Petition Letter
Due to extreme discomfort and anxiety I was unable to attend the majority of my lectures during the 2013 ¿¿ 2014 academic year. Attending a lecture of a hundred or so students was intimidating and stressful, and as a result my grades suffered. Because I was unable to attend the lecture, I relied heavily on the online materials that I could access from my home, where I was better able to focus on my readings. When I was able to bring myself to attend class, I spent the majority of the lecture worried about sitting close to another student, whether or not they were watching me write, and generally unable to focus on the material being presented. This resulted in a poorer understanding of the material and thus an inability to perform well academically. In September I had registered for a full course load, but as attending class grew increasingly uncomfortable, I began to either drop courses (LING 100, SOCY 122), or avoid lectures entirely. Towards the end of the academic year, my family encouraged me to seek a professional opinion about my anxiety, as they could see I was still not achieving the academic performance I was capable of. After receiving the letter stating that I must withdraw, I decided that it was time to address the issue.