Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Dr. Johanne Bénard,

I am appealing the Faculty's decision that I must withdraw from Queen's for one year.

The reason for my lack of academic success this past year was due to personal events beyond my control. This past year has been full of new obstacles for my family, friends, and myself. Throughout the year I have bean back and forth between Montreal and Kingston for many reasons including family problems, financial problems, and problems with my mental health. I spent most days working with my dad at his company. It especially grew to be too big of a problem towards the end of the year around early February. I remember spending several full weeks in Montreal around February causing me to miss countless hours of class and scoring extremely poorly on an Econ assignment, a Music test, and a Math test. Often I would only be in kingston for a couple days of the week, causing me to miss important academic events like assignments, labs, and even class tests. On several occasions I bused to School just in time to write a test. On one occasion my bus was late and I had to email Dr. Copla (music teacher) and ask if he could make a later time slot for me to write the test - he granted my plea. I have been living at home with my mother and my siblings for quite some time now as things feel very stable and and I have a good idea of what I want and what I am capable of achieving. I worked on and off through out the school year but this summer I've been working around the clock on top of taking three online summer courses - which are going great. As important as this summer is for my family and I, I believe it is crucial that I move out and proceed with my studies in the fall. I have close to 2300 already invested into next years living arrangements and such, and would devastated to lose it all. Next year I plan to live in a 3 bedroom apartment with two very close friends who I expect will create a very stable, calm, and supporting environment for me to succeed in. To conclude, I have no doubt in my mind that I can achieve an above average GPA next year.