Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Hello Board of Appeals,

I am regretfully making this appeal to drop my course past the deadline. To put it briefly, I did not make the transition to online school very well at all. I struggled all through last semester and continues to this day. Last semester my grades dropped significantly compared to previous years. My transcript shows that I was consistently getting ¿¿A¿s and ¿¿B¿s, but third year with COVID there has been a decline. Without the classroom setting I do not learn well at all.

Last semester I had to drop a course as well, but I did it early on. This semester I wanted to hold out to try to force myself to get used to the new course delivery. This did not happen, and I am unfortunately a couple weeks late to the deadline. Online courses have vastly affected my love for school and learning. I do not think I have put my best foot forward on this course and I do not want my transcript to reflect this. In the future I want to try again, from the beginning and do it right. I do not think it is a fair reflection of me as a student to have my transcript marred by my learning methods being incompatible with a new system of teaching.

The online course delivery has greatly impacted my life, not just in school but the social aspects as well, which in turn further affect academics. Not being able to work with my friends after class like I normally would changes class dynamics. I have felt isolated and found it hard to reach out to peers for help as a matter of pride. This in turn leads to a spiral where I get further and further behind, making the task of climbing out of the hole even more daunting as time goes on.

This semester is much like the last, where I realized that four online courses is too many for me to keep track of but due to my stubbornness and pride I refused to accept the truth until it was too late. In the future I plan on ensuring that this does not happen again and to know where I stand before it comes to this.

I really hope that you understand where I am coming from when I say that online course delivery has negatively impacted my learning this year. This coupled with the social isolation has created a stressful environment where I am trapped, and the thought of failing a course has been a large point of stress in my life recently. It has led to poor and lost sleep and late-night talks with my parents who wanted to come bring me home.

I ask of you to consider my request, and I hope to hear back from you soon. If you would like to speak to me directly you can call me at 343-370-8687 or email me at 17sdth@queensu.ca.

Thank you for your time.