Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean of Studies,

I am appealing to drop PSYC436 (Fall 2020) and PSYC360 (Winter 2021) after the academic drop deadline. Additionally, I am appealing to extend the deadline to submit incomplete work in BIOL422 (Winter 2021).

In the Fall 2020 semester, classes were moved from in-person to online due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As all five of my courses were delivered asynchronously, success relied heavily on self-discipline, motivation and organizational skills. Although I wanted to do well, I was unable to excel in online learning and was unsure as to why. Since then, I have learned that I have combined-type ADHD and was officially diagnosed in March 2021. My undiagnosed ADHD had a severe impact on all five of my fall semesters courses; illustrated by countless late assignment submissions and the inability to keep up with work and content due to my extremely poor attention, motivation, organizational, and time management skills (while on my own). Although all my courses were impacted, PSYC436 was the most affected because of its course structure, content, and time-requirements. As a seminar-based psychology course, it required a lot of attention, time-management and organization including watching long videos, presentations, reading long articles, and writing frequent reflections/papers. For all fall courses, I worked on assignments into the winter break/winter 2021 semester, fully completing 4/5 courses. I was unable to finish PSYC436 as the seminar-based academic requirements (stated above), were too high for my myself at the time.

In the winter semester, alongside continuing ADHD symptoms, my mental health declined because of the ongoing social isolation caused by COVID-19 lockdowns and overdue work from the fall term. In March 2021, I was officially diagnosed with ADHD and immediately started stimulant medication as my primary treatment. Although medication began, it was not very effective until August 2021 (because of medication/dosage alterations). Due to this delay, my health did not improve during the Winter 2021 semester and I dropped 2/6 winter courses in response, to attempt to finish fall work and catch-up with my winter courses. During this time, although all my winter courses were difficult, I was unable to complete PSYC360 because of the heavy workload and amount of writing. Without proper medication, taking this non-synchronous course online meant that I was not able to maintain attention and manage my time to complete the complex course readings and longer written reports (no in-person lectures, labs, etc.). Additionally, I was unable to complete the midterm and final take-home exams in BIOL422 as they also required significant attention and a lot of writing. I was able to finish 2/4 of my winter courses in summer 2021 because they required less attention as the content was less complex, the workload was lighter, they were delivered more synchronously, and required less planning. During this time, I was also unable to finish PSYC360 and BIOL422 as I was undergoing medication changes (antidepressants, antipsychotics), which caused a lot of brain fog (which has since been resolved) and disabled me from keeping track of/understanding the content. Within both semesters, this extenuating personal circumstance severely impacted me as it hindered me from starting, completing, and handing in large amounts of course work.

Within this time, I did not drop the courses earlier as I did not see how severely impacted I was, having faith that I could finish. Although this situation takes place over a period of time and may appear as ongoing, it was not ongoing to me because I only became aware of my condition after COVID-19 started and there was no school structure as classes went online. Since the start of using effective medication, I was able to complete the midterm and final exam for BIOL422. Dr. Vicki Friesen has expressed that she would love to mark both for me and alter my final grade in response. Both exams are fully completed and ready to submit to Dr. Friesen once approval is granted. Since I was unable to finish PSYC360, I am currently enrolled in it (Winter 2022) and am doing significantly better considering I no longer have these difficulties. As I struggled with PSYC436 because it was a seminar-based course, I chose not to enroll in another this year and instead, am taking PSYC251 as it suits my strengths.

In response to these extenuating personal circumstances, I underwent therapy over the summer and have been taking my medication properly to avoid any setbacks in my health. Since the fall term began, I have been on a proper dosage of my ADHD/mental health medications and excelled at my schoolwork, fully motivated to keep up with deadlines, manage my time well, and write longer reports. I was able to learn how to structure my life (not relying on a timetable), use organization techniques effectively, and generally, improved everything about my life, which has allowed me to be fully caught up on all fall schoolwork (despite having a concussion for the last two months of the term). This illustrates that this was isolated to my undiagnosed condition and shows that improvement and success are possible for me. Going forward, my plan is to continue taking my medication, attending group therapy (through Queen's), continuing development of needed skills in areas of improvement, and attending biweekly appointments with my doctor. I do work part-time as a bartender (only a few hours per week) and I will continue doing so throughout the term as it benefits my mental health (social interaction and a break from studies). Though severely impacted by online courses in the 2020-2021 school year, since I have made such significant improvements in essential areas (including a large support system), online learning during the winter 2022 semester will go much smoother; ensuring that I will graduate in the spring of 2022.

It is my belief that without proper medical treatment and structure from in-person/synchronous learning, my entire life fell apart and a few courses (PSYC436, PSYC360, BIOL4222) were greatly impacted. In light of online classes, the covid-19 pandemic and my recently discovered, new mental health disorder, I hope you take my request under consideration.

Sincerely,

Jessica Niskanen