Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To The Associate Dean,

I am writing today to appeal for Credit standing for the course Philosophy 318 - Philosophy of Law that occurred in the 2020 Fall semester. Due to extenuating circumstances, I received a C grade that I wish to be removed and replaced with an NG or CR on my transcript.

Before the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, my family and I lived apart from my grandparents, as they were capable of living alone. When things began to worsen, we planned to move in with them at the beginning of the school year in September 2020. Unfortunately, in the summer (June-August), my grandmother suffered a fall and became increasingly immobile. Upon hearing that Queen's would be moving to remote delivery for 2020-2021, I decided to move in to support them until my family was ready to join me. What I thought was going to be a relatively easy job became incredibly stressful and had severely affected my mental health. I was doing most of the cooking, cleaning and housework that my grandmother would have done but was now unable to. The responsibility of taking care of them took up most of my time and led me to become miserable and anxious. I did not want to dwell on my mental health during school as I was only focused on taking care of my grandparents, not getting covid and keeping my GPA as high as possible. In hindsight, I should have contacted a professional but was hesitant and afraid to do so. My parents tried to help out as much as possible, but the little contact we had wasn't sufficient. I believe it was the middle of October when I felt increasingly miserable and tired; some days, it was tough getting out of bed and eating something. I tried my best to remain motivated and productive, but unfortunately, my schoolwork suffered. I am only appealing PHIL 318 because it is one of the lowest grades I've ever received in 4 years at Queen's, and the nature of work was unlike any of my other courses. Having to read hundreds of pages a week was easy enough for my English courses, but the dense, complicated philosophy we studied was unbelievably hard. My other courses required less time to complete weekly assignments and readings, leading me to do much better in them. I did not have the time to sit down for hours every day trying to understand complex legal philosophy; after the second week of the course, I thought about dropping it. What stopped me was the A's and B's I was getting on quizzes, leading me to believe I could handle the course load. When my grades began dropping, it was past the date to drop, leaving me to deal with the mark. If I were living alone, only worrying about myself, I would have been better equipped to handle a challenging course like PHIL 318. Thankfully, my parents have recently moved in (February 2021) with us, alleviating much of the burden off of my shoulders. This lack of stress and anxiety has resulted in me doing well in the Winter 2021 semester.

As previously mentioned, my circumstances have changed for the better. I am in a much better position to succeed than I was previously in and am all the better for it. Regarding my mental health, I recognize that I was not adequately equipped to deal with it. I don't feel comfortable expressing how I feel, so I'd rather ignore it and push through, which unfortunately has caused me poor academic performance. I will be graduating soon and hope to finish my final year with a strong final performance.