Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean of Studies,

¿¿I am appealing to drop GNDS 212 and FILM 240 (Fall 2015) due to extenuating circumstances which were beyond my control.

¿¿Since completing my first semester of first year at Queen's less successful than I finished high school, feelings of fear of failure began to set in. Outside of academic life, I was also experiencing feelings of fear and depression following the death of my grand-father. After completing first year and going into second year, these feelings worsened and coupled with the lack of support systems available to me at Queen's though friends and family , I began to sink into a depression. Which, ultimately led to me failing many of my courses as I found it difficult to focus, participate and attend classes. After receiving academic probation over the summer before third year, I hoped to start this school year off at Queen's well and begin to fix my previous mistakes. However, I found this task extremely overwhelming to complete myself. This lead me to be even more fearful to start completing tasks and assignments and I sunk into a deeper depression, in which I found it very difficult to get out of bed each day and be active. It got to a certain point last semester, where I could not take feeling the way I was feeling any longer and I contacted Queen's counselling services. After meeting with a counsellor, she was able to give me some much needed perspective and to show me that there was a path to succeed and heal.

¿¿Should my appeal be granted, I hope to set into motion the following plan; which I have devised with both an academic advisor and student wellness counsellor. My counsellor has helped to introduce me to a local psychotherapist who I have begun meeting with on a weekly basis in order to better cope with my feelings of fear and depression. I have also booked an appointment with an academic success advisor to both; introduce myself to the program and its services, as well as gain some learning strategies to better my academic abilities. Which, I will further develop by attending workshops and booking more appointments. After meeting with an academic advisor, to confirm my counsellors suggestion to drop a fifth course, her suggestion was reinforced and I have since dropped to a lighter course load to give myself a better opportunity to succeed. After, going over my marks and possibilities with an academic advisor; I also plan to submit a secondary appeal to appeal courses from second year as I was unaware this was an option until my meeting. I have also looked into two summer courses for the upcoming semester, which I hope to take in order to help my improve my GPA going into my fourth year and make up for courses that will hopefully be dropped. Lastly, I plan to make more frequent appointments with an academic advisor in order to better understand my academic position and make check-ups on my progress. I believe this plan will help support my academic goals, as I have set in place systems of support for both my academic success and in particular, my mental health.
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Thank you for your time and consideration.

Best, Ruth Young