Petition Letter
Jacob Anderson
124 Helen Street, Kingston, ON, Canada
Phone: +33 6 95 02 73 16
DR. JENN STEPHENSON
Student Services, First Floor Dunning Hall
Phone: (613) 533-2470 ext. (79584)
Dear Dr. Stephenson,
I hope this reaches you well. I am appealing for Aegrotat standing in POLS 318: Canadian Welfare State.
I want to highlight the two most notable extenuating circumstances which directly interfered with my ability to hand in the final assignment (worth 60%), and thus fail the course. First was the progressive deterioration of health and eventual death of a close family member on Jan. 8, two days before I was to hand in my assignment. Important to note, my deadline was generously extended to Jan. 10th by Dr. Melkevik, in part due to my disability, which is registered with QSAS. Unfortunately, the debilitative nature of my disability severely escalated within the past year (2nd circumstance), specifically within the past two months (Dec.-Jan.), compounded by the family passing among other chaotic and unavoidable legal hurdles. This change was unforeseen and unprecedented, which necessitated medical treatment for me. In simple terms, the effects went well beyond what my QSAS accommodations were provided to counter. I have reached out to my family doctor whom I consulted with multiple times and who prescribed me new medication during this time. However, I was told several times he cannot help or legally fill out the Queen??s physician??s note because I am out of country (since January). I did not hear back from Dr. Melkevik when notifying him of my appeal, I am unsure if he uses his Queen??s email now.
These circumstances effected my life, and thus all my courses. Most of these courses had earlier deadlines, which for many reasons, including less workload and lesser severity of the circumstances, meant I managed to better cope in them. My circumstances and their myriad effects multiplied together, and courses with later deadlines (POLS 359, and specifically POLS 318) suffered the culminating forces. Over this time, my disability spread to command almost every waking minute of my day and ate into those I should have been asleep. I felt embarrassed at how debilitated I had become and confused and scared as to where I was going. When out of bed, I was lethargic, and due to heightened disability effects, struggled to fit basic tasks into the day.
Moving forward, for my permanent disability concerns, which also separately effects my ability to cope with hardship/loss, I will more regularly check in with my own health and health provider and seek out further medical assistance to develop new coping strategies. In part through this, I will work on myself to be more open about my disability struggles within my support network, to work on my part in breaking some of the barriers that contributed to my disability??s escalation. At Queen??s, I was able to effectively cope in first year, most of second year, and in some of third year thus far, so I know I can prevail. In this process, I will also consider a lighter course load as fit financially, medically, and so forth.
Thank You Kindly,
Jacob Anderson
Undergraduate Student
Queen??s University
April 25, 2022
124 Helen Street, Kingston, ON, Canada
Phone: +33 6 95 02 73 16
DR. JENN STEPHENSON
Student Services, First Floor Dunning Hall
Phone: (613) 533-2470 ext. (79584)
Dear Dr. Stephenson,
I hope this reaches you well. I am appealing for Aegrotat standing in POLS 318: Canadian Welfare State.
I want to highlight the two most notable extenuating circumstances which directly interfered with my ability to hand in the final assignment (worth 60%), and thus fail the course. First was the progressive deterioration of health and eventual death of a close family member on Jan. 8, two days before I was to hand in my assignment. Important to note, my deadline was generously extended to Jan. 10th by Dr. Melkevik, in part due to my disability, which is registered with QSAS. Unfortunately, the debilitative nature of my disability severely escalated within the past year (2nd circumstance), specifically within the past two months (Dec.-Jan.), compounded by the family passing among other chaotic and unavoidable legal hurdles. This change was unforeseen and unprecedented, which necessitated medical treatment for me. In simple terms, the effects went well beyond what my QSAS accommodations were provided to counter. I have reached out to my family doctor whom I consulted with multiple times and who prescribed me new medication during this time. However, I was told several times he cannot help or legally fill out the Queen??s physician??s note because I am out of country (since January). I did not hear back from Dr. Melkevik when notifying him of my appeal, I am unsure if he uses his Queen??s email now.
These circumstances effected my life, and thus all my courses. Most of these courses had earlier deadlines, which for many reasons, including less workload and lesser severity of the circumstances, meant I managed to better cope in them. My circumstances and their myriad effects multiplied together, and courses with later deadlines (POLS 359, and specifically POLS 318) suffered the culminating forces. Over this time, my disability spread to command almost every waking minute of my day and ate into those I should have been asleep. I felt embarrassed at how debilitated I had become and confused and scared as to where I was going. When out of bed, I was lethargic, and due to heightened disability effects, struggled to fit basic tasks into the day.
Moving forward, for my permanent disability concerns, which also separately effects my ability to cope with hardship/loss, I will more regularly check in with my own health and health provider and seek out further medical assistance to develop new coping strategies. In part through this, I will work on myself to be more open about my disability struggles within my support network, to work on my part in breaking some of the barriers that contributed to my disability??s escalation. At Queen??s, I was able to effectively cope in first year, most of second year, and in some of third year thus far, so I know I can prevail. In this process, I will also consider a lighter course load as fit financially, medically, and so forth.
Thank You Kindly,
Jacob Anderson
Undergraduate Student
Queen??s University
April 25, 2022