Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Jarred Potts
(289) 795-5132

14th July 2016
Dr. Johanne Bénard, Associate Dean (Studies)

Dear Dr. Bénard,

I am appealing to drop both courses ENGL 100 and FILM 110 (Fall/Summer 2015) as well as FILM 260 (Summer 2016). Throughout the course of this last school year and some of the following summer-term I have been dealing with some rather debilitative personal, psychological, and mental problems. This lapse in my mental-health had prevented me from being able to leave my dorm-room, interact with other students, communicate in any way with my professors and teaching assistants, as well as leaving me unable to appropriately handle or manage any of my coursework. Attached is a note that I had requested that my councillor fill out. The note mentions both my anxiety and depression, two conditions of which I had been dealing with since the beginning of this most-recent school year but became more severe in nature during the month of February. My depression made it difficult for me to take my schoolwork seriously as well as periodically putting me into states of emotionless apathy. These spurts of apathy seriously impacted my schoolwork and time-management putting me in positions where I was way behind schedule when compared to the rest of my class. My falling-behind in class stressed my anxiety which kept me from handling my coursework and requesting help from my professors and teaching assistants, which eventually lead back to worsening my depression which eventually became a self-continuing cycle. To combat this I booked and attended multiple counselling appointments with Queen's mental-health services which all seemed to do little to help me with my difficulties. In addition I also found myself a private councillor off-campus who over time was able to assist me with my depression and anxiety greatly helping to alleviate the symptoms, however by the point where my mental-health was finally beginning to recover it was already the month of April and my chance to undo the damage I had done to my schoolings had long since gone. Following the month of April I continued with periodic sessions with my off-campus councillor and attempted two online courses, one of which I had to drop and the other I was unable to drop in time. I had over-estimated myself and again fell victim to anxiety and depression. However, since then I have gone to great strides to ensure that I not make a repeat of this last year's mistakes. I have consulted with a doctor, continued repeated sessions with my councillor, have begun taking prescribed medication and have majorly recovered from this whole affair. When returning to Queen's I plan to continue taking my medication, keeping in contact with a councillor on campus as well as my councillor off-campus, finding myself a local physician, and to reach out to my professors at the first sign of trouble.

Sincerely,

Jarred Potts