Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Appeal Letter: Dear Board of Studies,

I am appealing the Associate Dean??s decision to deny my appeal for the Extension of an Incomplete Grade in COMM 251 (S21).

In direct response to the decision letter, I want to share with you the following contextual information to help you better understand my overall situation. In 2015, my father passed away and my sister seriously injured including fractures of her pelvis and collarbone following a motor vehicle accident involving their vehicle and a tow truck. At the time of the accident, I had just started my first year of studies at Queen??s. As you can imagine following this life-altering event, there have been ongoing legal, health, and family stressors which vary, and which have greatly impacted my ability to engage in university and life in general.

Section B:
Please see the following reasons provided to me by the Associated Dean for the denial of my original request and my response for your review below:

Reason 1: ??I also see that you were able to complete other courses to high standards during the subsequent terms after the Summer of 2021 despite the impacts of your extenuating circumstances and so it is unclear why you didn??t complete COMM 251 during the Fall of 2021.?

Through my past experiences in managing my ongoing anxiety and depression symptoms as well as my schoolwork, I have learned that two courses per semester allows me to better manage my health and academic needs. In the Fall of 2021, I had planned on completing two courses, one of them being COMM 251 from the summer. Unfortunately, I had an unexpected flare up of symptoms and was only able to handle one course. During that time, it was also difficult for me to make decisions because of my anxiety and depression. At the time, choosing to work through the other course felt like the best decision for me because it was only offered during that semester and if I focused on COMM 251 instead, I would have had to push the other course to Fall of 2022 to complete it.
Although I was able to achieve the grades I received, I also utilized the support of a tutor to enable me to get through the demands of the courses as I was having a lot of motivation issues as a result of depressive symptoms. Without the support of the tutor, I would not have been able to complete any of the courses.

Reason 2: ??the appeals process is not meant to be used to manage a chronic condition. It is your responsibility to evaluate your progress in each of your courses before the drop deadline of the term. If you have fallen behind or find the material too difficult, you should drop the course.?

I was working through the course material and was monitoring my progress. At the time of the course drop deadline, I believed I would have been able to complete the course.
However, a flare up of symptoms is not always predictable, and following the course deadline, I experienced a worsening of my symptoms and struggled to complete the coursework.
Although my mental health symptoms are chronic and ongoing, they do not always present in a linear fashion. At times when my symptoms are more manageable, completing coursework is achievable. When unexpected flare ups occur, it becomes much more challenging to complete my academic coursework.

Section C: Future Plan
While I had been waiting for the results of my course extension request, I continued working with the tutor to complete coursework for COMM 251. Having the support of the tutor is different from my previous attempts at completing the course. The support of the tutor has increased my ability to complete coursework at a more consistent pace. At present, I have already completed over half the coursework required. I plan to continue working with the tutor weekly to complete the remainder of the coursework.

I have also been working with an occupational therapist, and will continue to see them regularly, to increase emotion-focused coping skills and problem-solving strategies with the goal of completing this course at the end of August.

This is the last course I must complete in order to graduate, and I was hoping to have the course extended as opposed to attempting to re-enroll in the course again this summer after the registration period (May 13, 2022) has ended. Unfortunately, this date had already passed while I was waiting for the decision on my incomplete grade request. I spoke with an academic advisor, and they informed me that it was too late to register for COMM 251 this summer.

Would it be possible to ask for a re-consideration of my original request given the information provided in this letter?

Thank you very much,

Tracy Ly