Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To the Associate Dean of studies,

I am requesting to be able to late-drop all of the courses I took in the Summer 2020 and Winter 2021 terms, and request refunds for courses I did not participate in due to ongoing depression.

I have been struggling with ongoing mental health issues since 2015 and had started receiving treatment for them at Queen's in 2017. Up until the pandemic, things were improving for me and I had been able to complete coursework, albeit with extended deadlines. I had always had fluctuating mental health with bouts of depression that lasted days and sometimes weeks, which became more under control with the help of therapy.

When Covid hit I was requested by my family to move back home with my parents to finish my studies remotely due to fears of the virus. This interrupted my ongoing research project and sent all of my course work into a limbo and from there, my depression got significantly worse and lasted months.

I signed up for summer classes because I had learned I needed some extra credits to complete my BSC-H and was under the impression I would pass my other Chem classes. However, I failed those, which exacerbated my depression and entirely unmotivated me to participate in any online summer classes. I signed up for them but never participated in a single class or did any course work and late-dropped some of them but was left having to pay for them anyways due to missing the drop deadlines, which again was another new source of mental stress.

I signed up for courses in Winter 2020 but did not participate in a single class or even open the course work and now owe money to the university for classes I didn¿¿t take because I was too depressed to reach out for help and drop them in time.

I finally reached out to student services and considered my options and now have graduated with a BSC-G in Chemistry, as I had all the required courses to finish with just a general degree.

Another reason I am requesting to have these courses dropped (aside from financial reasons) is to open up the possibility of returning in the future to pursue and complete my honours degree by having the 13.8 ¿¿ Not Eligible to Proceed to an Honours Degree repealed from my student record and finishing the courses I didn¿¿t complete when my mental health is stabilized in the future.

Thank you for reading and your consideration, I really appreciate it
Joseph (Giuseppe) Crupi
10192039