Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Dr. Jenn Stephenson,

I hope this letter finds you well. I am submitting a petition request today in hopes to receive a credit standing on the courses MATH 121 (Fall 2022-Winter 2023), CHEM 211 (Fall 2023) and CHEM 212 (Fall 2023). Your consideration is greatly appreciated.

Due to certain circumstances that occurred during my first and second year, my academic performance was greatly impacted. In the middle of my first year (2022-2023), my grandma unfortunately passed away over Christmas break. I attended her funeral and had to return immediately to Kingston the day after to resume the second half of the school year. I was not given sufficient time to grieve and was immediately thrown into my academics and separated from my parents, a source of emotional support for me. I fell into a depressed state where I became physically ill and fatigued as I grieved, and I was mentally and physically not in a place where I could give my all into my academics. Unfortunately, this resulted in a poor grade in MATH 121. Though academic consideration was an option, I feared it would not help and only make me fall further behind, so I had not applied, having accepted my situation and thinking it could not be helped regardless. For my second year, I moved off-campus to live with two friends I had become close with during the previous year. Unbeknownst to my roommate and I, however, was that our other roommate was suffering from depression, and she herself suspects that she may have bipolar disorder. My roommate and I often became the subject of her regular occurring mood swings, and she often lashed out and took her emotions out on us, which proved to negatively impact our own mental health. She often engaged in behaviours that caused us great concern, including frequent late-night drug escapades where she would not respond to our messages/calls, excessive alcoholic consumption, forgetting to turn the stove off after use, leaving the door unlocked, as well as letting strangers into our home without informing us. Additionally, this roommate would often leave the burden of the house chores on the two of us, failed to contribute to house expenses, and even underhandedly charged us for her personal items, which we would find out later. My family has been especially struggling during this time, so this increased financial burden had been another layer of stress for me. Though this had been an ongoing issue from the beginning of our second year, things had begun to worsen around the time we had all returned from reading week (around October 15), and it eventually hit a peak. We experienced a suicidal scare when she had sat us down seriously one night and told us that she thought about killing herself. We had no idea that she suffered from suicidal ideation, and I genuinely feared that she would commit suicide, which for a while had left me so terribly frightened. I had just grieved over the death of my grandmother not too long ago, which left me terribly distressed, so I had already felt that this would be too much for me to handle. This situation had been taking a toll on us mentally, so my other roommate and I had decided to check in on her and communicate the concerns we were having. We told her upfront that she needed to seek help and kindly asked her to leave at the end of the year. After trying to resolve the problem, she continued to manipulate us to try and make us feel remorseful and lied to our mutual friends. I had already been experiencing the emotional repercussions of feeling extremely guilt-ridden that I could not help her and had to ask her to move out. It had hit me a little close to home, as I previously had a family member who struggled with similar issues and would take extreme measures to self-harm, but I did not know how to help her. This had become emotionally too much for me, and I eventually fell into a depressed state again, but more severe than before. For over a week I could not do anything. I was stuck in a state of hopelessness and despair, and I found myself not eating properly, while also unintentionally oversleeping and missing classes, meetings and groupwork (including collaborative CHEM lab reports). I was mentally in bad condition to keep up with coursework, so much so that I had to ask for short-term academic consideration to push off a deadline for a small assignment that otherwise would have been done in no time, and even then, I could not finish by the extended deadline. I ultimately fell very behind.

The reason I am petitioning for the previously mentioned courses, rather than my other ones, is because although my other courses were also affected, they were significantly less demanding and difficult compared to the listed courses, so I was fortunately able to achieve decent grades in those classes despite not being able to give full effort. I also could not drop the courses for which I am petitioning for. By the time the situation had become especially terrible (referring to the 2023-2024 academic year), and I made my first academic consideration request (November 14), the last date to drop a course had already passed. Dropping these courses was also not possible as they are a requirement for me to complete core courses in the next term and, thus, core courses in the following years. I tried my best to do what I could at the time to seek assistance. I initially emailed my professor for CHEM 212 and briefly explained that I was having difficulty with a roommate that dealt with mental struggles. Though my professor felt sympathetic of my situation, he felt another arrangement was not necessary as he planned to provide numerous bonus opportunities on the final exam to increase chances for the whole class to improve their grade, and he felt this was sufficient for me as well. Not knowing what to do, I sought academic consideration advising, and I was encouraged to seek proper documentation. I had a meeting with the school’s counsellor, and she had provided me with documentation as proof of my extenuating circumstance. When I approached my professor again, I was once again denied, as my professor insisted that he was generous with the bonus questions on the exam and believed that this should be enough. Although I appreciated the kindness my professor showed me through our exchanges, I feared that my professor did not comprehend the full severity of my predicament since I could not explain the full story through email and, unfortunately, something as adding extra bonus questions on an exam was not a suitable solution to my predicament. Although I ultimately ended up underperforming in CHEM 211 as well, I had not applied for academic consideration at the time as there was no midterm in this course, and I was at a decent standing in the course at the time until exams, unlike CHEM 212. Being denied twice for academic consideration to CHEM 212 ultimately added increased burden and despair during the exam period, and I had ended up underperforming in all my classes. I had since sought-out academic advising and was encouraged to petition for credit standing. I should mention that although I had been taking 6 courses in the Fall Term, this was not the reason for my poor academic performance. I had decided to take 6 courses this term as I intend to pursue a second degree. Since courses I needed to take for my second degree had overlapped with courses I had to take for my primary degree, they could not fit into my schedule this year, so I had hoped to at least get some of the elective requirements completed to hopefully save time and relieve some of the financial burden. I was confident of what I was able to handle and made sure that the extra course would have little demand compared to my other courses. Though I had explained in the communication to my professor that I had made some course changes which caused some unrest at the beginning of the year, as well as explained the additional commitments, these were not the reasons for my mental distress. Though the additional commitments could have provided me with less flexibility to deal with the situation, there was no way for me to anticipate the situation I would be in. After making the course changes and catching up in my classes, I was actually able to balance everything quite well before my personal predicament worsened to such a terrible state, and the “real reason” why I fell behind once again in those classes was due to the situation with my roommate, as I said in those same words in the communication. I was able to come out with a decent grade in this additional elective course despite the very little time I could spend on it in my situation. I had only mentioned these in the communication to highlight the increased burden that my roommate's actions would have had on me with my additional commitments, but the extra elective itself, or the course changes, were not the cause of my additional stress, and this was not the reason for my poor performance.



During the time we had asked her to move out, we had made it known to her how worrisome we found her behaviour to be and encouraged her to seek help. Though the situation had worsened for some time following this event, it eventually mellowed. My roommate has since taken a step away from some of her additional commitments, taken on new hobbies and sought out Student Wellness Services. This has allowed her to better address her mental struggles and has made it easier on my other roommate and me. My other roommate and I have since limited personal interaction with her for the betterment of our own health but have occasionally held “roommate meetings” to allow all parties to communicate concerns in a civil manner without judgment. Since then, the living arrangement has been significantly better, and there is no longer an ongoing conflict. I have, and continue to, rely on my other roommate and family for emotional support/advice, and I had given myself a chance to rest and heal over the break. With the new semester, I now feel I have better control and expect to perform better in my classes. Unfortunately, I do not think my grades are consistent with my past academic achievements, including scholarships/bursaries I have received from Queen’s University, and although I am in a better place now, I fear that I may never be believed for my experiences. If you could so kindly spare me your compassion, I would forever be grateful.



Thank you,

Julie Nguyen