Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Dr. Stephenson,

I am petitioning to waive the one-year deadline so I may submit a petition to drop MATH 121B (Winter 2023) and to request credit standing for PHYS 115 (Fall 2022). Due to several extenuating circumstances, I was unable to petition within the initial deadlines.

For PHYS 115, I could not petition to request credit standing by the December 2023 deadline due to a family situation. I experienced a severely traumatic incident related to my family in December, which left me unable to complete my exams, and by extension, impacted my ability to submit a coherent petition. As such, I applied for Academic Consideration to defer my remaining exams, with a supporting letter from my psychotherapist. I was then required to stay home over the winter break, where family problems continued to escalate, resulting in me needing to continuously walk on eggshells. Due to this, I was unable to properly prepare for my deferred exams that would take place the week after the beginning of the Winter semester. This resulted in me needing to anxiously cram large components of the courses barely a week before the exams. Consequently, I did not do well in these courses.

In attempting to study for the deferred exams once the 2024 Winter semester had begun, I found myself behind on my schoolwork at the very start of the term, which caused me a lot of distress and an inability to focus on activities unrelated to catching up on my courses. For the first few weeks of the Winter 2024 semester, I was continuously focused on trying to regain my footing in these courses, which I was able to accomplish before the midterm season. However, while I was now caught up, the workload for each course was beginning to snowball, and in between counselling sessions and attempting to cope with events from the Fall semester, my hands were very full.

During this time, I was also dealing with the continued repercussions and effects of the family crisis. The mental and emotional toll of the ongoing family issues had significantly affected my concentration and academic performance and despite receiving additional diagnoses and accommodations, managing my mental health alongside my academic responsibilities was incredibly challenging. The pressure to keep up with my studies while dealing with personal issues created a constant state of anxiety and stress.
As such, my inability to submit a petition to drop MATH 121 before the school year ended directly resulted from these combined pressures. The focus required to manage my deferred exams, catch up on coursework, and cope with ongoing family issues left me with little time and mental capacity to handle additional administrative tasks. Although I tried my best to stay on top of my responsibilities, the overwhelming circumstances meant I needed to pick and choose my priorities, my academics and mental health being the most pressing, leading to the inability to submit my petition.

Before consulting with my academic advisor, I was unaware that I had the option to late-drop the courses, as I believed I had missed my chance during the school year deadline. However, after discussing my situation, it was concluded that my situation and extenuating circumstances are such that submitting an Academic Petition would be in my best interests.

The additional delay in submitting my petition is the time needed to collect all my supporting documents. Getting in touch with the medical professionals who were treating me within the timelines of this petition proved harder than I expected. Due to medical leave, I am unable to get in touch with the professional who diagnosed me with ADHD. I do, however, have a document that details how my diagnosis had previously affected my studies and general quality of life. Additionally, I have an extenuating circumstances letter from my previous psychotherapist submitted during the Fall 2023 exam season so that I may defer my exams.

Given these extenuating circumstances, I kindly request that the one-year deadline be waived, allowing me to submit my petition to drop MATH 121B (Winter 2023) and to request credit standing for PHYS 115 (Fall 2022). Thank you for your time and consideration.