Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean,


I am writing to you as I would like to appeal the Faculty¿¿s decision that I must withdraw from Queen¿¿s for 1 year.
The reason as to why I didn¿¿t perform well academically this year is due to my mental health and how it has affected me. I suffer from anxiety and depression. I knew before starting this school year that the course load would be difficult and most likely straining on my mental health, but I hadn¿¿t considered other factors that could have also affected me. The first few weeks at school were fine, but it was difficult to get used to the workload. I began feeling very depressed in October because I felt very isolated, as I¿¿m sure many people did due to Covid-19. For the majority of 1st semester I was on West campus, which was difficult for me because I felt very separated from everybody who was on main campus. Most of the friends that I had made were on main campus and I only had one on west campus. I was feeling very alone and like no one cared about me because my friends on main campus stopped inviting me to hang out because I was so far away. I had a bit of comfort from my one friend on west campus, but then she ended up getting moved to main campus, so then I was completely alone. This feeling of being alone and like no one cared about me sent me into a pretty deep depression, it got to the point where I wasn¿¿t able to fall asleep until 4 or 5am every night because my thoughts would keep me up and then I wouldn¿¿t wake up until 1pm and wouldn¿¿t get out of bed until 2pm. I was only eating about once or twice a day, and I lost a lot of my appetite which caused me to be even more fatigued. On top of feeling like this due to friends I had the stress of school weighing on me. I have always been a very conscientious and hardworking student, but my depression caused me to have no motivation to eat, get out of bed or do my work. I realized that I needed to try to fix it so I contacted my doctor and we had a conversation and she believes that I do in fact suffer from depression and anxiety. My mother, doctor and I all thought that it would be a good idea if I get moved to main campus so that I could be closer to my friends to feel less alone and would hopefully aid my mental health. I applied for a move to main campus and it got approved so I moved to Watts Hall on November 28th. It was unfortunate that I moved buildings so close to the exam time and the end of the semester because it didn¿¿t give me a lot of time to try to make friends. During the Christmas break I had realized that I don¿¿t enjoy the program that I¿¿m in, which was general science, and that I would like to switch programs as I felt that it would probably help my mental health if I switched to a program that I actually would enjoy learning about. I have decided that I would like to go into the Film and Media program as it is more up my alley. I have known for a few years that I don¿¿t enjoy science, but I felt pressured to do it because science seems like a more logical path to follow and in high school I was good at it. Even though I wanted to switch I had to finish the year in science which was very difficult. Once second semester had started I thought that since I moved to main campus my mental health would improve, but it just got worse. I was still going to sleep at 4 or 5am and waking up at 2pm, but then I wasn¿¿t able to push myself to get out of bed until 4 or 5pm. This was very damaging to my mental health because when I would get out of bed at 5pm, it was already dark outside again. My depression caused me to have no motivation to do anything, it felt like I had something constantly pushing me down. My anxiety also gave me trouble with school whenever I would have to do a zoom meeting. I only had one class where I had to attend a zoom tutorial, which was chemistry. The class was at 8:30am every Wednesday and I would wake up in time for it and get my computer ready, but I couldn¿¿t get myself to actually join because I was scared that I would get called on by the TA and have to answer a question and not know what to say. The thing is I used to always join the zoom meetings in 1st semester, but then in 2nd semester I never attended because I somehow scared myself into thinking that it would be worse to be on the call and say something wrong than to not attend at all. Part way through 2nd semester I talked to my doctor again and she prescribed me a medication to help me sleep, which did help a bit. I also decided to start talking to my therapist Karen Zicari again, who I had originally used for my parents divorce when I was younger. I was only able to have a couple sessions, but I am planning on continuing to talk to her throughout the summer and during my next school year as she really helps me to understand why I am feeling this way and how I can help it.
I really hope that you take my appeal into consideration and understand the reasons as to why I wasn¿¿t able to succeed this year. If you require further information or documentation, let me know, my email is 20jrj@queensu.ca . Thank you so much for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Jenny Janssen
20236393