Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Tanvi Rathi
Student : 20112660
Email: tanvi.rathi@queensu.ca


Acting Associate Dean (Academic)
Dean??s Office, First Floor Dunning Hall

Dear Dr. Atkinson,

I am writing to appeal for the extension of two incomplete courses from Winter 2021: LISC373 and LISC471. I will now proceed to explain the circumstances that led to my inability to complete both these courses, my current progress, and thus why I hope to get an extension to complete them.

In October 2020, I sought help from Student Wellness Services as I was experiencing symptoms including insomnia, feelings of hopelessness, trouble concentrating and lack of energy, which affected my ability to study. I received counselling from Christina Ruggiero, who I started to see consistently for the rest of the academic year. My symptoms slightly improved, and I was able to finish the Fall 2020 semester successfully with all my grades in the A- to A+ range.

During the Winter 2021 semester, I continued to experience the same symptoms, which were compounded by events in my personal life that caused a lot of stress. As a result, I experienced difficulties in meeting academic deadlines in my courses. I received short-term accommodations in March from SWS for both LISC471 and LISC373. Through counselling, I was not experiencing an improvement in symptoms, and I found it difficult to keep up with my courses in addition to completing assignments for which I received extensions. As a result, I asked for an incomplete course status for both these courses.

During the summer term, I lived at home with my family and found this was very helpful for my condition. By July, I had recovered enough that I was able to continue working on my incomplete courses and was confident I could complete them by September 1st, well in advance of the September 15th deadline. I aimed for this deadline because September 1st was move-in day for residence, and as a Residence Don, I knew my days would become much busier on and after that date. By the end of July, I had completed all but one of my assignments for LISC373, and had begun to work on my assignments for LISC471. However, on August 8th, I experienced a panic attack which lasted for almost 6 hours, during which I had to visit the emergency room because I thought I was having a heart attack. I have attached my emergency room record to this appeal to show I had been to the hospital on this date. In the week following this, my anxiety was debilitating and I could not complete everyday tasks or sleep by myself.

On August 15th, I had to move into residence at Queen??s for Residence Don training. Having to live alone, attend training, and eat unfamiliar food worsened my anxiety. I was thus unable to stay in Kingston for more than the first day of training. I went back home to complete my training remotely so I could be supported by my family. During this time, my family doctor recommended me for psychotherapy, so I began to reach out to counselors at Queen's. I was still unable to work on my courses because my anxiety was debilitating.

I felt well enough by the end of training to move back into residence, however my anxiety persisted. Although it was not as severe as in the first couple of weeks after my panic attack, I had to spend my free hours outside of training trying to keep myself calm as I was very anxious about having another panic attack. I feared that my heart had been damaged after my initial panic attack and felt chest tightness and an inability to breathe fully at all hours of the day. I also had to change my diet after my panic attack and completely cut out caffeine and alcohol, in addition to cutting down on spicy foods. However, I also found that even regular foods could give me anxiety as I was paranoid that I had developed an allergy to everyday ingredients.

Although I made some progress in reducing my anxiety in the month following my panic attack, I lost a lot of time in trying to cope with my anxiety and was unable to work on my incomplete courses and finish them before the September 15th deadline.

I was able to start seeing Dr. Arunima Khanna with Student Wellness Services in September 2021. She designed a course of psychotherapy for me and I have been consistently attending sessions and working on developing coping skills. I have included a letter from her in my appeal; she has noted that I have improved substantially since I have started seeing her.

Apart from working with Dr. Khanna during counselling sessions, I have implemented changes in my own life in order to succeed academically. First, I have developed healthier habits related to eating, sleeping, and exercise. I have learned how to ask for help from my support system and instructors when needed, and I have reduced distractions and my workload from extracurricular commitments. I continue to strive to improve my abilities as a student and to improve my wellbeing to support my academic endeavours.

However, even with the improvements I have made over the past few months, I continued to lose time due to anxious thoughts and smaller panic attacks. Although I intended to appeal a while ago, it was difficult to make time for the appeal while managing my course load and my anxiety. It is very important for me to appeal now, however, because I will soon be applying to graduate programs and I fear it would be detrimental to my applications if I still have the two F??s on my transcript. I also feel well enough and am committed to making time to complete both of these courses.

I have reached out to my professors, Dr. Cline and Dr. Carpenter, and they have both supported my decision to appeal and complete their courses. I have considered Aegrotat standing, however, I think completing these courses is the best and most rational thing for me to do. I have gotten high marks on the assignments I have completed so far, I have support from my instructors and family, and I would simply like to complete the courses because I am currently capable of doing so. I aim to complete the remaining three assignments (one for LISC373 and two for LISC471) by the end of the December exam period. Both my instructors have expressed that they will be able to return my marks to me well before the graduate programs?? application deadlines so I can get my marks changed on my transcript before it is submitted. Should I not be able to complete these tasks during the December exam period, I will be able to dedicate time to them over the winter break in order to complete both courses by January 10th.

I would greatly appreciate the opportunity to complete both LISC373 and LISC471 because my current grade of ?F?? in these courses are not reflective of my abilities as a student. I have worked hard to improve as a student since first year, and in the past four terms I have earned a 3.88 average (not including the incomplete courses). I am projected to have another term with at least an A- average. As mentioned before, I have earned high marks on the assignments which have been submitted so far for both courses. I am a strong student and would like another chance to complete these courses, which would also help demonstrate my candidacy for graduate studies. Although unforeseeable circumstances have necessitated my extension of these courses, I am committed to completing them in accordance with my high academic expectations, and believe that I am now in a place to successfully complete them.

I would be happy to provide you with any more information surrounding my circumstances and my efforts to recover from them. Thank you for taking the time to review this letter and my supporting documentation.

Sincerely,


Tanvi Rathi