Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter:

August 22, 2023


Dr. Jenn Stephenson
Associate Dean (Academic)
Dunning Hall, 94 University Avenue
Queen’s University, Kingston ON
K7L 3N6


Dear, Dr. Stephenson:

RE: Request for late drop of incomplete and failed courses due to extenuating circumstances – ID 20365407

My name is Alexander Lucchesi. I should be starting my second year undergraduate studies this fall, but, due to extenuating circumstances that have caused me severe psychological and physical distress, and that also took me away from studies this past academic year, I will, instead, retake my entire fall term and two level one courses to replace the two courses I failed in the winter term.

I am writing to explain these extenuating circumstances and to request a late drop of these incomplete and failed courses from my transcript.

I entered Queen’s in the Fall of 2022, with the expected 90+% average. And like most Queen’s students, received several entrance awards including Queen’s Excellence Scholarship, Commitment Bursary, and Admission Award. I was excited and so very eager when I started my first year at my number one university of choice.

However, shortly after I moved into my dorm, I encountered a series of racially charged incidents, starting around September 10, 2022, that led to a remarkable deterioration in my mental health (Attachment 1). Some days I found it difficult to even get out of bed and as a result, I missed a significant number of lectures, tutorials, and important coursework submission deadlines, as I became increasingly depressed and dealt with this by locking myself into my room for most of the fall term (Attachment 2). In October and November 2022, I sought advice and help from my campus psychologist, the human rights office, and academic advisors (Attachment 5) and with their support, applied for academic consideration. My request was not successful (Attachment 6). I did not have an official mental health diagnosis, and a letter I wrote collaboratively with my brother to the human rights department, outlining how racism affected me, was neither sufficient nor the conventional supporting documentation needed to receive consideration that would allow me to catch up with the work on which I had fallen significantly behind. I was failing the semester and felt powerless to fix it. I filed a human rights complaint about the racially charged incidents on November 22, 2022.

To exacerbate my distress, the following day, on November 23, 2022, and only days prior to my 19th birthday, I was shocked to be dragged into serious legal proceedings that led to my detention at a provincial facility until December 13, 2022. This ripped me away from my efforts to correct my academic path. I was traumatized by the experience of being in detention but decided to persevere with my academics and start fresh in the winter term. Upon my release from lock up, I discussed with my academic advisor that given the trauma that I underwent while in detention, and the negative psychological repercussions from that experience I will need to extend my studies at Queen’s beyond four years, perhaps for an additional semester to complete my degree.

I started the winter term well. The work challenged me intellectually and forced me to think deeply about phenomena that I would not have examined otherwise. This is precisely the reason I desire to attend university. This academic challenge helped me. I started to feel better and was getting As again. The truth is, I did not necessarily aim for As, I was just trying to get the education that I am seeking. My academic pursuit has been a great source of comfort and even a respite from the awful hand that I was suddenly dealt by life.

Unfortunately, by February 2023, I continued to have episodic mental breakdowns, manifested in lethargy and sadness. I tried to persevere with my academics and succeeded to some degree, as I was still completing quizzes, reflections, and other requirements. However, I also struggled with insomnia and paranoia, both of which I developed in detention – a response to being in a constant state of flight/fight from feeling deeply unsafe. All this, in addition to my brother being missing, the frequent knocks on my door and scrutiny of my family from authorities seeking out my brother, only added other layers to my trauma. It became harder and harder to focus on my academics.

Things should have gotten better in April 2023 when my brother came back to face the legal issues but instead, my situation only worsened. We started to receive death threats, some of them with clear plans about how we would be hurt. At this juncture, I was in mental turmoil and could hardly eat and function. All the hard work that I had put in to studying evaporated as I fell sharply below my academic standard once more. I did not recover in time to complete all my course work and write exams. With the support of my psychologist and my academic advisor, I applied a second time for academic consideration. I received permission to hand in some assignments within a specific window (Attachment 7), and while I appreciated this, and all the support that Queen’s has offered me, the timeframe was not sufficient for me to truly catch up with important assignments on which I had fallen so far behind. One of my professors suggested that I applied to extend the consideration window so that I do not fail his course and at any other time, I would have jumped at the opportunity. However, with court appearances, keeping up with legal support, and trying to cope day to day, I felt as though I was operating on an empty tank and did not have the energy to persevere anymore. My academic advisor suggested that I seek out support from ASUS to write a petition to drop the incomplete and failed fall term courses. When I submitted this request to ASUS on April 20, 2023, they replied to let me know that the team had already dissolved for the academic year and will need to train new staff to offer this support in the upcoming term (Attachment 4).

That is why I am now reaching out to this office for support to go forward.

I also wrote this letter because I know my transcript, as it is now, does not fully reflect how hard I have worked through what I have been through. In fact, it does not reflect me at all. I desire to succeed and get back on track with my academics and I rely significantly on your support to keep going forward and to restore my academic status to good standing.

Respectfully,

Alexander Lucchesi
Student ID 20365407
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