Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: January 12, 2016

Dear Associate Dean (Studies)

I am appealing to drop the following courses from my academic record:

CISC 220
CISC 204
ECON 111

I am appealing to have the following course listed as a Credit Standing:

CISC 203


My name is Luke Paddock and I am a second year student in the Computer Science program. I am writing this letter to appeal to the committee for permission to retroactively drop the courses in which I was enrolled during this fall term (2015). In addition, I would like to request a leave of absence for the winter 2016 term, to return full-time in September 2016.

On October 6 my uncle passed away suddenly, at the age of 48 (of a heart attack). He was my father¿¿s brother, and someone with whom I was very close. His death sent our entire family reeling and we have spent a lot of time together since then. I missed two weeks of classes and upon my return, was not able to commit the attention required to focus on my work at school. I kept thinking that as time went on I would be able to return to my work with the energy it requires. However, the opposite seemed to be happening. Things were getting worse as time passed instead of better. I have since learned that this is not unusual as someone moves through various stages of grieving.

In retrospect, I should have gone to student services immediately, but assumed that I could successfully manage my way through these challenges. I also should have spoken to my parents about it earlier, but did not want to burden them at that time. My uncle was part of our family business and my father and my other uncle have been under a lot of stress.

I was on probation from my first year performance because I received a failing grade for one of my courses and did not perform as well as I should have in my other courses.

I was looking forward to proving that I am a capable student and deserve to be in the program this year. I realize that Queen¿¿s has a reputation to uphold and I am proud to be student at Queen¿¿s.

It is my responsibility to manage my performance successfully moving forward and I believe that I can do that because:
¿¿ I will be taking time off from my studies for the Winter Term to work and be with my family;
¿¿ I have received grief counseling and feel that in September I will be emotionally prepared to get back to work;
¿¿ I will work with student counseling for ongoing guidance on meeting all requirements;
¿¿ I invite any other measures of accountability that are imposed, and will commit to meeting all expectations.

I realize that I am asking you to demonstrate faith in my ability when I have not historically delivered very good results. I had every intention of changing that this year, and my efforts were substantially derailed four weeks into the term.

I respectfully request that the Committee give consideration to my request. I very much want to graduate from Queen¿¿s and understand what that requires. I am spending the winter term working and living with my family and would like to come back to school in September 2016.

With this letter I attach:
1) The certificate of death
2) A letter from Dr. Christopher Ambis


I appreciate your consideration of my request.

Yours truly,

Luke Paddock