Manage Appeals
Petition Type: New
ID: 11891
Submitted: May 14, 2024 at 12:21:10 PM
First Name: Zoe
Last Name: Phillippopoulos
Pronoun: She
Preferred Name: Zoe
Student Number: 20290898
Email: 20zep1@queensu.ca
Degree Program: BSH
Plan: Biotechnology Specialization
Level of Study: 3
Petition Categories
Petition Categories: Drop a course after the academic deadline
Code: BIOL 404
Term: Summer
Year: 2024
Petition Category: Drop a course after the academic deadline
Petition Letter
Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean (Academic),
I am petitioning to drop BIOL 404 (Summer, 2024), due to a mental health episode caused by the stress that I had while taking this course. This class caused me anxiety and intense emotional distress with physical symptoms such as nausea, headaches, insomnia, and an increased heart rate. I did not seek any counselling from a professional source as being surrounded by friends and family has helped me to recover. Here is my account of events while taking BIOL 404 that led to my situation. All evidence can be found in a google drive link as well as the other documentation that I provided.
On Monday, April 29 the class started and ended late at 6:50 pm. Some safety violations lead to my increased anxiety about the course. On Tuesday, April 30 class ended late at 8:40 pm. There was no soap or water present in the room, so I had to use 70% ethanol to clean my hands frequently out of fear of contaminating myself with bacteria. There are videos of the classroom linked below in Figures 1 and 2 in the Google Drive link. On Wednesday, May 1 I had to attend an appointment, so I left at 6:30 pm, but I am told that class ended at around 7:50 pm. The professor took away the safety gloves in the classroom since they were “not needed” according to the professor even though we were handling E. coli. We were kept late every day that I was present in the class leading to a lot of exhaustion. Evidence can be seen in some screenshots that I sent to my friends talking about my situation in Figures 6 and 7. On Thursday, May 2 I left early due to a panic attack and threw up. I physically could not go back to the classroom out of fear. I called someone I trusted during my panic attack which can be shown in Figures 7-10. I then emailed the biology department to drop the class on Thursday and tried to go in person on Friday to drop the course shown in Figure 11. On Friday, May 3, I went in person to the biology office to see if I could drop the class and was told that I needed to email them. I reached out via email and Teams and got a response only on teams shown in Figure 13. I went back home on Friday night to Toronto. On Monday, May 6 I called the undergraduate academic advisors to get clarification on my situation and if dropping the class would affect my GPA and if I could get my money back. They said they could drop the class for me and did which is shown in Figures 14 and 15. On Friday, May 10, they emailed me back to drop the class through the academic petition. This is when I stated that I dropped the class already. On Monday, May 13 I was forcefully added back into the class without warning. I called the academic advisors who confirmed my situation. They stated that I was unenrolled from the course so I wouldn’t have been able to attend the classes to do the work, yet I was recently reenrolled in the course even though the course is over, this can be shown in Figure 17.
Hopefully, this helps to clarify the timeline of events. There was no drop date communicated to me other than one email from Rachel on April 2, 2024, shown in Figure 18. The professor never stated any drop date during the course shown in Figure 19. Since I was unenrolled from the class by the academic advisors, I physically could not do the work for half of the class. I would not be able to pass this class in any way since the academic advisors dropped it for me and then reenrolled me into the class.
If this petition is granted, I am planning on taking BIOL 403 in the Winter Term of 2025 as it is one of my required courses. I am also seeking more mental health resources to help me become more mentally stable.
Thank you for your consideration,
Zoe Phillippopoulos
I am petitioning to drop BIOL 404 (Summer, 2024), due to a mental health episode caused by the stress that I had while taking this course. This class caused me anxiety and intense emotional distress with physical symptoms such as nausea, headaches, insomnia, and an increased heart rate. I did not seek any counselling from a professional source as being surrounded by friends and family has helped me to recover. Here is my account of events while taking BIOL 404 that led to my situation. All evidence can be found in a google drive link as well as the other documentation that I provided.
On Monday, April 29 the class started and ended late at 6:50 pm. Some safety violations lead to my increased anxiety about the course. On Tuesday, April 30 class ended late at 8:40 pm. There was no soap or water present in the room, so I had to use 70% ethanol to clean my hands frequently out of fear of contaminating myself with bacteria. There are videos of the classroom linked below in Figures 1 and 2 in the Google Drive link. On Wednesday, May 1 I had to attend an appointment, so I left at 6:30 pm, but I am told that class ended at around 7:50 pm. The professor took away the safety gloves in the classroom since they were “not needed” according to the professor even though we were handling E. coli. We were kept late every day that I was present in the class leading to a lot of exhaustion. Evidence can be seen in some screenshots that I sent to my friends talking about my situation in Figures 6 and 7. On Thursday, May 2 I left early due to a panic attack and threw up. I physically could not go back to the classroom out of fear. I called someone I trusted during my panic attack which can be shown in Figures 7-10. I then emailed the biology department to drop the class on Thursday and tried to go in person on Friday to drop the course shown in Figure 11. On Friday, May 3, I went in person to the biology office to see if I could drop the class and was told that I needed to email them. I reached out via email and Teams and got a response only on teams shown in Figure 13. I went back home on Friday night to Toronto. On Monday, May 6 I called the undergraduate academic advisors to get clarification on my situation and if dropping the class would affect my GPA and if I could get my money back. They said they could drop the class for me and did which is shown in Figures 14 and 15. On Friday, May 10, they emailed me back to drop the class through the academic petition. This is when I stated that I dropped the class already. On Monday, May 13 I was forcefully added back into the class without warning. I called the academic advisors who confirmed my situation. They stated that I was unenrolled from the course so I wouldn’t have been able to attend the classes to do the work, yet I was recently reenrolled in the course even though the course is over, this can be shown in Figure 17.
Hopefully, this helps to clarify the timeline of events. There was no drop date communicated to me other than one email from Rachel on April 2, 2024, shown in Figure 18. The professor never stated any drop date during the course shown in Figure 19. Since I was unenrolled from the class by the academic advisors, I physically could not do the work for half of the class. I would not be able to pass this class in any way since the academic advisors dropped it for me and then reenrolled me into the class.
If this petition is granted, I am planning on taking BIOL 403 in the Winter Term of 2025 as it is one of my required courses. I am also seeking more mental health resources to help me become more mentally stable.
Thank you for your consideration,
Zoe Phillippopoulos
Documentation
Professional Letter Detail: NO DOC
Document: Other Documentation-1.pdf
Documentation Detail: All evidence that I gathered to help explain my situation. Please refer to this while reading the letter as all figures are referenced.