Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Firstly, I would personally like to thank the Associate Dean for taking the time to review and consider this formal appeal letter. I, Christian Alava, am appealing for Credit Standing in the course PSYC 100 (Full year course - 2020/2021). Due to extenuating circumstances that occurred between April 14th (start of my exam) up until May 7th (received the news on my next options in PSYC 100).

The reason I have appealed for Credit Standing in this course is due to an unfortunate and upsetting Extenuating Circumstance that occurred during the end of my PSYCH 100 exam. As exams were remote this year it required us, students, to send in our long answer questions through word documents, and due to my disability (ADD) I was pressed for time at the end of my exam and panicked with 1 minute left to complete my exam. I had mistakenly added the wrong document to my exam (document with no answers) and sent it in. A few weeks later I received an Email from the PSYC 100 team stating I could still send in the correct document, as long as I sent it without opening the document. I did so, without modifying the document any further, and to my surprise, I received another email from my professor saying that my document could not be submitted for grading. I worked very hard through the year, and especially come exam time. This is why I felt it was not fair that my long answers could not be graded, as I believe I would have done much better in the course (as the long answers count for ¿ of the 40 exam). Due to these extenuating circumstances, I fear as if I may not land a spot in my requested Major, although I felt I worked very hard this year, and especially during exams despite my ADD. I will be planning to meet with my ADD psychiatrist this summer regularly, to ensure that I can be prepared for my 2nd year courses, as well as preparing to counter any unusual academic events that may present themselves in the future. In terms of a future plan, I will be planning to include ADD medication to my agenda (after consulting with my Psychiatrist) as after this first year at Queen¿¿s University I realized that it would definitely benefit my academics and help me to focus more on any academic tasks I am challenged with through my next few years at Queen¿¿s. My second addition to my future plan is meeting regularly with my QSAS advisor Deb Bruce, as we have been in talks lately and she is more than happy to help assist me in reaching my full academic potential in second year. Overall, along with this extenuating circumstance, I had found this year in general to be quite difficult due to my disability (in terms of learning remote, studying for exams, and finding success through long exams), which is why I believe with this Credit Standing I can still get a chance to prove my hard work in the Health Studies Major, and that I can and have earned my spot at this amazing school. I will also be taking HLTH 101 this summer to ensure that I have all the requirements to apply for my major switch in the summer.

I have attached a QSAS letter of support for my appeal for Credit Standing, and I have been informed by my QSAS advisor that she and my professor Megan Norris had been in talks regarding this issue, along with my status in the course and how I¿¿ve completed and passed all of the course work, including the final examination. I have also included the information of my psychiatrist who diagnosed me with ADD, just in case, it is essential to reach out to him as well, regarding any next steps we will be taking to help with my disability through any academics. Thank you very much for the consideration and I look forward to hearing back regarding the appeal.




I am addressing this letter of appeal to the Associate Dean, as I am appealing for a late drop past the academic deadline for ASTR 101. This course had been taught in the winter semester of my first year at Queen¿¿s University.

I am appealing to late drop this course in particular, as due to my disability it was already past the week 8 deadline drop when I had realized that you needed a 50 or higher in the exam to pass the course, even though I had well over a passing mark in the course before the exam. This meant that although I had my disability present with not many solutions available to me to help pass a remote exam (which I realized after my first university exam in the fall semester would be difficult), it was almost an inevitable failure in the course for me. Although it may seem as if a pass in an exam may not be that difficult, after this year I realized that my ADD is a big factor in terms of memorizing material, performance in a 3-hour remote exam, and especially performing academically well in stressful situations such as my ASTR 101 exam. As my disability played quite a big role in missing the deadline for the course drop, as well as passing the course in general due to the skills I lack come exam time. I will be planning next year accordingly regarding when I may need to drop a course, and preparing for any academic struggles I may have related to my disability. This leads me to my future plans/next steps, which would require me to meet on a regular basis with my psychiatrist who originally diagnosed me with ADD. This would ensure that I am academically prepared for next year and that I have the tools available to me (such as ADD medication) that would give me the help that I am currently missing compared to many other students who are studying at Queen¿¿s University.



I have attached a QSAS letter of support for my appeal for late course drop, as I have been in talks with my advisor Deb Bruce. I will also be meeting regularly with my QSAS advisor next year to make sure I have all the academic requirements to bring out my full potential at Queen¿¿s university, as I have enjoyed studying here this year and hope to do so for the next few years. Thank you for your consideration and I hope this can be resolved in the near future.