Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To the Associate Dean (Studies),

I am appealing for credit standings in ECON 111 (Fall, 2015) & ECON 112 (Fall, 2015)

In December of 2015 I was clinically diagnosed with severe anxiety and depression. With this diagnosis came a prescription for a drug called Wellbutrin that was intended to give me more energy and increase my serotonin levels. During the months that followed my initial diagnosis, I experienced an increased amount of energy and my mood also changed to more positive tones. With a lot of energy under my belt I became inspired to work harder during the school year and change my minor from film to economics. The course of action that I had to take in order to fulfill the minor¿¿s requirements and ensure my expected graduation in the Winter of 2017 was extremely challenging for any student, let alone one dealing with a mental illness. As the fall semester of 2015 began I was eager towards my new classes and looking forward to applying myself. In the month of October there was a disconnect that occurred between my doctor, myself, and the pharmacy that fills my prescriptions in Kingston, which resulted in my prescription not being filled for several weeks. I began to experience side effects such as loss of appetite and energy, decreased level of mood, and I lost all interest in maintaining relationships with my friends, family and school work. This affected my academics immensely as I began to fall behind and was not able to practice the required skills needed in economics. I worked well in my economic classes during the group projects because I did not want my mental illness to affect my group mates marks. It was the individual work that I struggled with because on top of the difficulty of dealing with depression I also had extremely unfamiliar and thus, challenging material in front of me. As I saw myself falling behind, I had several meetings with a counsellor at La Salle (Whitney Babcock) in order to find support. When my prescription was refilled mid November 2015, I hired a tutor that I met with two to three times a week in hopes of getting myself out of bed and beginning to catch up/understand the course material. However, I had already fallen very much behind and at that point was just aiming to pass the course.

Once my prescription had been refilled it took about a month for me to start feeling a little bit better and the recovery has been a slow but steady process. My appeal for these courses is being submitted late because I am just now getting back to my normal self, though I still have not completely overcome my depression. I am still on my Wellbutrin medication but since being back on it in November, it has not been working as effectively and I have connected with my doctor in order to make a trial switch to another medication for the summer months. Moving forward, I have stayed in close contact with my counsellor at La Salle and have worked very closely with my Professors and TA¿¿s so that I do not fall behind like I did last semester. Additionally, I have opened up to my friends and family about my struggles this academic school year and have found that they are a great support system to rely on when I am feeling down. All of these steps have allowed me to achieve the academic successes I hoped for last semester. I am going to continue to keep up with my work and have created weekly schedules that hold me accountable for completing X amount of work each day. This has also helped me get back on track with my academics and thus far I have felt extremely rewarded.

I thank you for your consideration and hope that my extenuating circumstances do not hold me back from achieving great things in my future.

Kind Regards,

Jacquelyn Platis