Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean (Studies),

I am writing today to appeal to drop PHIL 259 from the Fall 2019 session without academic penalty.

During the Fall 2019 term, I fell sick and could not write my exam for PHIL 259 and was given academic consideration between December 5th, 2019 - January 31st, 2020, after submitting documentation. As a result, I was given an incomplete status for the course PHIL 259. While I fully intended to write the PHIL 259 exam during the Winter 2020 term, I initially fell behind in my winter 2020 term courses and decided to focus my attention on those courses since they were required for my major while the PHIL 259 was a Personal Interest Credit.

After catching up from being behind the first month of the Winter 2020 term, I came down with the severe flu during reading week and was dealt with another setback and missed a few midterms. Around this time, we began seeing a rapid increase in coronavirus cases in Canada which led to classes being cancelled temporarily. As a mature-independent student, the first province-wide lockdown was challenging for me as I had lost my job and dealt with severe financial difficulties. I did not have enough money to pay rent for the remainder of my lease agreement or my other financial obligations. At that time, I had to shift my focus to my livelihood rather than my academic obligations. I had managed to sort out my financial difficulties for the moment and successfully completed my academic commitments for the Winter 2020 term.

The pandemic led to my summer internship getting cancelled, so I decided to enroll in summer courses full time to keep myself busy. During the summer term, I had noticed a major change in my mood and unable to do anything or complete any academic obligations. I decided to seek medical help and was diagnosed with Major Depression Disorder. Due to my illness, I was no longer in the physical or mental shape to complete any academic obligations. As a result, I had submitted an appeal to drop all my summer courses after the drop deadline, which was successfully granted (Appeal Number 7105). During this time, I began medication and counselling through Queens Student Wellness and registered with Queen's Student Accessibility Services. As a result of these services offered by Queen's, I was successfully able to complete all my courses during the 2020-2021 term and satisfy my degree requirements.

I had forgotten about the PHIL 259 IN status throughout all these unfortunate events until I viewed my transcript to check the results for my Fall 2020 courses back in January of 2021. I noticed that the grade had changed from IN status to an F grade. As I have never failed a course during my undergraduate career, I was very disappointed in seeing this result as it only happened due to a series of unfortunate events outside of my control. As the exam was worth 40 and this was a Personal Interest Credit, I guarantee if I had a chance to write this exam that I would have successfully passed as I have with all the courses I have taken in my undergraduate career.

I have not addressed this matter until now since I have completed my final term at Queen's, so please excuse me if this request seems late. Had I remembered this pending PHIL 259 course, I would have added this course in my previous late drop appeal (Appeal Number 7105) that was successfully granted. Furthermore, If I had known about my F grade earlier than the Fall 2020 term, I would have retaken this course and proven that I do not deserve an F grade as I am confident in my ability to bounce back. I have demonstrated this by retaking CISC 251 and improving my grade from a D+ to a B, and I am confident I would have also successfully passed PHIL 259 if given a chance to repeat it.

As I have now satisfied my degree requirements at Queen's and cannot retake PHIL 259, since it is offered only in the Fall term, to mitigate the impact this F grade is causing my GPA, I am hoping the appeals committee can grant my request for a late drop for PHIL 259 from the Fall 2019 term due to the circumstances I have outlined in this letter. I do not believe that it is fair for me to receive an F grade in a course that I have taken with the intention of a Personal Interest Credit where I could not write the exam due to a series of extenuating circumstances. I hope the committee can understand the difficulties I have endured this past year and a half and grant my request to drop PHIL 259 from the Fall 2019 term without academic penalty. I want to thank everyone at Queen's for all their support during this time of great difficulty for me as it would not have been possible for me to achieve my dream of being the first person in my family to complete a post-secondary degree.

Regards,

Fahad Khan