Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I was in the winter Chem 282 class in 2021. Near the end of March, I started having some serious health issues and had all of my exams pushed back. Most of my exams were pushed back 12 weeks, however I was told I would be writing the chem 282 makeup one in August. Come July, when it was time to write the other three exams, I was doing better health wise and was able to write them. However, come August, my health was again decreasing and I appealed to write the exam at a later date ?? which was approved. I am now supposed to be writing the exam this upcoming December.

My health issues have still not gotten resolved, and have been labelled as a permanent disability by my physician (and this has been submitted to QSAS). I have been trying to get help since March, but have been bounced from doctor to doctor and had not yet received the help I needed to be healthy. During this time, up until mid-October, I was in the emergency room four times and placed in the psychiatric ward once. Now, I am finally getting some of the help I need, and starting my path to recovery. I have been placed in a very reputable program, which does seem to be helping. However, because so much of my energy and focus right now is needed to aid in my recovery. I believe once again that I will be unable to write this exam come December. AS of now, I have no time to re-learn the material, my concentration is still off, and my brain is still quite ?foggy??. Moving into the next few weeks my doctors plan on altering my medications yet again to go with the new treatment plan, and this is going to have quite an effect on my body physically for the first few weeks.

I am asking if it is possible to appeal for a Late Drop to this class. I think it would be more beneficial to take the class again when I am healthy, and able to learn. If I take this exam in December, I will be just barely reaching a passing grade if that. My first year at Queen??s I was awarded a Chernoff family award, and to keep this scholarship my GPA needs to stay relatively high (lower now with COVID-19). I have truly worked so hard this past year not only through COVID, but through this health crisis. I was able to complete four classes, and although the marks may not have been great, being able to finish the coursework was a major triumph in itself. AT this point, I believe if I take the CHEM 282 exam in December, I will fail. This will effectively drop my average enough to have my scholarship removed. I truly am trying my best to overcome these health issues and get back to school to finish this degree, but I couldn??t afford it without my scholarship.

In terms of documentation, my family doctor, who has been the one sending out the references to all the doctors/psychiatrists in the area, has resigned as of two days ago. She was the one who had told me she would be able to sign these forms for me. I was told by my therapist, that due to the therapy online, there is some legal requirement that restricts him from signing papers for me since he has not assessed me in person. I am going to send you the original QSAS forms where m family doctor outlines my current condition (the forms were filled in august but not much has change - just the concentration and brain fog worsened), as well as a letter from my parent. If this is not enough, I can also phone the emergency department and try to get my records of my patient stay sent to me. My appointment with my new family doctor is on November 23rd, but the receptionist has told me that since it is her first time meeting me she may not be comfortable signing papers until she has met me a few times and made her own assessments. All of this is really just to say, I will supply what I can right now but the situation became tricky when my doctor resigned, so it may take a little bit of time for me to get new letters if what I can supply now is not approved. But if this is not good enough, please let me know and I will do my best.