Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To whom it may concern,

My name is Katherine Prufer and I just completed my fifth year at Queen's University with a bachelor of Apllied Economics. When I came to Queen¿¿s five years ago I was so excited to meet positive and intelligent like-minded people. Queen¿¿s placed me in a double room on the 4th floor of McNeil with another girl. As each day passed I grew more and more uncomfortable in my living situation to the point where I did not feel safe. My roommate was constantly intoxicated through alcohol or marijuana. On some nights she would even seem to self medicate as she chugged back extra strength NyQuil after a night of partying. I was very uncomfortable being forced to live in a small room with a person who was a heavy drug user. Eventually, my roommate brought large amounts of marijuana (large Ziploc bag) into our room and began to sell to other students. Some nights when I was alone in our room intoxicated males would knock on the door and come into the room to get drugs that my roommate had promised. I was so upset that I called my mom in tears almost every night begging to leave Queen¿¿s and come home.
I tried to solve the problem myself by talking to my dons about how very uncomfortable and stressed I was living in that environment. My dons (David Boyd and Cherry To) told me they were aware of the drug use and the drug paraphernalia (large bongs). They offered to talk to me about and Cherry even let me study in her room. As the weeks went on I was miserable and I just wanted to leave. I knew I couldn¿¿t live in that environment any longer so my mother and I contacted Tim Tang and requested something be done. I was told that I would have to go into ¿¿kangaroo court¿ if I wanted to have my roommate removed. I knew that would cause large problems socially so I decided to leave. I was transferred to a room in Waldron but it was not over. I was then bullied and targeted by a group of girls on my floor in person, via text messages throughout first year. I was even threatened physically by my room mate while she was intoxicated at the beginning of second year. Where she approached my housemate and told him she wanted to beat me up.
While all of this was happening at school, I was also dealing with the recent separation of my parents. I had no safe haven. My social anxiety of being rejected or targeted grew so much that I couldn¿¿t go to classes any more because I would get so worked up about bumping into those students from my past. I avoided any and every social or academic opportunity because I developed such deep social anxiety I could not cope. I stopped attending most classes in first and second year which really hit me academically as I tried to convince myself that I could learn just as well on my own.
I came to Queen¿¿s as a straight A student and I found my grades were taking a huge hit. I decided to switch from a bachelor of science to a bachelor of applied economics. When I failed the calculus recommended for science students MATH 122 (which was first offered in my first year) I opted to take calculus that was recommended for general arts and science MATH 121, since I was now in Applied Economics. I had no idea until this year that my calculus mark did not over ride my failed grade on my transcript. I was told by an academic advisor that I was the first year of students that had the option of two different calculus courses. I did not know that they were not equivalent and now my GPA as a graduating student is suffering greatly for a full year course with a NG when I achieved a B- in an identical equivalent.
I am requesting that Queen¿¿s recognizes the unsafe and stressful environment I was placed at McNeil. I don't think it is fair to hold my failing mark on a transcript when I successfully completed identical skills in an equivalent course under such psychological damaging conditions. I hope Queen¿¿s understands that they have a greater responsibility to ensure that they have protocols and resources available so that students do not have to be outcast and bullied socially because they had to act alone to get out of a dangerous and unhealthy living situation.

I will say that my time at Queen¿¿s would have been a large disappointment had I not thrown myself into two varsity sports. Without the Rowing and Nordic Ski teams I would have left Queen¿¿s along time ago.

I hope you understand the degree of psychological harm that I faced throughout my time at Queen¿¿s. It is difficult to handle the separation of one¿¿s parents while being targeted by other students and placed in a situation in which I could have never imagined possible at such a highly reputable institution. For those reasons I struggled to participate and thrive in my academics at Queen¿¿s.

If you need documentation, I would contact Tim Tang. I also have picture of some of the drug paraphernalia in the McNeil residence that belonged to my roommate.

I appreciate your time and consideration in this very painful matter.

Please do not hesitate to contact me.

Thank you,

Katherine Prufer
416-576-5283
0kap1@queensu.ca