Manage Appeals
Petition Type: New
ID: 11107
Submitted: November 10, 2023 at 3:21:10 PM
First Name: Megan
Last Name: Townsend
Pronoun: she/her
Preferred Name: megan
Student Number: 20284662
Email: 20mmt10@queensu.ca
Degree Program: BAH
Plan: LLCU
Level of Study: 3
Petition Categories
Petition Categories: Drop a course after the academic deadline
Code: SPAN 111
Term: Fall
Year: 2023
Petition Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline
Petition Letter
Petition Letter: Hello,
My name is Megan Townsend and I am currently in my third year at Queens. Recently I have decided to change my academic path and switch from receiving a BAH in LLCU (Language, literature, and cultural studies) to receiving a BA in EMPR (Employment Relations). I have began going through the process of doing this and have contacted each department to let them know/get information on what the next steps I need to take are. Unfortunately, when I choose the LLCU major in my second year, I was overwhelmed with personal life circumstances and I did not realize how many languages this major required for me to take. I figured I would try my best so I enrolled in french last year and did decently fine as I have a little experience with it, however, this year I enrolled in Spanish (SPAN 111, Dr. Joanne Rotermundt-de la Parra) and my grades are not meeting the expectations. I would really like to drop this course now that it is not required for my major as it is taking away from my other courses. I have hired a tutor and have been putting a significant amount of my time and money into understanding the material of this course, yet my grades are still extremely poor. I understand the deadline to drop a course without academic penalty has passed recently, however, I did not decide until recently that I wanted to switch my major. I really wanted to try my best to see if I would be able to do this but now that it is interfering with my other courses too, I think it is best I drop this course. I would greatly appreciate if I could be granted with a late drop so that it does not show up as a fail on my transcript. I have never failed a class or received failing grades and how I am doing in this class is not at all a reflection of my work and dedication to my academics. Let me know if it is possible for me to be granted this late pass for SPAN 111.
Thank you for your time,
Megan.
My name is Megan Townsend and I am currently in my third year at Queens. Recently I have decided to change my academic path and switch from receiving a BAH in LLCU (Language, literature, and cultural studies) to receiving a BA in EMPR (Employment Relations). I have began going through the process of doing this and have contacted each department to let them know/get information on what the next steps I need to take are. Unfortunately, when I choose the LLCU major in my second year, I was overwhelmed with personal life circumstances and I did not realize how many languages this major required for me to take. I figured I would try my best so I enrolled in french last year and did decently fine as I have a little experience with it, however, this year I enrolled in Spanish (SPAN 111, Dr. Joanne Rotermundt-de la Parra) and my grades are not meeting the expectations. I would really like to drop this course now that it is not required for my major as it is taking away from my other courses. I have hired a tutor and have been putting a significant amount of my time and money into understanding the material of this course, yet my grades are still extremely poor. I understand the deadline to drop a course without academic penalty has passed recently, however, I did not decide until recently that I wanted to switch my major. I really wanted to try my best to see if I would be able to do this but now that it is interfering with my other courses too, I think it is best I drop this course. I would greatly appreciate if I could be granted with a late drop so that it does not show up as a fail on my transcript. I have never failed a class or received failing grades and how I am doing in this class is not at all a reflection of my work and dedication to my academics. Let me know if it is possible for me to be granted this late pass for SPAN 111.
Thank you for your time,
Megan.
Documentation
Professional Letter Detail: NO DOC
Decision Letters
Amendment to Appeal 11107
Relevant Petition: 11107
New Information: Dear Associate Dean,
My name is Megan Townsend and I am currently in my third year at Queens. I am petitioning to receive approval of a late course drop for my SPAN 111 course with Dr. Joanne Rotermundt-de la Parra.
Recently I have decided to change my academic path and switch from receiving a BAH in LLCU (Language, literature, and cultural studies) to receiving a BA in EMPR (Employment Relations). This is something that I have been meaning to do for a while, however, at the beginning of this semester my long-term boyfriend and I broke up which affected my schooling and focus. The only reason I signed up for this course was because a certain amount of different languages is needed to complete a degree in LLCU. I am not good at learning languages as my long-term memory is not great and so I find Spanish (a language I have never spoken prior to this course) very difficult.
During the second half of September/October I was in a very stressed and unhealthy mental state because of this break-up with my boyfriend, which affected my productivity. All of my energy was going towards assignments/studying in courses I was signed up for already. I did not realize how poorly I was doing in this course until I received my first two failing test grades at the beginning of November (November 4th was the first date). I realized that I still needed to drop this class, however, the last date to drop it without academic penalty had already passed. I then began the process of figuring out if I could change my major as Spanish was a class I was only taking because languages are necessary to complete the LLCU BAH. The past week and a half, I have contacted various professors in the EMPR department and figured out what I need/ the process of switching my major. Now that I have decided this is what I want to do/started the process of doing it, I would like to drop SPAN 111. As stated earlier, I did not realize how poorly I was doing in this class as my mind was preoccupied with the stress of the breakup as well as my other courses and on top of that I hadn’t received many marks yet. I really would appreciate to be granted this petition as this course is no longer required for the major I am switching into and with the rate of how I am currently doing I do not think I will be able to pass the course while juggling everything else. Additionally, I have a Spanish tutor who has been helping me and I am still finding it very difficult to achieve passing grades in this course.
This has truly been a very hard last few months and I have never gone through this type of loss before. In terms of my other courses, focusing has also been more difficult but because they are all in English, I am finding them easier to handle than this Spanish course. I have attached professional documentation from my therapist, Alyson Pancer, who I have been seeing regularly this semester to help me get through this break-up.
In the future, I do not plan on taking any more language courses and I will proceed with switching into the general EMPR plan. I have concluded that learning new languages is not my strength and is not something I want to pursue academically. Additionally, I will continue seeing my therapist to help me with my mental health and coping with school/ the break up.
Thank you for your consideration.
My name is Megan Townsend and I am currently in my third year at Queens. I am petitioning to receive approval of a late course drop for my SPAN 111 course with Dr. Joanne Rotermundt-de la Parra.
Recently I have decided to change my academic path and switch from receiving a BAH in LLCU (Language, literature, and cultural studies) to receiving a BA in EMPR (Employment Relations). This is something that I have been meaning to do for a while, however, at the beginning of this semester my long-term boyfriend and I broke up which affected my schooling and focus. The only reason I signed up for this course was because a certain amount of different languages is needed to complete a degree in LLCU. I am not good at learning languages as my long-term memory is not great and so I find Spanish (a language I have never spoken prior to this course) very difficult.
During the second half of September/October I was in a very stressed and unhealthy mental state because of this break-up with my boyfriend, which affected my productivity. All of my energy was going towards assignments/studying in courses I was signed up for already. I did not realize how poorly I was doing in this course until I received my first two failing test grades at the beginning of November (November 4th was the first date). I realized that I still needed to drop this class, however, the last date to drop it without academic penalty had already passed. I then began the process of figuring out if I could change my major as Spanish was a class I was only taking because languages are necessary to complete the LLCU BAH. The past week and a half, I have contacted various professors in the EMPR department and figured out what I need/ the process of switching my major. Now that I have decided this is what I want to do/started the process of doing it, I would like to drop SPAN 111. As stated earlier, I did not realize how poorly I was doing in this class as my mind was preoccupied with the stress of the breakup as well as my other courses and on top of that I hadn’t received many marks yet. I really would appreciate to be granted this petition as this course is no longer required for the major I am switching into and with the rate of how I am currently doing I do not think I will be able to pass the course while juggling everything else. Additionally, I have a Spanish tutor who has been helping me and I am still finding it very difficult to achieve passing grades in this course.
This has truly been a very hard last few months and I have never gone through this type of loss before. In terms of my other courses, focusing has also been more difficult but because they are all in English, I am finding them easier to handle than this Spanish course. I have attached professional documentation from my therapist, Alyson Pancer, who I have been seeing regularly this semester to help me get through this break-up.
In the future, I do not plan on taking any more language courses and I will proceed with switching into the general EMPR plan. I have concluded that learning new languages is not my strength and is not something I want to pursue academically. Additionally, I will continue seeing my therapist to help me with my mental health and coping with school/ the break up.
Thank you for your consideration.
Student Number: 20284662
Documentation
Professional Letter: megan queens counselling-0.docx
Document: megan queens counselling.docx