Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I am appealing to the Faculty of Arts and Science to drop CHEM 414 (Fall, 2021).

The extenuating circumstance I am facing that is beyond my control in due to mental health issues making it incredibly difficult to continue with my course work. I have been in trauma therapy for about six months working on retrieving memories regarding a sexual assault when I was seventeen. About 3 weeks ago (just before reading week), some memories resurfaced from when I was younger (around 10 years old) regarding another incident of sexual assault. I have been continuously working with my counsellor to help remember and understand the events that I went through, and it has taken away from my ability to focus on schoolwork. Having these memories resurface has been very confusing and traumatic, making regular day to day activities significantly more exhausting. I have been trying to stay on top of my course work over the past few weeks; however, the more I work with my counsellor, the harder it has become, and I have reached a point where I can no longer keep up with everything. I am having a lot of difficulty with focusing, motivation and meeting deadlines, which is adding more to my stress.

I am appealing to drop this course (CHEM 414) specifically because it is an elective, so it will not impact my course plan, and it is the hardest course I am taking this semester. I believe removing this more difficult course will grant me more time to take care of my mental health and remove some of the stress being put on my other courses. The course became a graduate studies course in the second half of the term (with a new professor), so the content has become more complicated and the work more time consuming. I was hoping I could handle it, but with this unforeseen event, I am unable to continue. I have chosen to drop this course now because the first assignment was released for it in the last week, where I realized the extent of the difficulty, and time I would need to put in, and I just do not have that ability.

In terms of future success, I was already planning on taking a fifth year to focus on my thesis and honors project. I can take electives along with these courses and I believe I will be able to put more effort into the courses then.

Thank you for considering my appeal.