Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To whom it may concern,

I am appealing to drop one of the six courses that I am taking this semester. My religion course this semester was an add-on course that I thought I would be able to easily keep up with barring any major issues with my mental health. I am diagnosed with a mood disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, major anxiety, and depression. I was able to manage my mental health with the help of medication but still experience slumps in motivation, a decrease in abilities which I rely on for school, and extremely low moods. I was planning on dropping this course at the beginning of the semester but missed the deadline by one day so I thought that I would be stuck with it and decided to try my best. Late February all through March I have not been able to perform as well as I usually do because of a decline in my mental health. This has led to a significant issue with my religion course because I have not kept up in any manner with the deadlines or the course concepts. I have only just reached out for help and gotten accommodations, which is where I learned I could appeal to drop a course. I am still catching up on my five history courses but I feel as though I'm too far behind in my religion course to be able to pass the course. I am still coming out of a mental health episode and all of my energy is going toward completing what I can for the classes where I do not feel overwhelmed. In truth, I did not know that mental illness counted as an extenuating circumstance and convinced myself that I would have to struggle through it even if it meant failing a course because of it. I've experienced a lot of hardship in my life which has led to my mental illnesses and going through the IB program in high school put me in the mindset that no matter what I was going through I had to stick it out and keep chugging along. I'm only now at the point where I recognize that I'm not always able to keep up because of my mental health. The course itself is wonderful, I prioritized the courses which are relevant to my major through my slump and the reality is I am unable to keep up with the demands of this course on top of everything else.

Thank you for your consideration,
Dana Prodger