Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Jacob Anderson
124 Helen Street, Kingston, ON, Canada
Phone: (+1) 226 580 7611


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 petitioning for a late drop of POLS 459: Anarchist Politics

I want to highlight the most notable extenuating circumstances which directly interfered with my ability to finish the majority of work in POLS 459. Foremost among them is the escalation of my conditions for which I am accommodated under QSAS, although newer conditions that QSAS does not accommodate also arose at this time. As Cristina my QSAS advisor can confirm, as can my psychiatrist and the medical professional I saw at Student Services, my condition this semester gave me unprecedented difficulty academically. Up until this Winter 2023 semester, I had never had to use more than that for which my QSAS accommodations provided.

Specifically, I began to struggle to get out of bed, and still do, most often losing half (or more) of the day in the process (getting up most often from 12pm-5pm). When I am up, I struggle to focus more than usual and spend much of my time squeezing in the essentials. What I know now, is that part of this is due to the medication I take, which inhibits my dopamine and results in amotivation among other effects. In a cyclical fashion, this increased my Condition 1, Condition 2, and Condition 3 symptoms, as my mood lowered, I blamed myself, and I accomplished less and less each day. I tried setting multiple different alarms, turned off only by barcodes in different parts of the house, arranged for different people to call me in the morning, set breakfast the night before, went to bed in workout clothes, started supplements, and countless other strategies, with no long-term solution.

My Verification of Extenuating Circumstance Form details that this escalation began on February 28th. I was barely able to attend classes, even more than I usually struggle, let alone do weekly readings of my courses, specifically two fourth year POLS courses. And as my instructors from both semesters this school year could attest, when I was able to attend class I was engaged and thoughtful ?? I enjoy class discussion; for me it??s one of the few times I get to socialize with others, and missing it was disheartening, particularly for seminars.

POLS 459 was uniquely affected in that the assignments were all part of one research paper, spread over the semester. That is, the course was designed so that submissions for earlier assignments would receive feedback on specific authors and fields to read into next. So as I struggled to complete earlier assignments, I fell behind on research at the same time, and by the end of the semester I did not have the requisite knowledge to write the final paper. I organized a meeting with my professor Dr. Delaney to try to work around my situation, but she advised that because of the course structure, I was too far behind in my research. My other courses had fewer heavy assignments (and no independent research), and all of them finished well before POLS 459, so both the lesser workload and the lesser severity of the circumstances allowed me to focus on them independently and to cope better in them. With the other major course I had, POLS 471, my professor was very accommodating.

Given my situation, at this time I have arranged to graduate with a 3-year Bachelors as opposed to the Bachelors Honors. Regarding my disabilities, once my medication for my new condition is sorted out I am set to attend therapy again. I also am working with my friend and family to be more open about my conditions and my ability to cope during rough periods. At Queen??s, I was able to effectively cope in first year, most of second year, and in half of third year and fourth year, so I have it in me to succeed. Lastly, if I enroll in further education, I will consider a less than full-time course load.

Thank You Kindly,

Jacob Anderson
Undergraduate Student
Queen??s University
April 27, 2023