Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean (Academic),

I am petitioning the faculty’s decision that I must withdraw from Queens for next year. I understand the seriousness of my academic standing and I’d like to share the changes I am making to improve my circumstances and the strategies I’m going to use going forward.

While my learning disabilities have contributed to my struggles this past year, especially when it comes to speed for processing written information, I know they are not the only reason for being unsuccessful in courses. I take full responsibility for my academic performance and am committed to doing everything I can to improve my academic standing and making the necessary changes to do so.

Extenuating circumstances and how they occurred:
During the past school year I have significantly struggled mostly with meeting final assignment deadlines in multiple of my classes that ultimately lead to severe late submission penalties or my work not being accepted. I was diagnosed with a learning disability and an attention deficit disorder late in highschool that impacted my ability to efficiently understand written information. I have been learning through trial and error what strategies work well for me and what areas I need to improve on but this year was exceptionally challenging for me. My courses are heavily reading and writing based and due to various factors I struggled to submit heavily weighted finals and some assignments in my courses on time, or at all if they were too far past the deadline that the profs would accept. I was taking courses that would require reading 45 plus pages from textbooks a week and I struggled to keep on top of that volume when it was expected in three or more of my courses at a time. I also had a hard time with copying important notes off of slideshows or boards during lectures and I would miss necessary information. Getting behind on these readings and taking incomplete notes were some of the factors that made it especially difficult and stressful for me when approaching essays that were worth large percentages on my grade. All of my failed courses are due to the marks I lost from severe late penalties or from work not submitted and I am confident that I can identify my challenges and make the necessary changes to fix this problem.

Changes and steps I have in place going forward:
I am registered with QSAS and throughout the semester I will set up monthly meetings to review my academic progression through my courses, specifically how my strategies and accommodations are working.
I am in contact with an ADHD coach who I'm going to plan biweekly to weekly meetings over the course of the semesters depending on my workload. I have tried using external accountability before by communicating my upcoming assignments to friends and it worked well, but relying on friends is not as consistent as having a paid ADHD coaching professional. I am also looking to them for mentorship through managing my schedule concerning factors outside of university that impact my academics.
I am currently working on recovering my GPA by retaking two of my failed courses for a total of 9 credits, and I am proving to be successful in them.
Allotting myself more wiggle room for time to work on course material during the semester to factor in my distractibility and attention level on any given day. This includes:
Setting up my course schedule with a variety of heavy and lighter required readings courses, as well as a variety in the weighting of assessments. Each semester should have some more challenging courses and slightly lighter ones to help ease the weekly workload.
Significantly lowering the amount of hours I am available to work at my part time job. This will allow more time for planning and following through with the timelines I set for myself for getting larger assignments done.
During the past two years I was on the varsity sailing team which I found had an immense positive impact on my mental health. This year I will not be joining again due to the large time commitment which will allow me more time to ensure my academic success. I’ll still have the social connections the team offered me during my time with them.
Setting specific timelines for myself with the guide of my QSAS advisor and ADHD coach that will allow me extra time to use the student writing help services. This will help me stay on track of my timeline and I could use the benefit from the services to help strengthen my work.
Taking lighter course loads allowing more time to be allotted to spend on each course
Better adaptive technology that allows for text to speech. This has helped me in the past with large volumes of reading but it was a paid service. I have it again now and will be looking into the services that queens offer for students with disabilities.
Communication with profs to meet my learning needs. Due to my difficulty taking notes in class when there is a lot of reading, I'm going to reach out at the beginning of each class to my profs to see what services they could offer to help me with note taking. (ex. if they can provide notes or other note takers in class)
I know where to access mental health services now for times where I feel overwhelmed or debilitated, and I can recognize where the likely high stress points will be in the semester so I can set up a plan for them.

I have attached documentation from my psychologist, who confirms that my learning difficulties greatly impacted my academic performance. I am using the strategies she advised and will be meeting with her again within the year to review any changes.

I know I can turn this around next year and I appreciate your time and consideration.

Thank you,
Jayna Mandin
20236286