Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: June 11th, 2016
Associate Dean (Studies)

I am writing this letter to appeal the requirement to withdraw for one year from Queen's University.
There are several circumstances that I believe greatly altered my academic success throughout the year, these include attending university for the first time and receiving no feedback prior to the drop deadline, as well as being isolated and living off campus. As a first year student experiencing university for the first time, I did not receive any verbal or written feedback concerning my performance prior to drop deadline. This made it very difficult to know how I was doing in my selected courses, along with what I needed to do in order to improve my grades. I was not prepared and became very overwhelmed during the first semester, this caused be to miss deadlines and lose valuable marks. Another circumstance that I believe greatly affected my academic success throughout the school year was living off campus. Throughout the school year, I decided to live off campus at home. I was hoping to save money, but it became apparent that this decision would negatively impact my success at Queen's. It was very difficult to make friends and I was not involved with the school community. This meant that I did not have help or support from peers and I was very isolated, which in turn, affected my motivation. I was also unaware that I would be asked to withdraw if I was below a certain grade point average; instead, I thought I would be put on probation the following year and be able to start over. Even though these circumstances affected my academic success at Queen's, I am also accountable for my own actions and decisions that led me to this point. Therefore I am paying for the cost of each course that I failed.
If I am able to continue studying at Queen's University in the fall of 2016, I will be registering in general arts and science courses because I have not yet taken enough courses to choose a degree plan. However, in order to improve my grade point average, I would enroll in each class I did poorly in during the past year. I would continue as a full time student while taking only 3 courses per semester, in order to avoid becoming overwhelmed and have lots of time to review notes and study. If I am able to successfully improve my grade point average, I hope to apply to the Fine Arts program the following year and continue my studies there. In the past, I have found it difficult to make time to review notes from each lecture as well as allowing time to study for tests. I believe that the key to my success is reviewing notes from lectures daily. Not only will this allow me to retain the information better, it will also make studying for tests easier. I also plan to become more involved with the school community by joining clubs and spending more time on campus. This will hopefully allow me to make more friends and become more motivated to do well in my studies.
I sincerely hope you will consider waiving the requirement to withdraw from my studies for one full year. I look forward to hearing from you on this matter