Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Hello,

I am writing this letter to appeal the dropping of a course past the deadline period of November 7th. The course in question is Environmental Economics, ENSC 290.

At the end of my second year I was identified with a psychiatric disability that hinders with my performance of major aspects of everyday life. Due to being diagnosed with depression anxiety, everyday is a battle; from experiencing the inability to sleep, concentrate, and focus to having severe mental attacks when under high levels of stress. I have been dealing with the ways in which both the symptoms and triggers are frequently changing from day to day.

Over the past semester I have been battling with the triggers of my depression and anxiety. This past semester has been terribly difficult has I was experiencing a ¿¿low point¿ with both my anxiety and depression, as the medication I was currently on no longer took its effect. I slowly began to realize that I was undergoing a change into past behaviors and began to seek out counseling and further doctor assistance.

When selecting my courses for the coming year, I only picked four, to allow myself the extra time that I need to focus on my studies. However, with decreased energy and withdrawal, this began to lower my ability to function as I normally would, seriously impacting my grades.

While in ENSC 290, I worked as hard as I could, doing the weekly reading and attending the weekly three-hour class, however, nothing seemed to help. I found the content very difficult to comprehend and I could not truly perform as I could have. Due to the structure of the course, I received one piece of feedback for a short written response, and I did not receive a passing grade, regardless of the work I put forward. Leaving me feeling very depressed, dropping the confidence and energy I had for my other courses. The overall experience left me in a rather poor state mentally and physically.

Along with the assistance with my counselor, I came to the decision to completely withdraw myself from the course material of ENSC 290 to focus on the other courses I am taking in order to thrive in those.

Thank-you for reviewing the documentation provided, I will be happy to provide further documentation if required.


Sincerely,
Joseph Spagnuolo