Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Associate Dean,

My name is Robert McLeod and I¿¿m a fourth year student in English at Queen¿¿s University. I am appealing to drop CLST 201, FILM 240, CLST 200, ENGL 292, ENGL 237 and PHIL 203 and to have my grade in ENGL 234 switched to a credit standing.

After recently meeting with a counsellor and an academic advisor I have come to terms with the fact that I am unable to cope with a full course load at Queen¿¿s university and that I made a mistake by trying to do so again this year. I was required to withdraw for one year in 2013-2014 after becoming overwhelmed and failing to complete most of my exams in the Winter 2013 term but choosing to keep this to myself and just taking the year off. I then returned to studies in the summer of 2014 and took two online courses which I finished with my two highest marks so far, a B and an A. Despite my success in this new form of study, I chose to enroll in a full course load on campus again because of an urgency in myself and because of encouragement from my family to do so and get my degree completed quickly. The Fall 2014 semester wasn¿¿t going terribly until both of my parents moved away from Kingston within about a month of one another and my Mother required me to be her mover during my midterm weeks and while also working full time. Despite my best efforts to stay on top of things I became very overwhelmed and, once again, crumbled under the pressure with the rest of the semester, as well as the Winter 2015 semester, going terribly. My other major issue apart from continually pushing myself into a workload that I can¿¿t handle is that I have no real sense of belonging at the school and tend to associate being on campus with a number of low points in my life that occurred while I was there, including the separation of my parents. I experience a great deal of sadness on campus and this is enhanced by the feeling of exclusion that I feel when surrounded by my peers who are typically much more enthusiastic and involved than I am. In no way do I want to give up on my schooling or leave Queen¿¿s. I appreciate the quality of the education I¿¿m receiving but I¿¿d like to put myself in a situation where I can give my full effort to my courses and the teachers that are running them instead of continuing to waste their time as well as my own. I don¿¿t doubt that I am intelligent enough to succeed at Queen¿¿s or else I wouldn¿¿t be here and this idea was reinforced by my grades in the online summer courses that I took.

If this appeal is accepted, my plan is to continue my program at Queen¿¿s but to do so at a slower pace and, as much as possible, through correspondence courses. Working full time and having what is essentially a sense of dread about appearing on campus, this style of learning is much more suitable for me and, I believe, would allow me to obtain my degree with much less stress and failure and much more happiness. I also plan to retake some of the courses that I¿¿m appealing to drop and some of those that I have done poorly in in the past in order to improve my GPA. I also intend to more actively address my struggles should they occur again. I¿¿m aware of many of the resources I have available through Queen¿¿s to help with academic difficulties and have been made more familiar with them through this process. If I were to begin to feel overwhelmed again I would make it a priority to seek some help with this and get myself back on track before things got out of control as they have too many times before. Thank you very much for taking the time to read and consider my appeal and I very much hope to continue my studies smoothly and successfully.

Robert McLeod