Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: March 29th 2016

To Whom It May Concern:

I am appealing many of the grades on my transcript that do not reflect my academic capabilities due to a head injury I sustained in October 2014. In September 2014 I transferred from the University of New Brunswick after having spent the first two years of my undergraduate degree there. I decided to come to Queen¿¿s because of its outstanding reputation and student satisfaction. After about a month at Queen¿¿s I suffered a concussion playing hockey. I was treated at KGH and instructed to take some time off of school, as I felt necessary. I took some time off school and not knowing that the Disability Services Office existed (no one told me this as a transfer student) I tried to battle the post concussion symptoms all on my own with no special accommodation. Each day I would attempt to go to class or study at the library and I physically could not do it, because of this concussion and the previous ones. Finally, in November of 2015 the Post-Concussion symptoms started to subside enough that I could attend class and study to some degree, it was still too late though to save the Fall semester.

In January I met with Dr. Kawaja (Dean of Life Sciences) because I knew what I had just gone through was having a negative impact on my academics. He was extremely helpful and made the suggestion that I seek out help through the Disability Services Office. Until this point of meeting with him I had no idea that they existed and that they could help me with accommodations to ensure I could successfully perform academically. In addition to this Dr. Kawaja told me how he did not believe that the grades on my transcript was indicative of my capabilities. With this he enlightened me on the appeal process and told me I could potentially get my transcript fixed.

After meeting with Dr. Kawaja I meet with Associate Dean Blake and she explained how the appeal processed work and what grades could be removed. Until meeting with these two I had no idea any of this could be fixed. This is why only now I am asking that my request be taken into consideration. Dr. Blake said any grade with a C, D, or F could be fixed. I am requesting for all grades of C, D, and F on my transcript to be fixed because this is not accurately reflecting the student I was before the concussion I suffered. If you look at my grades before I got here and then after I suffered the concussion you can clearly see the correlation to my performance. I have medical documentation regarding my most recent two head injuries. In addition to this, Dr. O¿¿Connor, the concussion specialist will also be providing a letter explaining how these symptoms caused me to not be able to perform to the best of my ability. I please hope that you will consider this request because I believe as a Queen¿¿s student I deserve this academic support and not be hurt academically by something that has already hurt me physically. I¿¿ve come along way to get through this concussion and stick it out at Queen¿¿s now I am just looking for some help because my transcript is not a reflection of my capabilities.

Sincerely,

Matthew Demmings
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