Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To whom it may concern,

I am requesting to have the grade for my Art History 120 summer course revoked from my GPA. I am currently enrolled in the Psychology program at Queen's and decided to take Art History over the summer in order to learn something outside of the breadth of my knowledge however extenuating circumstances occurred that prevented me from achieving a passing grade. This class has no standing for my program or my degree of study. I have exceeded and achieved the number of credits I need to pass my first year.

I began to take Art History and enjoyed the work and the material discussed however, I spent my time in Cape Town, South Africa. This summer circumstances in regards to my mental health worsened. In the academic year I began medication in late February and began to see a psychiatrist at Student Wellness Services (formerly Health Counselling and Disability). My mental health improved somewhat over the course of the rest of the school year, however, when going to South Africa the change did not fare well with my ability to function. My depression worsened however, I tried to keep up with the course for a sense of achievement. I knew that my ability to perform well was wavering but I was worried to drop it as I thought I might get better. The stress of my job as well as family disputes became overwhelming that I neglected my work, and more importantly my health. I began to skip medication, lose a lot of weight due to sleeping and lack of functioning. When my parents arrived in late July, the stress of their spouse tension weighed as well as the separation anxiety from having to leave my family and friends again in August for over a year. I could no longer maintain the readings or the course work that was outside of larger projects. I missed the deadline for the Term Essay, worth 20, as I had experienced a lot of depressive and suicidal thoughts during that time in the beginning of July. While I was somewhat used to the anxiety, having such intense depression was relatively new, and after putting it off for so long the time to complete it, even for late marks, had lapsed. I did try to complete the major projects such as the Virtual Exhibition project as well as the Midterm and Final but failed to keep up with the discussion forums and quizzes.

I was projected to take another summer course in July/August but dropped it as I recognized that I could not handle it. This was surprising and disappointing as I was able to take 6 courses second semester but failed to even handle one course over the summer. The time to drop this course had lapsed.

I will provide documentation as soon as I receive some from my psychiatrist as Dr. Campbell who works at Student Wellness Services works only one day and it has been hard to schedule an appointment with her.

I would like to apologize for my lack of ability to complete the class to the best of ability. I do request that it would be taken off my GPA as it is not a reflection of my capabilities and I am continuing to work at maintaining my mental health now that I am back in Kingston. I will also be filing to accessibility accommodations for the upcoming school year.

Best Regards,

Dahlia Docrat
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