Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To the Associate Dean of Studies,

I am appealing for an Aegrotat Standing grade in KNPE 354 taught by Dr. Patrick Costigan. The reason I am requesting an Aegrotat Standing, is because of the extenuating circumstances surrounding the end of the Winter 2021 semester which made it impossible for me to complete daily tasks, much less perform well in my courses.
Although I have struggled with these issues throughout my life, the COVID-19 Pandemic severely exacerbated my difficulties(especially the Ontario wide lockdown of the past several months). The subsequent campus and library closures took away my best methods and strategies for managing my issues in the past, and the stay at home order made me unable to take advantage of my support system of family and friends. Where in the past I had managed to balance a full course load, varsity athletics, multiple club positions, and a job; I now found myself barely completing the work of three courses and having to take full use of my accommodations to even manage that. After a 1 year hiatus, my insomnia returned with a vengeance, leaving me high strung, anxious, and constantly on the verge of tears. My mental and physical health plumetted. At this point exams were fast approaching and I felt hopeless. I have always been an A student, and worked extremely hard for my grades. Yet this semester, I felt like Sisyphus; no matter how hard I worked nothing seemed to get done. I reached out to my advisor, however Student Accessibility services was being flooded with students, and I received no response for over a week. Finally, at the end of my rope, I had a complete breakdown and ended up calling student wellness in tears, finally managing to get through the line, begging for a crisis counsellor appointment. The lovely receptionist helped me set up an appointment with Laurie Hooke, who helped me set up several extensions and took some of the weight off of my shoulders. She helped me immensely, especially by making me feel comforted and understood, as well as providing the documentation I needed for my professors to accommodate my needs.
Subsequently, I reached out to my professors with whom I still had remaining assignments. With one, we organized a several month extension (through Laurie) and I am in progress of completing the take home exam of that course now. In my other course, KNPE 354, Dr. Costigan looked at my grades and remaining coursework, and suggested I appeal for an Aegrotat Standing. He felt that my completed work covered the content of the course (as well as weighted more than 60 of the course load) and my grades indicated that I had understood the material and performed well consistently in the course. I then relayed this information back to Laurie, who agreed and put me in touch with Spring Forsberg, who helped me with this appeal process.
This year has been extremely difficult for me, and quite honestly, I am still struggling with the same issues that overwhelmed me this winter term. I will endeavor to work on developing more strategies for next year to prevent something like this happening again.
In terms of documentation, I have received accommodations since first year through Queen's Student Accessibility Services, and I am certain Monique Dube can support the existence of my disability, the slow decline I went through this year, and the sentiments I expressed in this letter as well as provide any documentation necessary for proof of my disability. Laurie Hooke can also provide documentation of my crisis appointment with her and the subsequent actions we have been taking since.
I hope this letter was clear in summarizing the extremely difficult events I experienced in the past year, as well as conveyed all the necessary information for the appeal to go through and take another weight off of my shoulders. I look forward to hearing from you and eager to provide any other information that may be needed to make this process as simple and painless as possible.

Best,
Maya Ginzburg
20108199