Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To Whom It May Concern:

My name is Rattan Arora, and I am currently enrolled as a second-degree student here at Queen??s. The purpose of this letter is to ask permission for withdrawal from the university for this semester and the next due to unforeseen medical reasons. This semester began like any other, but quickly turned for the worse.

Around week 3 and 4, I began to experience regular flu symptoms and treated them as such. I followed Ontario??s and University??s recommendations for testing and isolating regarding COVID-19, however, I did not test positive even once. Unfortunately, I have been ill ever since. There have been a couple days where I was doing better, but it would always keep getting worse to the point that I have now been sick continuously for over 2-3 weeks with the same respiratory issues. During all of this, my school life and academics have suffered immensely.

I was seeing walk-in doctors in Kingston as I did not have a family doctor, but I would only receive flu medication each time (to no relief). Walk-in doctors in Kingston were also refusing to see me in person as I have COVID symptoms ?? therefore, only virtual consults were possible through video/regular calls. Those doctor notes were obviously not accepted by the school as it is considered self-reporting, however, the school was able to approve multiple short-term (3-day) academic consideration requests for me which you can probably see on my record (and I highly appreciate the support I received from the school and my professors throughout this period).

Regardless of the academic considerations, my academics were suffering greatly just because of how sick I was constantly. Having respiratory issues, I could also not attend in-person tests and midterms according to school policy as they are still considered COVID symptoms. I dropped 2 of my 5 courses earlier in the school year to make it more manageable for myself, and I was also in communication with the school regarding taking a semester??s break. My sickness and the resulting struggles with academics and life in general have also significantly deteriorated my mental wellbeing. Due to this, I visited the student wellness centre recently and talked to them about my situation, and the counsellor suggested I take a short break from school while I improve my physical and mental health. I thought I could keep going, so I didn??t withdraw earlier in the semester, but now it is too late for me to drop classes myself.

I would like to request that I be allowed to withdraw from my courses without any academic penalty as this is a completely unforeseen situation and has truly been out of my control. I tried every solution I could to make it work, but apparently having respiratory issues for a stretch of 2 months is extremely unsafe and it has been recommended by my new family doctor that I get a long list of tests completed and withdraw from school for now (as you can see in the doctor??s note that I have attached in this appeal application). I was greatly enjoying my time at Queen??s and as you can see from my transcript, I was performing well academically as well. I was in contact with the physics and engineering department to even transfer to the engineering physics program here and was taking the relevant courses for that. I don??t believe I deserve fails showing on my transcript as they are not an accurate representation of my ability in those courses. If you can see my grades in the assignments/tests I actually did get to complete, I believe you would agree.

Regardless of your decision, I have had to move back home and get started on the medical tests and psychological evaluations. I hope you can understand my situation, and I accept my appeal request to allow me to drop the 3 remaining courses I have this semester without academic penalty. Thank you for your consideration and I am looking forward to being back at Queen??s next year.

Kind Regards,
Rattan Arora
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