Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean,
hello. my name is Zhe Wang and my student ID is 20304717. I am currently under academic probation since my GPA is below 1.6. After winter 2023 I am required to withdraw for one year according to the university's academic regulations. I would like to apply for late drop for PHYS104, MATH110 and CHEM112 in winter 2022 by disclosing the special circumstance occurred that affected those courses and a waive of requirement to withdraw for one year.

Detailed Explanation of my case and Statement of appeal
1.Background information
Me and my cousin (older brother) lived together and grew up together since we were very young. My parents treat him as if he were their own. My older brother later entered the police school and became a police officer in the anti-drug unit after he grew up. He often faces danger when carrying out his missions, and I am very worried about him. This has caused me to suffer from anxiety and migraine headaches since middle school.

2.What Happened And How It Affected Me
(1)What happened: My elder brother was injured in the line of duty and admitted to the ICU for treatment on January 30, 2022, and eventually he passed away a few days later on February 7.
(2)How this affected my study in winter 2022: Ever since that day my mental condition start to deteriorate. The death of my older brother had a profound impact on me. After he died, I started to show symptoms of mild depression and serious anxiety paired with panic attack episodes. I underwent online psychological treatment which did little in relieving my anxiety and headaches. I stopped attending online lectures, because I was extremely somnolence and lack of energy due to depression, while my cognitive abilities, such as my memories, my attention span and my logical thinking were affected. As of now I could not remember specifically which homework/assessments were affected since my memory ability were affected, and there were no records of them anymore because a long time has passed, but I do remember that I could not concentrate on coursework, it felt like I had fog in my brain that prevented me from thinking clearly, and the persistent panic attack episodes and headache problem also made it impossible for me to perform well academically in assessments and exams.
(3)Continuous development of this incident: I returned to my home country during summer break to attend my brother's funeral, which was held on May 27. During my time in my home country I sought psychological treatment but it did not make my condition better. My anxiety and depression with headache kept affecting me until January 20, 2023. An accident magically turned my situation around. A car almost hit me that day and I hurt my ankle in the process of dodging. The experience reminded me that I have only one life and I need to make it count. I suddenly understood why my brother was willing to sacrifice his life in his course. And now I wish to do the same, because I do not want to die as a nobody and achieved nothing. So I started to get myself together after that day, and my grades this semester (winter 2023) has improved a lot comparing to past semesters.

3.I did not report this incident and apply for course drop by the academic deadline because
(1)The death of my older brother was sensitive information before the case was closed, and the Public Security Bureau prohibited us from leaking it. The case in which my brother was involved was only closed on April 20, so now I can reveal some related information. Before that, the case was still being investigated, so the information related to the case, including news of my brother's injury and death, was sensitive information.
(2)My family stopped me from trying to drop courses because they thought it is going to destroy my career. After my brother's death they became vulnerable and sensitive, they wanted to make sure that I can finish my undergraduate degree since I am the only child they count on now.
(3)Reporting this incident makes me relive the experience of losing a blood relative, which triggers my anxiety and panic attacks. My psychiatrist also recommended I avoid retelling or reliving related memories.

4.I am able to report this and apply for petition now because
1.The case that my older brother was involved in has been closed on April 20, 2023. The public security department has allowed us to handle the procedures for obtaining his death certificate and other related documents.
2.My mental condition improved, I am still very anxious but reporting this no longer trigger panic attacks.

5.Conclusion
After everything I have been through I realize how important it is to put effort in the course we chose and make every attempt to stay on it, I learned this from my brother. Studying at the Queen's University and finish my undergraduate degree means everything to me and my family right now as we just experienced loss of a blood relative, We need something to hold onto and put our hope in. I have just made my recovery and I am still improving, I will make every effort in succeeding academically, so I really hope I could get a chance to drop PHYS104, MATH110 and CHEM112 to get my GPA back on track, and waive my requirement to withdraw to give me more time to improve my grade. Please consider my petition request, thank you