Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Dr. Jenn Stephenson, Associate Dean (Academic),

My name is Miles White and I am a third-year student in Arts and Science. I am appealing the Faculty's decision that I must withdraw from Queen's for a minimum of one year. The reason I am pursuing an appeal to waive the requirement to withdraw is because I believe my poor academic standing that has led to my removal is largely due extenuating circumstances that, until recently, were out of my control. This extenuating circumstance is my lengthy battle with chronic migraines ( 4-7 per week).

Ever since I can remember I have suffered from migraines; however, it was not until I entered my first year at Queens in 2018 and then even more so this past year, that I truly realized the full extent of my condition. Coming into Queens I had hoped to pursue a degree in Political Studies as it stuck out to me as excellent program during my application research. However, first year was the first time I saw how debilitating my chronic pain could be. The transition, increased stress, and lack of experience in dealing with said stress caused a noticeable increase in migraine magnitude and frequency. Because of this I enrolled in academic accommodation and was given my great accommodations advisor Jason Harris. However, there are limitations to the extent of help that accommodations can provide and through the remainder of the school year, I still struggled greatly with managing time that I wasn't crippled in pain in my bed due to the increased frequency. This often left me having to choose assignments to complete and which tests to study for. This resulted in me getting grades far inferior to what I was familiar with, failing 1 class and finishing with a 1.4 GPA, placing me on academic probation. I was extremely disappointed in myself, but after speaking with an academic advisor I decided on enrolling in a 3-year BA Geography plan while still taking some Political Studies courses to keep the possibility open for changing my plan to Political Studies at the end of the following year, assuming I was able to get the grades I knew I was capable of.

I spent that following summer trying to improve my condition through varying medication types and doses, as well as focusing on stress management.

Unfortunately, the fall semester of my second year saw little improvement. My pain was fluctuating, with times I would go days without pain however these were often followed by streaks as long as 7 days straight of migraines, and with the added pressure of moving into my first house, my sleep was poor, once again making the migraines worse. After a successful Christmas break with pain management and good conversations with my neurologist, the winter semester started off well. Frequency and severity of the migraines had reduced, and I was able to manage schoolwork much more effectively with the increased pain free time. Then Covid-19 arrived. This obviously skyrocketed my stress levels, as it did with everyone, and I lost any progress I had made. I regressed into long periods of pain and come exams, found myself once again having to sacrifice grades in some classes in order to receive even a passing grade in others. I finished the year once again with a 1.4 and was terrified about my future, knowing I was not going to make it off probation, I didn't know what to do. Fortunately, due to the extraordinary circumstances that Covid had brought, Queens did not conduct academic reviews allowing me to re-evaluate my plan and return to Queens this past year.
Going into my third year this past September, in an effort to reduce stress and migraine frequency I reduced my course load to 4 courses per semester and planned on taking summer courses this year and next year to make up for failed courses and lower course load. I quickly realized though that this would likely be the hardest year of my life. The adjustment to remote learning was hard for many, but for me it was devastating. Screens and bright lights are not only extremely painful during and after a migraine but excessive exposure to such screens trigger more migraine attacks as well. The increased screen times, video lectures, and zoom calls of online school brought the severity of my condition to its highest ever. Days without pain were rare, and days spent alone in dark rooms were often. I chose to prioritize lectures and learning the information at least, over completing assignments etc. on time, in hopes that if I had the material knowledge of the lectures I would be able to complete assignments and tests at a later date. However, this often resulted in them being very late or not handed in at all. I left Kingston early in first semester to return home to Vancouver to help cope with my situation and ended up staying all throughout second semester. My mental health had been destroyed which added to the vicious cycle of making my pain worse. This resulted in me failing all four courses both fall and winter semester this year and later receiving the expected letter to withdraw from the Faculty of Arts and Science for 1 year.

When it comes to why I didn't drop courses when my academics were suffering it was because I often missed the deadline due to pain management and was then determined to try and finish off with the best grade that I could. In later years, I unfortunately hoped that I would be able to catch up on work that I had fallen behind on, but my situation kept getting progressively worse.

For obvious reasons I was, and am still devastated, mostly because I know what I am capable of but have been constantly held back by my debilitating pain and unfortunate circumstances. However, as I said at the beginning of this letter, recently my pain has been the lowest it has ever been. Over the past month and a half, I have finally reached the most effective medication doses as well as stress management and mental health practices, reducing my pain to almost less than 1 manageable migraine per week. This is a huge reason for me appealing this removal. For the first time in my University career, I am not in significant or constant pain and want nothing more than the opportunity to return to Queens next year and continue my education, pain free.

I have submitted numerous files regarding proper documentation. These files include my neurologist's diagnosis update letter from 2018, another diagnosis update from 2020, my Student Accessibility Services Documentation Form that my neurologist filled out the bottom portion of and features my very first diagnosis date of February 20 2018 as well as a 2019 diagnosis update, and a letter of accommodation example from each academic year. I hope I have adequately conveyed the acceptable circumstances required for this appeal, as well as shown my commitment to future academic success.

Thank you for your time,

Miles