Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I am Gabriel Joseph-Brown and I am currently a 3rd year student in Business. I wish to appeal the Associate Dean??s decision to deny my appeal to waive the Requirement to Withdraw for a Minimum of Three Years. I am writing to confirm that I have carefully read the Associate Dean??s Decision letter, and, in response to this, have decided to appeal this decision. I want to remain a student in the fall, and, in this letter, I plan to respond to specific reasons my appeal was denied with an expansion of the facts and events that took place during the 2020-2021 school year.
Due to the rules at the time of this current pandemic, I have not had the opportunity to make a face-to-face presentation, which I regret, as I find virtual meetings difficult and challenging to
follow. Please bear in mind that this letter speaks to who I am, what I want, and why it is right for me to remain a student in the fall so that I can continue my academic progress and personal development. On some occasions, I will repeat and re-emphasize what I sent and discussed in my earlier appeal for the purpose of helping the Board of Studies fully understand the timeline, severity, and impact of circumstances beyond my control as it adversely affected my performance at Queen's University. A lot has happened since the original event, and I am confident that I will now succeed.
I grew up in Toronto, and came to Queen??s to follow my parents?? footsteps, and earn a University degree of my own. However, I also have both ADHD and a learning disability, and these have made it difficult to communicate and display my true abilities. In addition, I contracted COVID-19 at an important time in the school year.

In September, at the beginning of the 2020-2021 school year, I contracted the COVID-19 virus. I remember waking up with a sore throat and going into the shower not being able to smell my soaps. After receiving my official diagnosis, the severity of my symptoms dramatically worsened. Specifically, I was not able to get out of bed, which meant that that I was unable fully to attend class, and this led to me falling behind at the start of the school year. I had to self-isolate for 3 weeks and during that time I can honestly say I have never felt more alone and afraid.
After being diagnosed with COVID-19 I contacted my Student Wellness Services Counsellor Jay Harris, and my Academic Advisor Hayley Everson, to seek immediate counselling; despite my efforts to connect with them, their busy schedules were beyond my control, and I was told that it would be weeks until I could get an appointment. As an alternative, I reached out to my family physician, Dr. Gayle Gordon, and I informed her of the circumstances; I mentioned that the extenuating circumstances compromised my ability to excel academically as my health became priority and had to follow Coronavirus protocols. Dr. Gordon assessed, documented, and confirmed the lingering physical and mental toll of the extenuating circumstances. She confirmed that I was physically and mentally unfit to execute my preplanned daily routine in my current state.

It is important to mention that ??Extenuating circumstances?, in the eyes of the faculty, is defined as a ??significant physical or psychological event that is beyond a student??s control and debilitating to his or her academic performance which should be supported by official documentation from an appropriate professional? and I confirm that the above-mentioned remarks were supported by official documentation from Dr. Gordon. After meeting with Dr. Gordon, we decided the best strategy for me, as a student, was to switch from full-time to part-time. This resulted in me missing my target cumulative GPA for the Fall semester. On January 19th of 2021, I was devastated to hear that I lost my grandmother to COVID-19. To make matters worse, we were unable to have a proper funeral for her. This sent me into a great sadness which severely impeded my ability to excel at my full academic potential. Once again, I dropped from five classes to four. Personally, dealing with the lingering physical and mental toll of this extenuating circumstance impeded my ability to excel academically. Conveying the timeline of events in this manner is crucial as it prevents the physical and psychological events that were beyond my control and debilitating to my overall academic performance from being misinterpreted. In fully describing the interlaces of my extenuating circumstances, the above-mentioned proves that those events were responsible for those outcomes.