Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean (Academics),
I am appealing to drop both POLS 358 (Winter, 2022) and PHIL 318 (Winter, 2022). Unfortunately, right before the start of the Winter 2022 semester, I experienced a death in my family. At the time, I considered taking a lighter workload but ultimately decided I should try to push through my grief and continue with the semester as planned. However, this decision has proven to be a mistake as I have not dealt with the grief well, which has exuberated the symptoms of both my mental health issues and my physical disability. When the deadline to drop courses approached, I felt too much shame over the length of time it was taking me to recover my mental health that I foolishly chose to try once again to push through. However, in trying to catch up in all my courses, I have only been successful in three of them. I am still not completely recovered, and the additional stress of the workload has been a huge obstacle. In the process of catching up in my other classes, deadlines for POLS 358 and PHIL 318 passed before I was able to catch up in those courses enough to complete the assignments.

I plan to retake POLS 358 and PHIL 318 in the Winter 2023 term (if they are each offered) and take two other courses in the Spring 2023 term to complete my degree. Dropping these classes will allow me to focus on my other courses, and the reduced workload through finals will lessen the effect on my mental health. If my appeal is denied, I accept that I may receive a failing grade in both courses and will still plan to retake them as I know that I can do better and hopefully repair my GPA. I have never failed anything before, let alone this catastrophically, so please be assured that this weighs on my conscious heavily and I will work my hardest to never be in this position again. I am not typically a bad student; I have just been going through an extremely hard time and I was slightly too optimistic in my ability to separate my personal issues and my academic life. My doctor (see supporting documentation) has recommended that I decrease my workload for the rest of this semester and acknowledge that appealing to drop these courses instead of continuing because the circumstances of my situation have deeply affected my performance this semester and my mental health.
To help ensure that this does not happen again in the future, I will be increasing the frequency of the professional counselling I am currently receiving to recover from my mental health issues this past semester. Furthermore, this will allow me to monitor my mental health more closely in future semesters so I can look for solutions long before reaching this point again.

I have never dealt with grief before, and thus I overestimated my ability to do so; in the future, I will know to give myself more time to heal. When the deadline came to drop these courses, I was still not myself and in denial of my failure. I am finally starting to recover, and so I ask you to please consider my appeal to drop POLS 358 (Winter, 2022) and PHIL 318 (Winter, 2022) and allow me to prove that this is not who I am. I would deeply appreciate the opportunity to be better and do better. Thank you for taking the time to review my appeal.
Sincerely,

Rowan Ivankovich