Petition Letter
Academic Petition to Drop PSYC 100 Summer 2021
Hilda Mahmoudi, Student Number 20222954
I am requesting retroactive withdrawal from PSYC 100 Summer 2021, a course I was unable to complete because I was dealing with two family health emergencies that occurred while PSYC 100 was underway.
I am an Iranian citizen. 2020-2021, my first year at Queen’s, was entirely remote due to COVID. The two courses I registered in during the Summer 2021 term were taught remotely. During 2020-2021, my mother and I lived in Toronto.
During the summer of 2021, my mother had to return to Iran for major surgery. She left Canada in the month of May. That left me alone in Toronto for a couple of months, when my father travelled from Iran to Canada to be with me so that I would not be alone. While my mother was recovering from major surgery in Iran, my father, now in Canada, fell very ill and had to be hospitalized approximately towards the beginning of June.
With both these health emergencies happening to my parents, being so far away from my mother and not being able to do anything to help my father while he was hospitalized, I fell into a state of anxiety and depression.
I had by this point successfully completed PHIL 204, a half course taught during the Summer 2021. The full impact of my parents’ health situations did not take place until after PHIL 204 was over. Because of my anxiety and depression about my parents, I was unable to even log into my computer to continue with PSYC 100, which was a full course and continued later in the summer than PHIL 204. I was unable to even try to figure out how to withdraw from PSYC 100, which I was no longer actively participating in. As a result, I received an F for PSYC 100, a grade which remains on my transcript.
I tried in the Fall of 2021 to start an appeal for retroactive withdrawal from PSYC 100, but the advisor I spoke to at the time said that I would need a letter from a therapist. I explained that I was not seeing a therapist so could not provide such a letter, but was told there was nothing that could be done without a therapist’s documentation of my situation. I felt defeated by this and believed I had no other option available.
The F on my transcript has continued to weigh on my mind. In September 2023 I tried again to find a way to appeal for withdrawal from PSCY 100. This time, I was told that the advice I had received about requiring a therapist’s letter of support was incorrect. I was also told that any appeal begun at this point could fail because too much time had passed. The situation felt hopeless and I was not able to submit an appeal at that time.
I am reaching out now to petition for retroactive withdrawal under the “Waive a Petition Deadline” category. The information I received on December 11, 2023, from an Academic Advisor in FAS explains that sometimes supporting documentation from family members can be part of this petition. Unfortunately, my father died on January 13th, 2023, and my mother is unable to provide a letter at this time because she is currently dealing with legal matters and court dates that I have been involved in following the death of my father since his family is trying to take my inheritance from me.
Thank you for considering my request for retroactive withdrawal and I hope I have explained why I was unable to take the steps necessary to withdraw from PSCY 100 at the time due to the nature of the health emergencies that happened to both my mother and father at that time and how this impacted me at that time.
Sincerely,
Hilda Mahmoudi
20222954
Hilda Mahmoudi, Student Number 20222954
I am requesting retroactive withdrawal from PSYC 100 Summer 2021, a course I was unable to complete because I was dealing with two family health emergencies that occurred while PSYC 100 was underway.
I am an Iranian citizen. 2020-2021, my first year at Queen’s, was entirely remote due to COVID. The two courses I registered in during the Summer 2021 term were taught remotely. During 2020-2021, my mother and I lived in Toronto.
During the summer of 2021, my mother had to return to Iran for major surgery. She left Canada in the month of May. That left me alone in Toronto for a couple of months, when my father travelled from Iran to Canada to be with me so that I would not be alone. While my mother was recovering from major surgery in Iran, my father, now in Canada, fell very ill and had to be hospitalized approximately towards the beginning of June.
With both these health emergencies happening to my parents, being so far away from my mother and not being able to do anything to help my father while he was hospitalized, I fell into a state of anxiety and depression.
I had by this point successfully completed PHIL 204, a half course taught during the Summer 2021. The full impact of my parents’ health situations did not take place until after PHIL 204 was over. Because of my anxiety and depression about my parents, I was unable to even log into my computer to continue with PSYC 100, which was a full course and continued later in the summer than PHIL 204. I was unable to even try to figure out how to withdraw from PSYC 100, which I was no longer actively participating in. As a result, I received an F for PSYC 100, a grade which remains on my transcript.
I tried in the Fall of 2021 to start an appeal for retroactive withdrawal from PSYC 100, but the advisor I spoke to at the time said that I would need a letter from a therapist. I explained that I was not seeing a therapist so could not provide such a letter, but was told there was nothing that could be done without a therapist’s documentation of my situation. I felt defeated by this and believed I had no other option available.
The F on my transcript has continued to weigh on my mind. In September 2023 I tried again to find a way to appeal for withdrawal from PSCY 100. This time, I was told that the advice I had received about requiring a therapist’s letter of support was incorrect. I was also told that any appeal begun at this point could fail because too much time had passed. The situation felt hopeless and I was not able to submit an appeal at that time.
I am reaching out now to petition for retroactive withdrawal under the “Waive a Petition Deadline” category. The information I received on December 11, 2023, from an Academic Advisor in FAS explains that sometimes supporting documentation from family members can be part of this petition. Unfortunately, my father died on January 13th, 2023, and my mother is unable to provide a letter at this time because she is currently dealing with legal matters and court dates that I have been involved in following the death of my father since his family is trying to take my inheritance from me.
Thank you for considering my request for retroactive withdrawal and I hope I have explained why I was unable to take the steps necessary to withdraw from PSCY 100 at the time due to the nature of the health emergencies that happened to both my mother and father at that time and how this impacted me at that time.
Sincerely,
Hilda Mahmoudi
20222954