Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To Whom It May Concern:

The purpose of this document is to ask the Academic Appeal Committee of Queen¿¿s University for their permission to drop HIST 241, GPHY 102, GPHY 228, GPHY 227, GNDS 215,GPHY 240 and GPHY 254. Over the past year, my family and I have been suffering with many encumbering issues. Mid way through my final year of high school, my father told me that he would be leaving the family and would be filing a case of divorce against my mother. From that point on, my family¿¿s stability has been constantly threatened by the malicious arguments between my parents, and the endless pressure has forced my involvement to attempt mediation between the two.

I am constantly anxious about my family and the future events that could affect them even more deeply than the obstacles we¿¿ve faced recently. Due to these extenuating circumstances, I was very mentally strained over the past year. I was not able to work to the best of my abilities because of the constant pressure that I was under from trying to keep my family from falling apart. This past summer my family situation has gotten worse as my father has gotten into a relationship with his secretary that my whole family is devastated over. Three years ago my brother finished his degree at Queen¿¿s and is working for a mining corporation in Cochrane Ontario. Throughout this year, my siblings and I have been dealing with these issues in our own ways, but my brother¿¿s stress has turned to something worse; he has turned to alcoholism as a solace for his pain. The division of my parents¿¿ properties and my brother turning to alcoholism has caused me a lot of anxiety. Knowing that he is still drinking excessively in a foreign place creates immense stress and worry for me.

After the start of the New Year I participated in the Campus Vacations Event known as Snow Jam where we travelled to Mont Tremblant for a ski weekend. During the second day, I hit a tree and was knocked out for a short period of time. When we returned to Queen¿¿s, I proceeded to visit the HCDS were I was diagnosed with a concussion and was instructed to refrain from any academics for the greater time of a month, as well as other activities that I was familiar with from the concussions I had suffered as a rugby athlete in high school. From this point on, I struggled to catch up on the assignments and readings I was obligated to complete from when I was immobilized while also working on the current materiel as my courses were continuing.

In February of 2014 I was diagnosed with ADHD and brought proper documentation forward to disability services mid March in hopes to have accommodations for my up coming final examinations. As they were not processed on time I wrote my final examinations without proper accommodations and was then later asked to come into disability services to review my accommodations after my examinations were written. Over the course of this past academic year I visited Disability Services twice to attain my academic accommodations but each time I went to see a learning strategist, I asked them if they fully read my documentation and they replied saying no. Each time I visited Disability services it was quite difficult because I felt like I was arguing to attain accommodations that I rightfully deserved and I have still not received accommodation to the fullest extent that my ADHD documentation instructs.

My past academic year at Queens University has been quite a difficult one, as I had to endure many problems in my life that I could not control. To ensure that these will not be reoccurring problems, if allowed to return, I will be booking an appointment with disability services before the fall semester begins in an attempt to attain full accommodation that my doctor¿¿s documents recommend and outline. During this summer I have been participating in 19 channel ERP¿¿s at the ADD institution of Ontario to exercise my brain and improve function to further attempt to have a healthy and productive mind coming into the next semester. Through my years at Queens University, enduring the strain of my family¿¿s pressure and stress with attention difficulties it has proved to me that the services Queen¿¿s offers in terms of psychological counselling and academic accommodations are not only worth using but essential to supporting myself through these difficult times.

Kind regards,

Kieran Paitich