Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: November 8, 2021



To the Associate Dean (Academic),

I am a first-year Arts & Science student with the ambition to be accepted to the Health Studies program. I am appealing to drop PSYCH100 (Fall, 2021) without academic penalty past the November 1st drop date deadline due to extenuating circumstances. My QSAS advisor Deb Bruce is aware of my circumstances. I conferred with her prior to this appeal as we had spoken in early September about me considering a reduced course load to start. In retrospect, my insistence on undertaking five courses was misguided considering what had recently happened.

On August 14th, two weeks prior to moving into Queens residence, my girlfriend and I were driving home on Highway 401 when we were hit by another vehicle at high-speed causing our car to spin across three lanes of traffic and roll over twice in the ditch. The car was irreparably damaged, yet we miraculously were spared severe injury sustaining concussions and internal/external soft tissue injuries. The two weeks prior to starting classes were spent in bed healing my body. The psychological repercussions however have been ongoing for myself and my girlfriend. My parent reached out to Student Mental Health Services in my first week at Queens after my experiencing several severe anxiety attacks. With much perseverance and pure luck, we were able to find a local psychologist (a Queens graduate) with expertise in my area of need who was taking new patients. I have been receiving psychological support via a weekly counselling session along with some physical therapy.

That support has been invaluable however I have been losing my ground with Psych 100 from the start. The workload is heavy and consistent and with some of my weeks being worse than others, I have been increasingly falling behind in the readings and assignments. I had been weighing dropping the course as it is not required for admission to Health Studies however kept postponing that decision as my intent was to try to get back on my feet academically. Then, just prior to Halloween weekend, I came down with a severe cold/flu (not covid) and have been for the most part bed-ridden for over a week. The November 1st deadline came and went. By November 4th, I made a request to a medical doctor for a note to postpone an in-class assignment as I could not attend class.

I should have discussed my situation with my parent earlier and not delayed and saved much trouble and money. It is hard to admit that I had a difficult week and became overwhelmed when a decision needed to be made. My intent is to excel academically in Psych 100 however having fallen so far behind now I fear that my course grade will be low and will negatively affect my chances of entering Health Studies. As a required Health Studies course, I expect to complete the course next year when I can begin in a more focused and stronger frame of mind. I am also contemplating adding a fifth course in the winter semester.

Thank you for taking the time to consider my request.

Alejandro Marulanda

Student number: 20294763

Cell: 647.885.9430

Email: 21am50@queensu.ca