Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Derian Lenett
Student ID 20165361
Arts and Science 2024
September 6, 2021


Dear Associate Dean (Academic),

I am appealing to drop FILM 110 (Fall 2020, Winter 2021), and receive Credit Standing for SOCY 122 (Fall 2020, Winter 2021).

Last year during my first year of studies, a handful of extenuating circumstances - beyond my control - directly impacted my academic performance. Firstly, the pandemic negatively affected my mental health for the whole school year. I was forced to stay at home in Vancouver, and the lockdown in the Fall left me depressed and isolated. The lockdown kept me in my bedroom for most of the semester and I had nothing to look forward to other than my school work. I started my first semester strong, however, with school work starting to pile up, anxiety and depression started to take a toll on my mental and physical health in November. For almost three weeks, I was bedridden with sickness and unable to complete readings or assignments. My grades did drop, but I was still passing.

Secondly, at the start of the Winter 2021 semester, I was forced to move out of my apartment because of COVID-19. From the third week of January until the end of March, I was moving back and forth between friends?? houses. Not being able to feel settled into a living space greatly affected my academic performance, and I became ill once more in February for an extended period of time. These circumstances fuelled the already existing anxiety and depression, and they were the reason that I wasn??t able to complete all of the work in my course load and ultimately had to drop one course on time. Looking back at the past year, I can say that there was no way to predict the unfortunate and sporadic circumstances that I encountered. Dropping 12.0 units worth of courses as an inexperienced first-year student - with these circumstances - didn??t seem like an option.

In pursuit of Majoring in Economics, I spent the majority of my focus on that full-year class, but was unable to keep a balance with all of my classes. The impact of my circumstances last year was very large overall, and ultimately, I wasn??t able to perform well in 2 full year classes and had to drop one on time in the Winter, due to being unhealthy mentally and physically. Meetings with my doctor about my anxiety had taken place numerous times throughout the year, however, my extenuating circumstances only allowed me to complete a much smaller amount of work than needed. Going to school in-person and a COVID-lockdown-free school year has helped motivate me and prepared me for a much better 2021-2022 school year.

The pandemic cause a flurry of circumstances that were out of my control, ultimately leading to my mental and physical health being compromised during my first year of online studies. I had decent academic standing in my classes that I had been more focused on, and I know I can, and will, do better in the future. After the hectic year, I??m now finally living in Kingston. I??m excited for the school year ahead, and being part of the student community in Kingston is going to be an extremely beneficial change for my academic performance. I aspire to go to business school one day, and my focus is on good grades until I can achieve that goal. The Failed course and C- will obviously be detrimental to my GPA even though I know that I can get back to having the good grades that got me a scholarship at Queens. I'm hoping that my poor performances on these full-year courses can be dropped because of the circumstances I've faced this year.

Sincerely,
Derian Lenett