Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Hello,

I would like to submit an academic appeal. I am a 5th year biology student with a permanent disability, that is registered with Queen's University. Specifically, I am hoping to appeal BCHM 218, CHEM 222, and MICR 270 from the 2021 winter semester as well as BIOL360. This was an unexplainably terrible time for me as a person, the pressures and anxiety of Covid, as well as a terrible bout of depression, prevented me from performing in a way that would be reflective of me as an individual. I do poorly in classes sometimes and I struggle like everyone else but before this incident I had never failed a course, let alone 3. About 3/4 of the way through the semester, I just crumbled into a shell of myself, inexplicably I gave up on my studies, felt overwhelmed with all the situational Covid restrictions, and other pressures, using all of my energy to just pass one of the 4 classes I was enrolled in. The depression at the time consumed my thoughts each day for every waking moment and made in nearly impossible for me to get any sleep, something that also affected my ability to do coursework. I could not take care of myself during this time let alone my friendships, family, coursework, and extracurricular activities. Thankfully I was able to reach out to my mother, and she encouraged me to get in touch with our family doctor. My doctor and I, worked on finding the right dosage for my medications as well as other strategies that I could employ, to improve my mental health. It has taken some time but since then I have been taking my medication and working extremely hard to stabilize and improve my mental health. I am submitting this appeal because I aspire to go to teachers' college after I graduate. These four terrible marks in my GPA will seriously hinder my ability to follow through with said aspiration. I was not aware until recently that you could appeal to drop courses past the drop date deadline. I would like to appeal to have BCHM 218, CHEM 222, and MICR 270 late dropped, and request a credit standing in BIOL360. I have been working really hard to tackle my mental health and education since that time period, and those grades on my GPA are sort of the last obstacle in my path forward. I am grateful that an opportunity like this exists that hopefully means a single bad moment in my life won't have to define it. (The submission deadline of transcripts for teachers' college is Dec 7th, 2021). Thank you so much for the consideration.

All the best,

Noah Milne