Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Hello Dr. Stephenson,

Hope this letter finds you well My name is Taige Zhao and I am writing to respectfully request to waive the one-term deadline for late dropping courses from the 2019-2020 academic year and appeal to drop FILM 206 (Fall 2019), FILM 435 (Winter 2020), PSYC 333 (Winter 2020) and PSYC 397 (Winter 2020).

From 2018 to 2019, I went on academic exchange in Leeds, England and suffered from a traumatic experience while attending the institution. This experience resulted in me failing most of my courses on exchange and continued to affect my mental health during the summer of 2019 where I spent the summer break in my home country China. As there was limited mental health support available to me in my home country and I was unwilling to pass the burden onto my family, I was not able to seek professional help during that time.

Upon returning to Canada to pursue my fourth year of studies in Fall 2019, I actively connected with Student Wellness Services (SWS) and Student Accessibility Services (QSAS) to seek mental health as well as academic support and registered as a student with disabilities in Fall 2019. To be able to make up for the courses I failed on exchange and graduate on time, with the confidence in my academic performance, my proactiveness in seeking help as well as my restoring mental health state at that time, I requested to take more than 36.0 units in both Fall 2019 and Winter 2020. Although I took on more course load than recommended, I achieved general success with my Fall term courses thanks to the support I received, with the exception of two courses, PSYC 251 and FILM 206, where I requested temporary IN grades on the basis of my QSAS accommodation. I needed extra time to complete the assignments in FILM 206 as it is a course that has a lot of written components which my disability prevents me from effectively doing. This accommodation is approved by QSAS prior to the onset of the extenuating circumstance in the term Winter 2020 and is not related to the subsequent mental health issues I experienced in that term. I wrote and passed the deferred final for PSYC 251 in January, and up until the start of February I was on track to finish the incomplete coursework for FILM 206 that was due before the end of the subsequent term.

However, while completing the coursework for FILM 206, my mental health took a hit at the start of February when the pandemic started to spread in China. My family encountered great financial difficulties and I was constantly in worry about their health and financial situation. My parents were in despair of my home country's social and political condition and there was a lot of internal and external pressure on my academic success in Canada. For these reasons, I developed severe anxiety and depression, and shadows from my traumatic experience on exchange started to return again. I was living in constant anxiety, fear, guilt, and regret, and my mental health reached an all-time low, resulting in recurrent suicidal ideation. I was not physically or mentally able to participate in my courses after February because of intense physical and mental discomfort and repeated suicidal attempts; as a result, I failed most of my courses in Winter 2020, failed to complete the missing coursework from FILM 206, and continued to suffer from severe mental illnesses. Due to my poor mental condition, I was not able to seek help until mid-March 2020, at which point I started working through my issues with Dr. Arunima Khanna from SWS. Because there were too many issues wrapped in my situation, the process of getting better progressed very slowly and continued into Fall 2020.

I was not able to appeal before the designated deadline because I did not care about my future or the outcome of my behaviours due to suicidality as I was prepared to let go. Because of the same reason, I failed to drop these courses at the end of the term Winter 2020 using the university's COVID-related late drop option as well. In addition, every time I did attempt to start the appeal process, it triggered painful memories and intense emotions that almost always led to self-destructive behaviours. However, my weekly counselling sessions with Dr. Khanna has been helpful in cultivating strategies to confront and mitigate these symptoms, leading to this appeal request.

Although my mental health problems are still ongoing, I have been seeing major progress in improving my mental health and I continue to work through my problems by regularly meeting with my counsellor and taking medication prescribed by physicians at SWS. I am retaking PSYC 333 (Winter 2021) and FILM 435 (Winter 2021) which I have failed previously and I intended to retake the other two courses in relation to this appeal as well, but there were no open seats when I attempted to enroll. I have also chosen to take on a lighter workload in the academic year of 2020-2021 to spare time for dealing with my mental health issues.

I would really appreciate it if you could kindly take my situation into account when reviewing this appeal request. Please let me know if further explanation or additional documentation is required and I would be more than happy to provide more information on my case. Thank you so much for your time and consideration, and I hope you have a great day

Sincerely,
Taige