Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Hello,

My name is Hannah Berube, and I am a second year bachelor of arts honours student. I am appealing for a late drop of the ENGL 162 course. This appeal is a last resort for me as I did first attempt to resolve this scenario within the context of the course. I emailed the professor to inform him of my circumstances and ask if it would be possible for him to extend the deadlines and allow me to submit missed assignments, but he said that that wouldn??t be possible as it went against his course policy. He recommended I appeal for a late course drop. This course was the most impacted by the situation I will describe, as a significant percentage of it was based on participation and in class pop quizzes. I have been able to work through my issues within another class without resorting to this measure as the professor kindly agreed to accommodate my request for a deadline extension.

I began this term doing relatively well with my mental health and class attendance, however in February, I began feeling unsafe in my apartment. It isn??t in the nicest area and my bedroom is in the basement with a window facing an alley way where there is a lot of unhoused people and drug use. At first this wasn??t much of a problem, but a few weeks after the term started the drug use outside my window began to increase. This led to my level of anxiety spiking, and I began to feel unsafe and uneasy leaving my apartment. It made it incredibly hard, if not impossible for me to fall asleep. Furthermore, there were times I couldn??t eat because I didn??t have food as I was too scared to leave to get groceries. It also made getting to class extremely difficult. In addition to the stress outside my apartment, my roommate started bringing unknown people in unannounced at all hours both day and night, even though we had discussed rules around this. I tried to speak to my roommate about it, but nothing changed. The continuous stream of strangers, in addition to the drug use outside my window, made me feel unsafe within my own apartment and at times I was unable to even leave my room due to my anxieties surrounding these scenarios. The more I isolated myself within my room because of these anxieties, the more my class grades, especially the one with the in-class participation marks, began to suffer, adding an additional area of stress in my life that further compounded to increase my anxiety. My poor grades also fuelled an increase in my depression. The depression and anxiety together lead to a vicious cycle of worsening feelings of worthlessness, of being a failure, and suicidal thoughts. Under these conditions it became nearly impossible to focus on anything outside of my immediate mental health struggles, let alone complete coursework within the scheduled deadlines. With each deadline missed my anxiety and depression surrounding my grades increased, leading to a perpetual cycle of increased shame, anxiety, and depression, making it that much harder to pull myself out of the situation.

For a very long time, I was too stressed and embarrassed to tell anyone, but a few days ago I finally disclosed my situation to my parents who immediately had me move back into the family home. I met with a guidance counselor and my family has been helping and supporting me in my recovery, though it hasn??t been easy. I almost went to the hospital to be admitted but had an emergency appointment with a doctor instead. Dr. Legnini has helped me come up with a recovery plan, increased my prescription and recommended me to further mental health evaluations, which should occur soon.

I will be moving out of the apartment in September and will choose my next one carefully.

Thank you for your time and compassion when considering this appeal,

Hannah Berube
Student 20210135