Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: June 13, 2022


Associate Director (Studies)
Queen??s University
Kingston, ON

Dear Associate Director of Studies,

I am appealing to drop CHEM 112, MATH 121, and BIOL 103 (Fall 2017 + Winter 2018) MICR 270, PHAR 100, and PSYC 205 (Fall 2019) beyond the drop deadline. If my appeal is accepted, it would take me out of academic probation, which would allow me to continue my part-time online studies and avoid withdrawing for a year.

My first year at Queen??s was quite challenging from the beginning. With hindsight, I now realize that I was taking a very difficult course load for which I was not mentally prepared. I was not prepared to deal with failure in the academic setting, so I coped by ignoring and pushing off assignments because I was afraid of trying my best and then failing. I ended up missing more than half the lectures in these classes because I became very discouraged and simply let my feelings of overwhelming self-disappointment blocked my ability to seek help from the accommodations office, my professors, or QSAS. I hid my struggle from my family, my friends, and even from myself. The classes I took were very challenging for me, and were much harder to stay engaged in, but for the past few years I have not appealed the grades because I was convinced that a Bachelor of Science (Hons.) was the correct path for me so I would need to take them again anyway for my degree. However, as I will describe below, I have found a new, more fitting path for myself that I am confident in, and excited to pursue.

Fall 2019 was already quite tough for me as I was starting to fall behind in some of my classes in the latter part of the semester. In addition, I feel as though I lost out on many opportunities during this time, and I was not fully aware of the consequences of dropping at the right time and the effect it would have on my academic career moving forward.

In November 2019, I was hospitalized twice, and could not attend my final few weeks of classes, nor my final exams. With multiple concerning symptoms, I decided to go to Kingston General Hospital on November 13th. Their probable diagnosis was viral meningitis, which they stated was circulating at Queen??s. They discharged me after a couple days with instructions for rest and proper hydration. After my symptoms continued to worsen, I had to take a bus back to my home in Toronto and my family rushed me to St Joseph??s Hospital where I was admitted on November 17th. I was assigned an infectious disease specialist who could not figure out my case but suspected that I had some type of viral infection. When I was finally discharged on November 21st, my head was clouded and constantly pounding, and I could not think straight at all, and the doctors said to expect this to continue for at least another week. This all occurred at a very unfortunate time, as I missed all of weeks 10-12 in my classes, which caused me to miss entire assignments as well as core content and expectations for the finals. I was trying my best to recover while catching up on coursework, but my fatigue and overall condition made this impossible. I did not even attend the final exams for these courses as I found it difficult to even get out of bed during that time. I emailed my professors letting them know I could not attend the finals but failed to appeal to drop the courses quickly because I was very stressed and overwhelmed by the whole process. Therefore, I respectfully request that this semester also be removed from my records.

After the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, I did not feel safe returning to in-person classes due to my immune suppression. Instead, I switched to part time online classes and started a part time job. I am happy to say that this combination has resulted in a huge boost to my physical and mental health. In terms of my ability to manage my course load, working part time while doing classes has increased my motivation and provides me a refreshing mental break. This has allowed me to fully enjoy the coursework rather than feeling overwhelmed by the continuous stream of coursework and deadlines.

I??ve had to work on improving my study habits. I used to leave certain assignments or studying until right before the deadline, and then if I had a health issue, they would be very stressful and sometimes impossible to complete on time. Even though I was enrolled in QSAS, it was still very stressful for me to have to catch up on assignments. Having learned from this experience, I now plan my studying and assignment schedule two weeks ahead, to ensure I have extra time prior to deadlines to allow flexibility should unforeseen health issues arise.

I have evaluated my academic pathway with the Academic Advising Team, and I believe that the best path for my own success at Queen??s is to switch to a 3-year Bachelor of Arts degree and make use of my existing Psychology course credits. This plan will still enable me to meet my career goals of working alongside and helping children. It is my hope that I will be able to complete my degree while continuing to work and focus on my health. Already, I have demonstrated my academic improvement, with A??s in courses such as Statistics and Developmental Psychology (which is my passion). I have truly found the path forward for myself, which for now involves staying at home and focusing on my health, both mental and physical, while doing part time online classes to continue the path toward finishing my degree. I hope that this demonstrates my acknowledgement of what went wrong, my willingness to learn, and my drive and determination to come back even stronger and reach my full academic potential and career goals.

In summary, in my first-year courses, I was in a state of extreme mental distress, and was unable to cope with the difficult course load, and in the fall of 2019, I was unable to study or write the finals for my courses due to an acute and unusual medical issue. These two situations do not represent my honest academic ability and they are holding me back from academic success. Frankly, they are stressful and embarrassing to me, which is part of the reason it has taken me so long to write this appeal. I hope you can understand, and I ask for your consideration. I really have enjoyed my time at Queen??s, and I would love the opportunity to continue my improving academic performance.

Apologies for the letter length, but I wanted to provide as many details as possible for you. Thank you for allowing me to explain my situation, and I would be happy to meet with you on Zoom or in person to answer any questions you might have.

Simon Lindberg