Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To Whom it May Concern,

I am appealing to drop the courses HIST 210 and HIST 280 from my schedule due to various personal circumstances that have greatly impacted my ability to successfully complete the course-loads. This year has been the most emotionally straining year of my life, as I have been suffering from bouts of depression and severe anxiety. I have been suffering from frequent panic attacks, that essentially make me feel as if I am going to have a heart attack or pass out, and when I manage to calm down I am usually too shaken to focus on my schoolwork. My depressive episodes make me feel either completely apathetic or put me in the mindset that I am a failure and cannot successfully accomplish anything. As you can imagine, this is not the best state of mind to have before completing an assignment. Correspondingly, my grades have been reflective of these episodes. Often, I would remain in a depressed state for several days or weeks, and in the case of HIST 210 it would result in my not submitting an assignment by the due date. Once I would feel relatively normal again, there would be another assignment due shortly, and the thought of completing two assignments within such a short time frame would trigger a panic attack. Basically, it was a vicious circle. My depression also interfered with my ability to attend class, and complete many of the weekly blog participation posts (in the case of HIST 280). I am appealing to drop these particular courses specifically because they are not necessary for me to graduate with my major. My various mental health struggles have affected all of my courses, but these are the ones that have been affected the most due to the timing of my depressive episodes.

I sincerely hope you approve my appeal.
Pardis Manoochehri