Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean,

I am appealing to drop DEVS 353 (Winter, 2021).

In late February of 2021, I incurred a moderate concussion. Immediately following this event, I could not use a computer or look at a screen without experiencing pain in my head for roughly a week. On top of this, I have been experiencing extreme fatigue, lack of concentration, difficulty recalling information and vocabulary, and general brain fog since this time. Many of these symptoms have subsided to some extent, but they continue to hinder my ability to perform academic tasks such as writing and studying in the ways in which I could prior to my concussion.

Once I regained enough strength to write emails and begin to advocate for my newfound mental impediment, I reached out to Queen¿¿s Accommodation and was paired with Katie Bala in Student Wellness. She walked me through my options and helped me draft emails to my professors. She also assured me that if at any point I felt that I could not handle staying enrolled in all five of my courses, appealing to withdraw would be an option. I then contacted all of my professors and asked for extensions on all upcoming assignments. All of my teaching team complied and allowed me to respect my healing process while also progressing in their courses. In one class, my professor even exempted me from a midterm assignment so that I could focus on my healing and have enough time to write the final paper in April.

As mentioned, throughout this turbulent semester, all of my professors were compassionate and accommodating towards me. However, in DEVS353, I had to write the midterm exam quite soon after my concussion. This task was extremely strenuous for me and it was taxing on my mental state, despite having an extended period of time to write the exam. While in previous semesters I have been to write multi-day exams, such as the DEVS353 exam, with moderate ease and score fairly high on them, this was not the case for this exam. Due to my operating at a reduced capacity this exam was very grueling and overwhelming. Despite having solely devoted my focus to this exam for more than 4 days straight and applying my utmost effort and to it, I scored much lower on it than my usual academic standing. I feel quite certain that it is untenable for me to complete another exam of this format, such as the final exam of DEVS353, and to do well on it.

On top of my struggle to complete coursework while recovering from a traumatic brain injury, two of my three roommates contracted the aggressive UK variant of Covid-19 in mid-April. I willingly cooked for them, brought their meals to their room, and constantly sanitised my house to ease their difficult circumstances and to avoid contracting Covid-19 myself. Luckily, I did not catch the virus, however, for the two weeks during which my roommates couldn¿¿t safely leave their rooms during their isolation period, I had no choice to shift my focus away from my studies and focus instead of caring for my ill roommates.

My roommates becoming infected with Covid-19 compounded heavily with the stress and struggle of my existing concussion symptoms. It was that this point when I knew that I could not complete DEVS353 and that I had to late withdraw from it. I had already requested two incompletes in my upper-year seminar courses and felt and still feel that no more can be added to my plate. I am currently working tirelessly to complete DEVS492 and RELS334/834 and I feel that I need to reduce my course load so that I can finish this semester strong and focus on gaining a full recovery from my concussion symptoms over the summer.

Moving forward, I hope to gain full recovery from my concussion and to be able to resume my studies with the mental capacity I had prior to my injury. Should this appeal be accepted, it would allow me to truly and ease my stress, which is key to brain injury recovery. In future semesters, if I am still experiencing the effects of my concussion, I will take a reduced course load and I may have to study at Queen¿¿s for an additional semester beyond four years. However, I am hopeful that a restful summer, free of the stress of my academics and caring for those infected with Covid-19 in my household, will enable a full recovery. In any case, I will continue to monitor my health and not push myself to work when I am feeling mentally fatigued as I must be cognizant at all times that pushing myself too hard now could have negative effects on the trajectory of my concussion recovery.

I hope that you can see the legitimacy of my request in this matter.

Sincerely,

Miriam