Petition Letter
Dear Dr. Johanne Bénard,
After experiencing a severe brain injury, I was unable to complete my MATH 121 course in the Winter 2018 semester. I am writing to you in hopes of appealing to extend my IN in MATH 121 to allow me to complete it with this year's course over the winter 2019 semester.
On February 17th, on my way home for reading week, I was in a severe car accident off the highway, causing a loss of consciousness and a severe concussion. I stayed home past the end of the reading week to recover and was ordered by my doctor to stay off screens, take breaks and not overstimulate my brain for 4 weeks or until symptoms subsided. I am a transfer student and last year was my first year Queen's in a completely different program. All of my courses were full-year so it was very important to me to complete them as I was already 'a year behind' in my program. Upon my return to Queen's, I met with Tess Grant, the school occupational therapist, to devise a plan that would allow me to finish the semester and heal with the help of accommodations. At that time, I was suffering from extreme headaches, sensitivity to light and screens, inability to focus and extreme exhaustion from healing.
I slowly returned to my studies, but my inability to maintain focus and keep up quickly became apparent; MATH121 online was exclusively video-based learning and proved to be quite challenging as I was unable to look at screens for greater than 20-minute intervals. After discussion with my academic advisor and Tess Grant, I concluded that with accommodations I would be able to complete my other 4 courses, but the MATH121 was too difficult with my condition. My options were to drop the course before the March 2 deadline or receive an IN; the IN would allow me to take my time to learn the content and focus on completing my other courses during the term. I reached out to Dr. Abelson how he would like to proceed so that I could make a decision to drop before the deadline. After not receiving a response, I sought out the help from Caroline Teske and the Math and Science Undergraduate Chair to get in contact with my professor. The deadline arrived, and I decided to stay in the course at the advice of the Undergraduate Chair as I had not yet heard back. Professor Abelson finally responded on March 7th and we made arrangements to meet.
I met with Dr. Abelson on March 20th and we discussed that he would add me into the MATH 121 summer course so that I could take my time learning and that I could write the final exam in Ottawa. On May 11th I emailed him inquiring about how I would get access to the online course. I did not receive a response and followed up several times, only to get a response nearly three months later, at the end of July. On July 24th, he emailed me the link to add myself to the course, told me my last test would be opened the next day and that my final exam was going to be on August 1 in Kingston. Unfortunately, I was unable to get time off work, travel to Kingston and prepare for the exam with less than a week notice. I was offered an alternative exam date in early September but did not hear back from my professor until I messaged him about not hearing back from him on the day of the exam. I was offered a later date in September or to appeal to defer my final exam. I have not yet fully healed from my concussion and am still receiving therapy. Appealing was preferable to me as I was frustrated with the stop-and-go studying and I did not want it to affect me having a good start on my fall term courses which were well underway.
In October I experienced unfortunate personal events and at the advice of my counsellor, I took a month of academic leave. Upon my return, at the end of November, I caught up with most of my assignments (one ENSC essay to go) and differed only one exam to the beginning of January. This has been a rather difficult year for me and the holidays have been particularly challenging, I apologize for submitting this appeal so close to the deadline.
If my appeal to receive an extended IN is granted, I plan to take a reduced course load next semester to accommodate my study of MATH 121 content. I would follow the complete the course and write the exam during the 2019 Winter exam period. In order to aid me in successfully achieving this goal, I also have monthly counselling appointments with Student Wellness Services and regular meetings with my concussion clinic doctor to aid in minimizing my symptoms.
If you are unable to grant me the IN extension, I would beg you to consider allowing me to drop the course late. In addition, to requiring the MATH 121 course for my Biology degree plan, this F is resulting in an unrepresentative GPA that renders me ineligible for several opportunities on campus.
I understand that this is a relatively complicated case. Please do not hesitate to contact me should you require any additional information or clarification. I hope you had an enjoyable holiday with your loved ones. Thank you kindly for taking the time to consider my appeal.
Hannah Ross
20030055
16her@queensu.ca
(226) 228-2339
After experiencing a severe brain injury, I was unable to complete my MATH 121 course in the Winter 2018 semester. I am writing to you in hopes of appealing to extend my IN in MATH 121 to allow me to complete it with this year's course over the winter 2019 semester.
On February 17th, on my way home for reading week, I was in a severe car accident off the highway, causing a loss of consciousness and a severe concussion. I stayed home past the end of the reading week to recover and was ordered by my doctor to stay off screens, take breaks and not overstimulate my brain for 4 weeks or until symptoms subsided. I am a transfer student and last year was my first year Queen's in a completely different program. All of my courses were full-year so it was very important to me to complete them as I was already 'a year behind' in my program. Upon my return to Queen's, I met with Tess Grant, the school occupational therapist, to devise a plan that would allow me to finish the semester and heal with the help of accommodations. At that time, I was suffering from extreme headaches, sensitivity to light and screens, inability to focus and extreme exhaustion from healing.
I slowly returned to my studies, but my inability to maintain focus and keep up quickly became apparent; MATH121 online was exclusively video-based learning and proved to be quite challenging as I was unable to look at screens for greater than 20-minute intervals. After discussion with my academic advisor and Tess Grant, I concluded that with accommodations I would be able to complete my other 4 courses, but the MATH121 was too difficult with my condition. My options were to drop the course before the March 2 deadline or receive an IN; the IN would allow me to take my time to learn the content and focus on completing my other courses during the term. I reached out to Dr. Abelson how he would like to proceed so that I could make a decision to drop before the deadline. After not receiving a response, I sought out the help from Caroline Teske and the Math and Science Undergraduate Chair to get in contact with my professor. The deadline arrived, and I decided to stay in the course at the advice of the Undergraduate Chair as I had not yet heard back. Professor Abelson finally responded on March 7th and we made arrangements to meet.
I met with Dr. Abelson on March 20th and we discussed that he would add me into the MATH 121 summer course so that I could take my time learning and that I could write the final exam in Ottawa. On May 11th I emailed him inquiring about how I would get access to the online course. I did not receive a response and followed up several times, only to get a response nearly three months later, at the end of July. On July 24th, he emailed me the link to add myself to the course, told me my last test would be opened the next day and that my final exam was going to be on August 1 in Kingston. Unfortunately, I was unable to get time off work, travel to Kingston and prepare for the exam with less than a week notice. I was offered an alternative exam date in early September but did not hear back from my professor until I messaged him about not hearing back from him on the day of the exam. I was offered a later date in September or to appeal to defer my final exam. I have not yet fully healed from my concussion and am still receiving therapy. Appealing was preferable to me as I was frustrated with the stop-and-go studying and I did not want it to affect me having a good start on my fall term courses which were well underway.
In October I experienced unfortunate personal events and at the advice of my counsellor, I took a month of academic leave. Upon my return, at the end of November, I caught up with most of my assignments (one ENSC essay to go) and differed only one exam to the beginning of January. This has been a rather difficult year for me and the holidays have been particularly challenging, I apologize for submitting this appeal so close to the deadline.
If my appeal to receive an extended IN is granted, I plan to take a reduced course load next semester to accommodate my study of MATH 121 content. I would follow the complete the course and write the exam during the 2019 Winter exam period. In order to aid me in successfully achieving this goal, I also have monthly counselling appointments with Student Wellness Services and regular meetings with my concussion clinic doctor to aid in minimizing my symptoms.
If you are unable to grant me the IN extension, I would beg you to consider allowing me to drop the course late. In addition, to requiring the MATH 121 course for my Biology degree plan, this F is resulting in an unrepresentative GPA that renders me ineligible for several opportunities on campus.
I understand that this is a relatively complicated case. Please do not hesitate to contact me should you require any additional information or clarification. I hope you had an enjoyable holiday with your loved ones. Thank you kindly for taking the time to consider my appeal.
Hannah Ross
20030055
16her@queensu.ca
(226) 228-2339