Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To whom it may concern,

I am appealing the listed grades because, as I am about to outline, this year has been the most challenging year of my life and as a result my grades were to suffer. I do not believe that I preformed academically to the best of my ability.
I will provide a brief timeline of my past year. As I started summer 2014 my life started to change but I didn't notice. I started a new job and started to feel like mentally things weren't right. Fast forward to July and I was admitted to the hospital because of a mental breakdown and alcohol issues. The Dr. in ward diagnosed me with depression and put me on medicine. I was in denial that I actually suffered from anything and went to see my family doctor who actually took me off all medicine and noted it was related to alcohol issues. In this time I started to see a counsellor in Belleville. Once I came back to school in September I started to think I was back to normal. However I had a major breakup in early September, after a week it was reconciled but I still wasn't back to normal. I sought out counselling at LaSalle where they made me feel as if it was only provided on a need to basis so I stopped attending. Fast forward to October and the relationship finally ended. On top of this I hit what I would describe as rock bottom. During this time I went back to my home in Belleville, took time off of school and work and realized I may not have been alright. This is the first time I stopped being in denial. However too afraid to delay my schooling I pursued the rest of the semester. I spoke to the undergraduate chair of Economics who encourage I take the semester off but I was afraid to lose a semester of school. I started seeing a personal counsellor Ashley in this low point and my psychiatrist Dr. Mazhar. I was diagnosed new medications and continued to see Dr. Mazhar every 4-6 weeks and Ashley every week. In this time I struggled immensely. I missed many classes as I found it hard to balance every aspect of my life. I let certain courses slip and these were courses where attendance in class was necessary, where I couldn't get notes from others or online. I struggled balancing my health, relationships, and 5 classes. Mentally I was not capable to complete everything that I had committed to but I was too afraid of failing and hitting rock bottom again. The exam period was tough because I couldn't focus on everything. I spent my focus on classes that I could focus online and didn't have to attend because attendance was lacking. After Christmas I felt alright but still was not completely there. Come week 3 I had another breakdown and hit rock bottom again. Things were not good but I was slowly beginning to accept it. I went through a break up again and I felt like every aspect of my life was falling apart. Again I couldn't focus on all of my classes and started to miss class. As exams started to approach my summer job was taking up more time and I focused on it because I felt like I had failed everything else and this was something I could succeed at. I fell into the same pattern. On top of this I had a falling out with my housemates the night before two of my exams. I was in distress again and didn't feel comfortable in my house which rocked my boat even more. I couldn't mentally handle my academics while my mental health and relationships (both romantic and friendship) were so out of place.
Once school finished I recognized how unwell I really was. All the warning signs were there but I wasn't seeing it. During this time I was so focused on day to day struggles and making it to the next day. As a result my academics slipped. I could only keep up with certain classes and these were typically the classes that I could manage without attending the class. I typically see myself as a student who falls between the B+ and B- range. I would be very grateful to be granted a CR in the courses I listed. I would be more than happy to provide any addition information or clarifications on my circumstances.

Regards,

Kevin Lynch