Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I am petitioning the Faculty to allow me to drop Beginners German I after the drop deadline and to reflect as a dropped rather than failed course on my transcript.

Explanation of Extenuating Circumstances
I started first year with strong academic results, then in the Winter 2022 term, a number of life events triggered some mental health challenges for me that caused a cascade of events that had a negative impact on my academic performance. These mental health challenges diminished my ability to advocate for myself or to take action as my health began to rapidly deteriorate until it reached a point where I realized that I could no longer help myself and I had to reach out to my family for assistance in late March.

Within 24 hours of my mental health crisis, I was referred to a therapist who worked with me over the next few weeks to help me understand that my prior diagnosis of depression was incomplete and that the root cause was actually ADHD and social anxiety. In working with her, in partnership with my primary care physician, we were able to take the following steps:
Adjust my medication to treat the underlying condition and not the symptoms.
Helped me to understand my symptoms, triggers, and learn some tools for managing both. She also recommended that I explore what accommodations were available through Queens to help me put the right supports in place to be successful.
I first contacted QSAS in March of 2022 and began working with Meg Hall who helped me put temporary accommodations in place for the balance of the semester that allowed me to complete my courses that term, while I continued working with my therapist to formalize the diagnosis, supported by formal assessments in order to put the permanent accommodations in place.
By the time we had these supports in place, it was past the course drop date and I did not know that there were any options available to me to address my failing grade in German.

The reason that German was the course most affected by my condition was that it was the only course where I needed to attend small group labs and my mark was dependent upon my ability to not only speak publicly but also in a different language. My previously undiagnosed anxiety made it feel impossible to walk into that room and speak and the more classes I missed, the worse my situation became. With all of my other classes, I had different ways to participate and that is why there was a far greater impact on German than on any of my other courses that semester.

Now that I have completed one full term with all of the accommodations in place and my medications balanced, you can see from my results that I am once again thriving and performing at a much higher level. This one failed course is having a large negative impact that is holding me back from being able to pursue future opportunities. Now that I have proven what I am capable of, I would like to ask the Faculty to reflect German as a dropped course rather than a failed course so these results are not holding me back from reaching my potential and fully participating in the university experience.