Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I am appealing to drop both PHYS216 (Winter, 2023) and PHYS239 (Winter, 2023). These two courses are both electives for my degree program, and the only courses I??m currently enrolled in.

Over the past Fall 2022 and Winter 2023 semesters I??ve been dealing with extreme fatigue due to undiagnosed IBS and poor physical fitness. I noticed a worsening in my gastrointestinal related issues over the past year, these issues include: daily and urgent diarhhea, gassiness, chronic fatigue, decreased sleep quality and length due to acid reflux and urgent bowel movements.

It was during the recent reading week (February 21 - 24, 2023) that I was able to get an appointment with a food allergy specialist who suggested that I most likely have IBS and gave me information to improve the symptoms.

Another issue is that over the past 3 years I gained about 60 pounds, a majority of that weight being fat. The weight gain along with already bad posture caused neck and back pains that started to heavily disrupt my daily life to the point where even studying and sleeping were both extremely difficult to accomplish. Not only was I being challenged with ongoing daily fatigue, I was also trying to cope with mid-day crashes. I found myself struggling to keep up with course work and I eventually ended up feeling mentally burnt out from trying to keep up with school while dealing with these health issues. I was diagnosed with ADHD a few years ago and noticed that during this period, my ADHD symptoms got much more difficult and were more disruptful of my daily life and those symptoms seemed to be compounded by the high level of fatigue I was dealing with on a daily basis. While I was doing my best to try to keep up, I am now in a position where I am several weeks behind and am finding it extremely difficult to stay focused on studying due to burn out.

I am a third year computing student who was enrolled in full-time course loads during all of my previous semesters. This is the first time I??ve submitted an appeal in my academic career. I have tried to handle the demands of school the last few months as best as I can, but due to the above issues I am now in a position where it is best for me to drop these courses. Up to this point in my academic career at Queens, I have tried my best to manage my ADHD symptoms and have a respectable GPA of 3.2.

I was originally enrolled in 5 courses, however, I slowly dropped them since I was dealing with increasingly worse ADHD symptoms, fatigue and inability to keep up with my courses. . I tried to stick with these courses especially since my health was starting to improve after the IBS diagnosis, however, I was already far behind and mentally burnt out.

Since being able to consult with my doctor and the specialist, I have been working on my health issues and I know these issues won??t continue to impact me during future semesters because I??ve been seriously focused on improving my health ever since I was diagnosed with IBS in February. I created a diet that follows the advice given from the specialist, and as a result my gastrointestinal health and overall energy has greatly improved. This made it much easier to start implementing daily exercise and manage my diet in order to lose the unhealthy weight I gained. Over the past couple months I have lost 20lbs and started consistent exercising including strengthening and stretching of certain muscles that have greatly improved my posture. Now I deal with no posture pains, higher energy, virtually no gastrointestinal issues, improved sleep quality and length, improved ADHD symptoms. I am in a much better place mentally and fully believe I will perform well In upcoming semesters.