Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Appeal Letter: I am petitioning the Academic Dean’s decision to uphold the Faculty’s requirement that I withdraw for 1 year. The grounds for my appeal is extenuating mental health circumstances. I was struggling with severe anxiety throughout the past academic year which made it challenging to go to classes and to communicate with my professors about my difficulties. . For example, I rarely used my accommodations for my ADHD even when I suspected I was going to miss the deadline for an assignment. The thought of emailing my professors paralyzed me as I feared receiving a negative response. Although I rationally knew my fears were baseless this did not impact their intensity.
Moreover, my overwhelming social anxiety caused me to freeze in social situations, withdraw from my friends and even skip classes. This anxiety and shame led me to hide my problems from my friends and family since I feared judgment and criticism. There were days when I stayed in my room and couldn’t come out since I felt too fragile. The irrationality of my body’s actions and the lack of control over how I felt was utterly disheartening and even infuriating and I started to experience self-loathing. I needed to talk to someone, but I was so ashamed of myself that the thought of opening up made me feel sick with worry. The cumulative mental burden of my anxiety became too much to bear, and I had a nervous breakdown in April. As soon as I returned home, I sought professional help from the community mental health clinic, and was diagnosed with anxiety, and prescribed an antidepressant. In June, I started regularly seeing a therapist who specializes in ADHD and anxiety. However, when I submitted my first appeal in July, I was recovering but had not yet reached the stable place I have since achieved, and resultingly, the appeal was incomplete.
My anxiety, although only recently diagnosed, has always been with me, but it finally decreased significantly during the summer, due to a combination of therapy and medication, and I have become more mentally healthy than I have been before. I have also been restructuring my stress-based responses with the help of my therapist. whom I meet and will continue to meet biweekly. I no longer freeze under stress but am able to cope with it. In late June, I reached out to my English professor of the second term course I had never completed, explaining my circumstances, and then I successfully completed the missing essay and exam, passing the course as of August 14.
Furthermore, I have been practising mindfulness and breathing techniques to deal with stress in a healthy way and to help myself refocus when I notice my mind going to a negative place. My sleep schedule, which has been inconsistent for a long time, is at last regulated and healthy, and the effects are further aiding my life.
Finally, I have discussed my academic and personal struggles honestly with my family and friends, which has been liberating and given me an informed support circle from which I can draw assistance for the future. Their aid and encouragement have played a crucial role in the recovery of my mental health.
The main obstacle to my academic success was my fearful aversion to communicating with my professors and loved ones about my struggles. However, as I have described, I reached out to my professor to successfully complete an incomplete course. I have been in contact with my History professor, and plan to take my last outstanding exam. I have shared this information with my therapist, family, and two of my housemates, so that I have people who know my circumstances and will hold me accountable to my plans. Instead of withdrawing or engaging in avoidant behaviours, I now communicate and enact solutions.
To ensure continued future success, I have decided that upon my return to studies, I will limit my course load to 3 courses for the coming semester. One of these courses will be one I have previously failed before, while the other two are English courses since I hope to major in it. I have also given my therapist the drop deadlines for the coming semesters, and have informed him of my past issue with dropping courses that I am behind in. Furthermore, I will meet with my professors and teaching assistants at the start of term to introduce myself and make a habit of attending office hours weekly to ensure I am staying on track in my courses and am reaching out immediately if any issue is arising.

I have attached a record of my recent diagnosis and treatment of anxiety. I shall expect to receive a note from my physician tomorrow (August 30) which i shall also upload.