Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Appeal Letter: Although I was academically successful in the time period I could have submitted an appeal, I do not believe that should not be an indication of the severity of my extenuating circumstances. I was only academically successful due to the accommodations provided to me by QSAS. I have had to travel to India twice to attend to ailing family members while receiving treatment for my disability. As I outlined in my petition letter, my time was either spent attending to my academic responsibilities or receiving treatment for my mental health. I am diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder and have dealt with tremendous anxiety for the past two years. I have been experiencing extenuating circumstances since January of 2022, and my symptoms were exacerbated by disagreements with faculty which gave me a lot of anxiety and prevented me from appealing the course. Furthermore, I contracted COVID when I was writing the final paper for the course and was dealing with post-COVID symptoms by the time I received my grade. Despite completing the deliverables, I was given an F and no explanation despite attempts at communicating with the professor. In the summer of 2022, I had to travel to India to attend to my sister, who was unwell due to her mental health. Upon returning to Canada in Fall 2022, I admitted myself to the emergency room at Trillium Hospitals in Mississauga for my suicidal ideation. I have struggled every step of the way but still attended to my academic responsibilities. These issues still remain prominent this year and have been exacerbated by my father’s illness. He had been unwell for the most of the year of 2023, requiring triple bypass surgery in June 2023. Since then I have been my father’s sole caretaker, travelling to Mississauga every month to take care of him while completing a full course load. I have also taken courses every single semester for over two years because I am greatly motivated to complete my degree. My academic records also demonstrate how much I struggled my first two years at university, and it has taken great courage and determination for me to be able to take a full course load every semester since 2021. I have done this only because I was focused on receiving treatment and due to the accommodations set in place for me. I indicated in my letter that I planned to take another course instead of appealing this course as I was too anxious to submit an appeal. However, I was advised against taking more courses by my QSAS advisor, who said I should take a break given how pervasive my extenuating circumstances were. I still took another course but had to withdraw once I received the news of my father’s illness, for which I also had to quit my role at the ASD lab and travel to India. I was not comfortable divulging all this information, but was disheartened when I learned that my appeal was denied and felt the need to clarify on appeal. I believe my success should not be seen as an absence of my extenuating circumstances but as evidence of my commitment to completing my education. I am of the opinion that the Associate Dean’s decision was not reasonable given that I demonstrated that my extenuating circumstances were ongoing but due to my academic success, it was assumed that my circumstances were not dire enough to not have submitted an appeal earlier. I would also like to reiterate that this one course prevents me from graduating and could potentially result in the loss of a job offer in January. I believe it is greatly unfair that despite completing my course deliverables and all the requirements for my degree, I will be asked to take another semester because my disability prevented me from appealing this course. The only reason that I am able to submit an appeal now is because my circumstances have finally subsided in severity. I would sincerely request the Board of Studies to take all the facts into consideration when reviewing my appeal and making a decision on my request to waive the 1-Year Petition deadline.