Manage Appeals
Petition Type: New
ID: 10174
Submitted: March 16, 2023 at 11:04:21 PM
First Name: Margaret
Last Name: Cavanagh-Wall
Pronoun: she/her
Preferred Name: Margaret Cavanagh
Student Number: 20214247
Email: 19maw6@queensu.ca
Degree Program: BAH
Plan: PPEC
Level of Study: 3
Petition Categories
Petition Categories: Drop a course after the academic deadline
Code: ECON 262
Term: Winter
Year: 2023
Petition Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline
Petition Letter
Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean (Academic) Stephenson,
I am petitioning to drop ECON 262 (Winter, 2023). Several years ago, I was diagnosed with a severe trauma-induced anxiety disorder. While this is a mental health condition, it manifests in both mental and physical symptoms for me, including prolonged migraines, inability to sleep, panic attacks, fainting, and non-epileptic seizures (known as ??PNES?). For the past two years, I have not been actively experiencing symptoms, and my transcript demonstrates that in that time I have been a model student with a 4.1 GPA and several academic honours. Last week, I experienced a triggering event which caused my symptoms to re-emerge, and since then I have struggled to concentrate and meet the demands of my academic workload. The trigger, and my subsequent mental health struggles, occurred after the deadline to drop a course, which is why I am submitting this petition.
I have experienced triggers to my condition at two other points in my life, and experience has taught me that reducing my stress load is essential to recovering. Reducing my stress results in less severe symptoms, and this allows me to redirect my energy from trying to cope with the symptoms to being able to work with my health care team to treat the underlying cause. In these two past cases, this strategy has helped me to get my symptoms under control and return to my normal level of function within 4-6 weeks. I believe that the same strategy which has proved so effective in the past can help me recover from this recent triggering event. In addition to other measures that I have taken in the last week to decrease my stress (e.g. reducing my hours at my two part time jobs, taking a step back from my extracurricular leadership roles), I am seeking to reduce my course load.
I am seeking to drop ECON 262 specifically for three reasons. Firstly, it has a significantly heavier workload than any of my other courses; of my five courses, it is my main source of academic stress. Secondly, the professors in my four other courses have been very supportive and receptive to any accommodations that I may need, whereas in ECON 262 I have previously struggled to get my standard QSAS accommodations upheld (e.g. extra time on exams, exams written in private space). Thirdly, on March 8th I wrote a midterm in ECON 262 during which I was significantly impacted by the symptoms of my condition. For three days leading up to the exam I was experiencing a migraine as well as night terrors which prevented me from sleeping. Then, approximately 45 minutes into the midterm, I was hit by a severe panic episode which lasted for approximately an hour and a half (lasted well beyond the end of the exam). I was unable to complete the exam, and for the rest of the day I experienced the aphasia and extreme exhaustion which always follow a panic episode.
Since the triggering event just over a week ago, I have reached out to my health care team to make a plan of action for my recovery. Attached to this petition is a letter from my Cognitive Brain Therapist, the primary care provider on this team. I will be increasing the frequency of my appointments with her and my other care providers to help me recover. As I previously mentioned, based on past experience my standard timeline for recovery from a trigger is 4-6 weeks. I have enrolled in other economics courses during the summer term which satisfy the same degree requirement as ECON 262, and if you approve this petition, I will retake ECON 262 next year. As my academic record reflects, I have been an engaged and exemplary student in all of my time at Queen??s. I have encountered an obstacle, and I am requesting that you allow me to drop this course so that I may focus on finding a way to overcome that obstacle. I am confident in my ability to rebound from this struggle, to make up for the credits I forfeit by dropping ECON 262, and to be successful in my remaining year at Queen??s.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Margaret Cavanagh-Wall
I am petitioning to drop ECON 262 (Winter, 2023). Several years ago, I was diagnosed with a severe trauma-induced anxiety disorder. While this is a mental health condition, it manifests in both mental and physical symptoms for me, including prolonged migraines, inability to sleep, panic attacks, fainting, and non-epileptic seizures (known as ??PNES?). For the past two years, I have not been actively experiencing symptoms, and my transcript demonstrates that in that time I have been a model student with a 4.1 GPA and several academic honours. Last week, I experienced a triggering event which caused my symptoms to re-emerge, and since then I have struggled to concentrate and meet the demands of my academic workload. The trigger, and my subsequent mental health struggles, occurred after the deadline to drop a course, which is why I am submitting this petition.
I have experienced triggers to my condition at two other points in my life, and experience has taught me that reducing my stress load is essential to recovering. Reducing my stress results in less severe symptoms, and this allows me to redirect my energy from trying to cope with the symptoms to being able to work with my health care team to treat the underlying cause. In these two past cases, this strategy has helped me to get my symptoms under control and return to my normal level of function within 4-6 weeks. I believe that the same strategy which has proved so effective in the past can help me recover from this recent triggering event. In addition to other measures that I have taken in the last week to decrease my stress (e.g. reducing my hours at my two part time jobs, taking a step back from my extracurricular leadership roles), I am seeking to reduce my course load.
I am seeking to drop ECON 262 specifically for three reasons. Firstly, it has a significantly heavier workload than any of my other courses; of my five courses, it is my main source of academic stress. Secondly, the professors in my four other courses have been very supportive and receptive to any accommodations that I may need, whereas in ECON 262 I have previously struggled to get my standard QSAS accommodations upheld (e.g. extra time on exams, exams written in private space). Thirdly, on March 8th I wrote a midterm in ECON 262 during which I was significantly impacted by the symptoms of my condition. For three days leading up to the exam I was experiencing a migraine as well as night terrors which prevented me from sleeping. Then, approximately 45 minutes into the midterm, I was hit by a severe panic episode which lasted for approximately an hour and a half (lasted well beyond the end of the exam). I was unable to complete the exam, and for the rest of the day I experienced the aphasia and extreme exhaustion which always follow a panic episode.
Since the triggering event just over a week ago, I have reached out to my health care team to make a plan of action for my recovery. Attached to this petition is a letter from my Cognitive Brain Therapist, the primary care provider on this team. I will be increasing the frequency of my appointments with her and my other care providers to help me recover. As I previously mentioned, based on past experience my standard timeline for recovery from a trigger is 4-6 weeks. I have enrolled in other economics courses during the summer term which satisfy the same degree requirement as ECON 262, and if you approve this petition, I will retake ECON 262 next year. As my academic record reflects, I have been an engaged and exemplary student in all of my time at Queen??s. I have encountered an obstacle, and I am requesting that you allow me to drop this course so that I may focus on finding a way to overcome that obstacle. I am confident in my ability to rebound from this struggle, to make up for the credits I forfeit by dropping ECON 262, and to be successful in my remaining year at Queen??s.
Thank you for your consideration.
Sincerely,
Margaret Cavanagh-Wall
Documentation
Professional Letter: MW Letter.pdf