Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Director of Studies,


My name is Lily Krzyzanowski student number 20061032, and I am requesting to late drop five classes from my 2021 academic year as well as wave the one year withdrawal from Queens University. Please read below, which aims to highlight the contributing factors that in turn lead me to fail these five courses.

Prior to COVID-19 I had extensive ongoing mental health concerns which had only worsened once the COVID-19 pandemic arose and the ongoing pressures of the pandemic hit. Due to the pandemic and the uncertainty of our world, my mental health began to deteriorate quickly. I was experiencing very strong OCD symptoms, anxiety and depression, and an ever low lack of motivation to complete everyday tasks let alone schooling. It is also worth noting that at this point I was working full time as COVID-19 did not allow me to make as much money in the summer for my tuition and living costs as the previous summers had, thus working full time was my only option.

At the beginning of the winter 2021 term I was enrolled in four courses (BIOL 111, LLCU 214, PSYC 221, PSYC 351) and doing full time paid work; I thought I was capable of handling the course load and started off determined to prove to myself that I could juggle my mental health, the courses, and full time work however it was far too much to manage. On Feb 12th/21 I reached out to student services and started back up counselling for my mental health as well as to gain some guidance on what my next steps would be re my courses as I had already fallen far behind. I then met with my Psychotherapist Laurie Hook through Queens student wellness again on March 2nd/21 and from there we had a consistent email thread until March 23rd/21. At this point during the school year I had talked to my nurse practitioner and increased my anti-anxiety medication to help me cope in my school and personal life. I had then been put in touch with Occupational therapist Tess Grant, also through student wellness referred to me by Laurie on March 9th /21. At this point Tess redirected me to resources on the Arts and Science website regarding how to write an appeal to help me learn the techniques and build the skills to complete my school work on time, as well as helping me to reach out to Professors in order to draw up alternative dates for my outstanding work in the classes. Tess and I had a consistent email thread together through to the end of March. It was on March 30th/21 that I sent out emails to my professors letting them know that I would be considering a potential drop of their course due to how behind I was. Every Professor responded in support with my decision. Tess and I then had another scheduled meeting on April 16th/21 (virtually) which I had to cancel unexpectedly due to illness, and rescheduled for May 3/21. During this meeting Tess and I went over how to write an appeal to Queens, and offered me some additional support.

Looking back, I most definitely should have dropped the courses before the deadline passed but at the time I was receiving support from Tess and Laurie and truly thought I would be able to at the bear minimum pass my courses. I had already paid for school and worked so hard at my full time job to be able to support myself through school, and the thought of throwing away the money was unbearable. It wasn??t until after the drop deadline that I realized I was unable to proceed with my best work. Unfortunately, the worse I became mentally the harder it was to bring myself to do school work and the more shame I felt for not doing so.

Reflecting back on this past winter 2021 school term I am now realizing that there were additional symptoms I was experiencing that weren??t consist with my ongoing mental health condition that I??m now recognizing that were impacting my day to day functioning and academics. I??m meeting with my family physician to explore these new symptoms/concerns and perhaps look at some new medication routes in the next coming week.


Over the summer I took some time to heal myself and take care of my mental health. I started reading, researching and educating myself on my mental illnesses/symptoms and made great improvements. My future plan which I believe will aid in my successful completion of my 2021-2022 academic year as well as my mental state is to continue to meet with Tess and Laurie, to meet with Gail Eaton-Smith from student wellness to go over some learning strategies for (un)diagnosed ADHD symptoms on Wednesday Oct 27/21, to meet with my family physician re my ongoing additional mental health symptoms and discuss next steps, as well as a reduced course load (3 courses this term) as well as only working Part time at 21 hours per week instead of 40. All of these contributing factors, I believe will in turn, help me to complete the last few courses needed to obtain my B.A. Degree with Queens University.


Lily Krzyzanowski
20061032