Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Dr. Stephenson,
I am petitioning:
• to drop MATH 110 (Winter, 2023), MATH 120 (Winter, 2023), and HIST 104 (Fall, 2023) so that the grades appear on my transcript as DR, and
• to receive credit standing in CISC 121 (Winter, 2023) and PSYC 100 (Summer, 2023) so that the grades appear as a CR and count towards units for graduation but do not impact my GPA.
Starting early in my first year, I experienced acute mental health issues that directly affected my academic performance.
While I suffered from depression and anxiety in middle school, my symptoms subsided with treatment, and I was mentally healthy throughout high school. I maintained a strong work ethic and was highly motivated throughout which led to my academic success and my admission into the Queen’s Co-Ed Program.
Even though I did not fully comprehend it at the time, my mental health crisis was triggered shortly after beginning university. Even though I had taken on a heavy courseload, for the first six weeks of my first year I kept my head above water.
However, when I came back from the first reading break, I began to be crippled by anxiety as my course work intensified and the impact of being away from home for the first time really hit me. I would feel immense pressure and stress whenever I sat down to start my course work, which led to me being unable to hand in assignments. Once I began falling behind in my classes, this triggered my depression which continued to spiral so that I eventually was sleeping through classes. This viscous cycle directly caused my complete lack of motivation and I lost the drive to want to do anything for my own benefit. I did not tell my parents how I was feeling at first because I did not want to disappoint them and started to feel incredibly isolated and alone.
I ended up dropping PSYC 100 and PHYS 106 in the beginning of February to try and create less work for myself but, even with the reduced course load, I was still feeling so bad that I was unable to complete the work. I enrolled in PSYC 100 in the summer and completed the course, however I was still feeling so paralyzed by anxiety and depression that I was not able to complete much of the course work.
During that summer, I began taking medication and trying online therapy. When I went back for the beginning of second year, I started out doing ok but got very anxious about living on my own and began isolating myself again, which started another spiral of depression. I stopped doing online therapy. I also had difficulty refilling my medication and stopped taking that. I again made the mistake of not telling my parents because I was feeling so ashamed. I would lie in bed all day and did not want to wake up, shower, or eat. I had absolutely no motivation to do anything that was not easy and did not have my complete interest.
When I would try to do work that required thinking and effort, I would find myself sitting for hours feeling terrible about myself because I was doing nothing. At the end of the year, my parents saw my marks and could immediately tell that something was not right. I ended up telling them how I was feeling and how I felt like there was no reason to keep going and that there was no point to anything. We then decided that I needed to stay home and take care of my health this semester with the goal of returning to Queen’s in September 2024.
The only courses I was able to succeed in were my PROF 110 in first year and MUSC 171 this last fall. My PROF course was more participatory and involved less individual course work and more group class work and as a result, it was easier for me to complete. My MUSC course was an easy course for me because I love music and had a big interest in the course material. There were also only 4 deliverables throughout the course and were all multiple choice or short answer questions about music topics I already knew a lot about and enjoyed.
In the 2 ½ months that I have been home, I have started taking additional medication and am also seeing meeting with a therapist in person every week, and I have developed a good connection with him. I am working with my therapist on trying to control my anxiety and not letting it run my life. My parents are also completely aware of everything that happened and are checking in daily to make sure I am staying on top of things. I am working very hard and have begun to see my motivation increase and my anxiety and depression improve.
My goal is to return to Queen’s this fall (Sept 2024). To ensure my academic success, I plan to continue taking my medication and working with my current therapist. I will be speaking with an academic advisor about my course choices and academic stream. I will be meeting with QSASS to discuss potential accommodations. I will be working with SASS to deal with general academic stress and specific course matters as they arise. I will meet with my professors in each class so that I feel that I have a connection to them if/when I need to ask for guidance as this will help lower my anxiety as questions arise. I will make sure that I speak to someone about any issue that arises for me as soon as it arises so that I can deal with them promptly. I will make sure that I check I with my parents regularly about my progress.
Together with this petition, I am also submitting a letter from my doctor that addresses my condition.