Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To whom it may concern,

Please accept my petition to late drop the courses I took during the Fall 2024 term of my first year: CHEM112, BCHM102, PHYS115, BIOL102, and MATH130.

Starting from the first month of September I experienced extreme mental health decline that began to heavily impact my ability to perform at the academic level I am accustomed too. I began to have panic attacks regularly along with uncontrollable anxiety that I hadn’t experienced anytime before. When it got to the point where my mental wellbeing was heavily impacting both my daily and academic life, I sought help immediately in the form of counseling at the beginning of November from the residence counselor in hopes to rectify my mental state to return to my former level of academic performance. While working with the counselor aided in elevating my symptoms to a minor extent, my mental and physical health continued to decline. In early December I was unable to focus or do any work, getting out of bed became next to impossible and my anxiety grew as I mentally punished myself for not doing my work when I was physically unable to think and remember anything. This struggle led me to seek help from the same day counselor at student wellness services in early december who advised me to defer my exams until after the break in hopes it would give me the time to recover.

After returning to school in January I pressed on attempting to recuperate but continued to struggle as my mental health began worsening my physical symptoms. At this time my symptoms included excessive vomiting but was not nauseous, continuous waves of panic and anxiety attacks, my memory recall was not present, and my ability to focus and concentrate was not present. In early February I reached out to the residence counselor for an emergency session and made the very difficult decision to take medical leave from my classes and prioritize my health over my education.

By allowing me to drop these courses I will be able to return to queens with a renewed vigor and return to the level of academic performance I used to achieve. I love queens and the community I was introduced too, I believe that I have much to contribute to the Queens and would greatly appreciate the opportunity to return at my best. I am and will continue to seek help while home so that in the fall I will come back excited to bring my passion for biology to the Queens community.

Included in this email is a letter of support from the residence mental health therapist I have been seeing since november who has helped me tremendously during this time,

I truly appreciate your consideration for allowing the drop of my fall courses, if you have any further questions or concerns please feel free to reach out,



Jack Dubé