Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To the Associate Dean (Academic),

I am writing to formally petition to drop MATH 110 (Linear Algebra), a full-year 6.0-unit course taken during the 2024-2025 Fall/Winter term, due to extenuating circumstances that significantly affected my academic performance throughout the year.

During this period, I was struggling with untreated and undiagnosed mental health conditions, including anxiety, depression, ADHD, and a learning disorder that was only recently identified. At the time, I was not yet aware of these diagnoses and had no professional support or accommodations in place. Without support, I had difficulty concentrating, managing time, organizing tasks, and processing complex information. These challenges worsened as the term progressed and made it difficult to keep up with coursework.

All of my courses were impacted to some extent by these circumstances; however, MATH 110 was affected the most. The course was taught in a way that was very different from what I was used to and required abstract, conceptual thinking I had never encountered before. Compared to my other first-year courses, which were more structured and similar to high school material, MATH 110 demanded a level of mathematical reasoning and independent learning that I was not prepared for, especially given my untreated conditions. Once I began to fall behind, it was extremely difficult to catch up, and my performance quickly declined despite genuine effort.

I did not drop the course before the deadline because, at the time, I did not fully recognize how significantly my mental health and learning challenges were impacting my academics. My symptoms made it difficult to accurately assess my situation, and I believed I could manage on my own and underestimated the long-term effects of my situation. It was only during the summer following the course that I sought professional help, received formal diagnoses, and began treatment. Looking back, it is clear that these untreated and unrecognized conditions had a significant impact on my ability to succeed in MATH 110.

Even after beginning to seek help and trying to catch up in the second semester, I faced further barriers due to the Queen’s University TA strike. With no access to TA-led tutorials or office hours, I lost the academic support I could have relied on to recover in the course. This made it even more difficult to prepare for assignments and the final exam, despite my efforts to re-engage.

Since the end of the academic year, I have taken major steps to address these challenges and ensure they will not affect my future performance. I am now receiving ongoing professional support through therapy, medication, and occupational therapy at the Queen’s Wellness Centre, and I am in the process of registering with Queen’s Accessibility Services to receive formal accommodations. I have also met with an academic advisor to discuss my degree progression. Although I needed a Linear Algebra course to meet my program requirement, I plan to take MATH 112, a 3.0-unit introductory Linear Algebra course, which will still fulfill that requirement in place of MATH 110. Moving forward, I will also be taking a lighter course load of four courses per semester to better manage my workload and maintain balance.

I am now in a much stronger position to succeed academically. I have learned effective time management and study strategies, I am using the resources available through Queen’s, and I am actively working to maintain my mental and physical well-being. The grade I received in MATH 110 does not reflect my true academic ability, but rather a period of significant and unmanaged challenges that were beyond my control.

Thank you for taking the time to consider my petition. I hope that my academic record can accurately reflect both my circumstances at the time and the substantial progress I have made since.

Sincerely,
Amelie Goulet