Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Dr. Stephenson,

I am petitioning to drop FREN 107 (Fall 2023) and MUSC 156 (Winter 2024).

I have always struggled with anxiety but since beginning my time here at Queen’s things have felt more challenging. At the beginning of my second year my living situation changed and things became very difficult for me. In the first few weeks of school my social anxiety became the worst it’s ever been. As a result I became depressed and isolated. My body entered a state of constant stress, and because I had to enter a dining hall to eat (through the student co-op) I often went the day without eating. I became so desperate that despite my social fear I still tried to seek help through the free counseling offered at student wellness throughout the year. Although it was nice to speak to people about my situation, the service is not meant to be a replacement to the kind of help I would have needed at the time. These challenges also greatly exacerbated my ADHD. I was struggling to find a suitable medication at the time and was dealing with a lot of negative side effects which also impacted my mental health. I existed like this for the entire school year and my body was not able to start recovering until I left Kingston and was able to return home for the summer.
I know that it’s odd that I performed well in some classes while failing others. Because I had such a limited supply of energy, I let some classes fall completely to the wayside. I could not handle everything at once. I would often engage in destructive behaviours in an attempt to overcompensate for my inability to complete schoolwork normally (frequent all nighters, etc.). This is the only reason I was able to do well in some classes. I was unable to recognize how poorly I was doing until well past the final day to drop a class, and once it had reached that point I was terrified of the financial and academic consequences of dropping them and felt I could still pull things together. I believe that my constant state of fear and stress impacted my judgment and made it very difficult for me to see reason in this situation.
For both of the classes I failed, I tried to communicate with the professors but the fear I had around doing this resulted in my reaching out being far too late. In the case of FREN 107, part of my poor academic performance was a consequence of the class being nearly all online group work. I communicated with the professor about my difficulties surrounding this but group work is fundamental to the course and could not be worked around, especially so late in the semester.

I believe I have a fairly good handle on things so far this year and my living situation has vastly improved. I have developed strategies that have improved my mental health. This period of my life was one of the darkest, and I truly feel that it does not reflect my work ethic or who I am as a student. I hope this letter provides an appropriate explanation as to why I hope my failing grades can be dropped late.

Thank you so much for your time and consideration,

Ella Grant