Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To whom it may concern,


I hope all is well.


I am submitting an academic appeal to drop ECON 255 after the deadline due to ongoing personal circumstances that have been exacerbated by unforeseen events.


In the Fall 2021 semester, I started out with a full course load (5 courses, 15 credits). However, by the drop deadline, I had dropped 2 courses. I felt it necessary to take this action after experiencing high levels of stress that began from trying to balance playing on the Queen's baseball team with a full academic course load for the first time (I was on the baseball team prior to Fall 2021, however, due to the COVID pandemic this was my first season playing). Balancing the early morning bus rides and late night arrivals back to Kingston was extremely taxing, both mentally and physically, and led to extreme stress early in the Fall semester. I began to experience mild panic attacks (sweating, nausea, trembling), which became more and more severe (breathing problems, dizziness, occasional chest pain), coupled with an inability to sleep more than 2-3 hours a night. Due to these incidents, I had to suddenly return home on multiple occasions as it was the only place I was feeling comfortable (I have attached a VIA Rail ticket from one of these trips as proof. The other times I returned home, my parents picked me up as I live in Toronto).


From the VIA Rail ticket I have attached, you can see I returned home on December 2nd after experiencing my worst panic attack of the semester. The ECON 255 exam was scheduled on December 16th, which did not leave much time between these two events. Nonetheless, I was preparing to write the final exam. However, COVID stopped this from happening. I had to defer the final exam after one of my housemates tested positive for the virus, and multiple members of my house, including myself, were experiencing symptoms such as extreme tiredness, stomach issues, sore throat, and a fever (I have attached my email to Professor Zabojnik where I outline this and mention the personal issues I had been dealing with, a copy of the positive COVID test of one of my housemates, and a copy of our lease as proof it is indeed my housemate). This was obviously terrible timing. Studying over the holidays was the last thing I felt I needed to be doing as it was when I was planning to get a much needed break, and hopefully start feeling better. Still, I gave the deferred exam a shot today (January 19th) knowing I was nowhere near prepared enough to write it, as I figured I should see where I stood as this is a required class for the Economics degree. I totally blanked during the exam under serious stress. I could not remember concepts I had reviewed and was doing well on just minutes before the exam. This has not happened to me since high school, which was the last time I was seeing a psychologist for similar issues (stress, anxiety, etc.). I do not believe this is a coincidence.


I will be reaching out to Student Wellness Services in the coming days. This has been long overdue, and it is not something I can try to fix on my own anymore. I hope it will be a big step towards getting back to being myself again.


The psychologist I attended in the past is Dr. Leah Lundell from Toronto, ON. If you would like more information on my time with Dr. Lundell, please let me know (some issues with her however are personal stuff I cannot reveal).


Best,
Josh