Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I am petitioning to have a credit standing in the following course CLST 204 (Fall, 2022) I am petitioning to have a late drop for ANAT 215 (Fall,2022) and in BCHM 270, STAT 263, and GEOL 106 (winter, 2023). I would like to be considered for an AG in CHEM 212 (Fall, 2022) and if not granted, I’d like a late drop for that course as well.
Starting in October of 2022 I have been receiving treatment at Queens Wellness for disordered eating and the physical and mental issues accompanying it. I have previous diagnoses of Moderate depression and Generalized anxiety disorder from 2020 and childhood respectively. When I went in for my first nursing appointment, it was to adjust medication dosages for depression. I was then referred to an OT and then a dietitian and multiple counsellors. Since then it has been busy with many appointments, the support has been wonderful but still, it takes time from the identification of the problem to be rid of the impact it has on daily life. The added stress from going through eating disorder screening and treatment after my younger sibling’s prior eating disorder diagnosis makes each step of the process more taxing. Since starting treatment, I have been learning to manage and build back my physical health. The treatment has involved medication changes that make daily functioning difficult and relapses in anxiety and depression. Self-harming compulsions and actions that had been specifically managed with treatments reappeared in the fall of 2022 as the diagnosis and treatment began: adding to the mental strain. Between the daily functioning of eating, sleeping, and not hurting myself: all things that used to be automatic but recently have been challenges, schooling has been difficult. Making decisions about what I will be capable of within the next month was also difficult as treatment progressed. This is why I am asking for so many late drops, around the drop dates I was doing better and felt confident.

In CLST there was a lot of very precise grammar and memorization. This was one of my strengths in the past, but my focus was so pulled by treatments and just the lowered cognitive responses from a lack of nutrition. This course was very specific in assessments. The work done asynchronously was easier to complete but as the treatment and appointments for my health increased, the homework would not be completed to the previous standard. In addition, the tests had very specific grammar rules and due to the physical toll the long-term disordered eating had on my mental processing, the effort put into memorizing the complex rules of the Latin naming was not evident in the tests handed in.

With ANAT, I attended everything in the Fall but didn’t perform well on the tests and since the labs were unmarked, I did poorly. I attended all of the labs (ANAT and CHEM) and tutorials (CHEM) but the marks received on material learned did not reflect my attendance. I believe that the course aims were achieved by me in the labs and CHEM tutorials. I spend the entire four-and-a-half-hour period writing for my CHEM final and in hindsight, I should have deferred that exam, since I was disoriented, dizzy, and close to passing out while writing. I do plan on continuing with a BSc but with my current health situation, I have concerns about success in lab components. With an AG for CHEM212, I would have a course needed for my teachable from organic chemistry options, but should the course be dropped, I would see what options exist to lower the intensity of the labs. I was unsure if I qualified for an AG, but thought that I would rather ask before just trying a late drop. My accommodations with QSAS started in the middle of this semester and while it helped for the final exams with extra time, the group-style lab components are limited in how they can be altered for accommodations.


While choosing which assignments to focus on, BCHM’s were often rushed or incomplete and therefore the grade for this class was most difficult to redeem. I thought I was doing alright with my health since I was following my recovery plan, so I didn’t drop this course earlier. Then, but I kept falling behind one assignment at a time until it wasn’t possible to catch up again. For GEOL, I was late on the first assignment but was optimistic that I could make up for it. Then as classes continued, I found the content really interesting and didn’t want to give up. Despite this, I became very overwhelmed when I had a really bad week that put me behind on my treatment plans and also increased the amount of time I had to put into recovery. I had planned to file for an incomplete grade in this class so that I could finish over the summer, but I am missing a majority of the submissions and Dr. Szczyrba felt it best for me to apply for a late drop. Late drops in these courses would allow for me to retake them later and for me to manage changes to my plan since F grades would have a strong impact on my gpa. The need to have a lighter courseload or even change teaching subjects may arise, leading to this course not being retaken but due to the large components missing from this attempt: a paper, multiple quizzes, and the final exam - I am not able to complete it. With the added pressure of STAT assignments and my confusion when situations I thought I understood, I couldn’t calculate properly. With the STAT late drop I will be free to take the class again and remove this reflection of a period of struggling from my academics. This diagnosis period and the beginning of treatment were unexpected and will not happen again. Now that I am in treatment and know what I am battling, I will be able to make better choices about my courses. This in addition to the Credit standing for the two mentioned courses will allow me to move forward with my academic career.

With support from wellness services, I am going to focus more on recovery so that I may be more successful in future classes by having a lighter course load. I also intend to switch majors so that my desired teaching subjects are more attainable. I picked Geology as my second choice because my GPA needed to be in the automatic acceptance range for my second choice and Geology interests me. Despite this, Biology and Chemistry teachables require courses that are not similar to this major and due to my current struggles: I can’t just take everything as I might have been able to do normally. As it is, I think that I will need to either add a year, summer classes, or both in order to finish my degree. This petition will help make the effort that I have put into my degree show and allow me to move forward in my plans for obtaining my B.Ed. In the future, I also plan on considering my teaching subjects since I have struggled so much this past year, it may not be reasonable to have two science subjects. I always thought I would eventually get Aditional Basic Qualifications in Teaching French as a Second Language, but perhaps I would make this a teachable to balance my studies more with arts and sciences. Not to mention, that recently (June 2) I badly broke my ankle while doing a French Immersion course in Nova Scotia. I have now had surgery and am continuing the program completely non-weight bearing. I have no idea how this will affect my recovery physically since I will need surgery again in the future and I imagine my ankle will only add to how difficult it is to stand for long lab hours. I hope to have as few barriers as possible while changing my plans to better fit my science teachable (Chemistry and/or Biology and potentially French) and I believe that this petition is an achievable step to reaching that goal.