Petition Letter
To whomever it my concern -
I am writing this letter to appeal CR standing in MATH 210 and MATH 337 past the academic deadline. Due to personal family circumstances I had to defer my final exams during the winter 2015 semester. My appeal has been delayed due to a technical glitch - I had initially received an 'IN' status in one of my exams (MATH 232), however the incomplete status persisted for months after the exam was written. Upon enquiry in early September, the undergraduate chair of the mathematics department (Dr. Greg Smith) mentioned that there was a glitch in system, and my grade should be updated on SOLUS within a few days. Approximately a week later SOLUS did update my MATH 232 by indicating that I failed the course. To my dismay, I sought to retake the course externally by way of a Letter of Permission. I was pleasantly surprised when I noticed that my F grade in the course had been updated to a C after my L.O.P was granted in late November. While I can't possibly speculate on the cause, I was overwhelmingly delighted to apply for graduation, only to be confronted with another setback - my MATH grades last semester would preclude me from graduating. I sought a meeting with Haley Everson at Queen's Student Services and given my personal circumstances was advised to apply for CR standing in MATH 210 and MATH 337.
A series of extenuating family and personal circumstances ultimately took an accumulated psychological toll on me. After reaching a state of depression earlier during the year and seeking help from the Queen's Counselling Services, starting early November 2014 I lost my ability to sleep more than two hours a day and reached a painful state of uninterrupted exhaustion. Dr. Hartwick noticed my condition during our close-knit ECON 480 seminar class in later November, and advised me to seek medical help. Immediately after the class ended, I went straight to the Queen's Health Services where I was prescribed anti-depressants, followed by serotonin inhibitors over subsequent visits - the latter of which had strong side-effects and thus could not be taken frequently. I reached a dark place in my life and lost hope of ever returning to normal. Thankfully, I began to sporadically attain some rest in January - which at the time provided me with a lot of relief - however just as I thought that I was finally being treated, my family issues took away whatever inner hope I had left, and by mid/ end of February I was back to my old state. As I began to accept my fate and sought means to cope, Dr. Arunima Khanna at the QCS provided me with the support and advice that I needed to manage the issue, but also helped me muster up the courage to appropriately confront my father during the summer - whom I hadn't spoken to in nearly a decade - about the immense pain he had subjected my mother, sister and me through. I would not be writing this letter and my academic performance would have been considerably better had these circumstances not been thrust upon me. I never signed up for any of it. As fate would have it, my mother recently lost her newfound job and we are now rebuilding ourselves financially.
I would like to wholeheartedly thank you for your consideration and the opportunity to appeal, and I do hope with your support that I shall be able to graduate and focus on my current challenges.
Sincerest Regards,
Arun Narasimhan
I am writing this letter to appeal CR standing in MATH 210 and MATH 337 past the academic deadline. Due to personal family circumstances I had to defer my final exams during the winter 2015 semester. My appeal has been delayed due to a technical glitch - I had initially received an 'IN' status in one of my exams (MATH 232), however the incomplete status persisted for months after the exam was written. Upon enquiry in early September, the undergraduate chair of the mathematics department (Dr. Greg Smith) mentioned that there was a glitch in system, and my grade should be updated on SOLUS within a few days. Approximately a week later SOLUS did update my MATH 232 by indicating that I failed the course. To my dismay, I sought to retake the course externally by way of a Letter of Permission. I was pleasantly surprised when I noticed that my F grade in the course had been updated to a C after my L.O.P was granted in late November. While I can't possibly speculate on the cause, I was overwhelmingly delighted to apply for graduation, only to be confronted with another setback - my MATH grades last semester would preclude me from graduating. I sought a meeting with Haley Everson at Queen's Student Services and given my personal circumstances was advised to apply for CR standing in MATH 210 and MATH 337.
A series of extenuating family and personal circumstances ultimately took an accumulated psychological toll on me. After reaching a state of depression earlier during the year and seeking help from the Queen's Counselling Services, starting early November 2014 I lost my ability to sleep more than two hours a day and reached a painful state of uninterrupted exhaustion. Dr. Hartwick noticed my condition during our close-knit ECON 480 seminar class in later November, and advised me to seek medical help. Immediately after the class ended, I went straight to the Queen's Health Services where I was prescribed anti-depressants, followed by serotonin inhibitors over subsequent visits - the latter of which had strong side-effects and thus could not be taken frequently. I reached a dark place in my life and lost hope of ever returning to normal. Thankfully, I began to sporadically attain some rest in January - which at the time provided me with a lot of relief - however just as I thought that I was finally being treated, my family issues took away whatever inner hope I had left, and by mid/ end of February I was back to my old state. As I began to accept my fate and sought means to cope, Dr. Arunima Khanna at the QCS provided me with the support and advice that I needed to manage the issue, but also helped me muster up the courage to appropriately confront my father during the summer - whom I hadn't spoken to in nearly a decade - about the immense pain he had subjected my mother, sister and me through. I would not be writing this letter and my academic performance would have been considerably better had these circumstances not been thrust upon me. I never signed up for any of it. As fate would have it, my mother recently lost her newfound job and we are now rebuilding ourselves financially.
I would like to wholeheartedly thank you for your consideration and the opportunity to appeal, and I do hope with your support that I shall be able to graduate and focus on my current challenges.
Sincerest Regards,
Arun Narasimhan