

Keyueqi Long