Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Dr. Jenn Stephenson,

I am appealing to drop MATH 120 (Fall Winter, 2021-2022) and to request Credit standing in MATH 111 (Fall Winter, 2021-2022) and CISC 124 (Winter 2022). I am not appealing CISC 102 because the grading scheme for that course was easier to keep up with and it didn??t have a final exam that would have been impacted like my other courses.

During the Winter 2022 term I had some difficulties with my mental health and COVID-19 that severely impacted my academic performance. I found the transition to online learning very difficult and had trouble keeping up in most of my classes. MATH 120 lectures that used to last 50 minutes were now taking me 2+ hours for me to complete. I ended up dropping STAT 263 before reading week to reduce my course load, but I still struggled to keep up. I was hoping that returning to in-person classes would help, but I caught COVID-19 in the first week back and had to continue watching lectures online for another week or so. This also prevented me from being able to socialize with classmates after feeling isolated in Kingston for the first two months of the term.
In mid March I fell into a heavy depression that lasted through April. During this time I struggled to complete the most basic tasks and would often only be able to leave the house once a week. Around St. Patrick??s day I finally accepted that I needed to drop MATH 120, but I didn??t realize there was a deadline to drop fall-winter courses until I tried to drop it and wasn??t able to. I found out that I needed to file an academic appeal to drop the course but I didn??t have the mental capacity at the time to work through that on my own and proceeded through the remaining weeks as though I had dropped MATH 120. Despite this, I still struggled to keep up with my other courses and missed a few assignments in MATH 111 and CISC 124 in the last few weeks of classes.
The weekend before my exams my Grandmother passed away (April 24th). I wasn??t able to attend the funeral because I was stuck in Kingston and had an exam that day. Between my mental health and the recent loss I was completely checked out when my exam dates came around (April 27th and April 28th) and could barely get myself to write anything for them. I probably could have gotten my exams delayed due to the circumstances, but at this point I was so burnt out that I just wanted to get them over with. I ended up failing CISC 124 but was able to rewrite the exam later in the summer and get a passing grade.
During the summer I was able to reconnect with my counsellor, who helped me get back on track and I am continuing to see her regularly. She also helped me get in touch with Student Wellness and Academic advising services so I now have a support network in place to prevent things from getting this bad again.

I hope you can see how severely these extenuating circumstances impacted my studies and will allow me to repair my academic record by accepting my appeals.

Sincerely,

Ocean Marnoch