Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

New Information: Letter to drop courses
October 31 2016

To the Associate Dean (Studies),

My name is Kimberly Davies (student number 100 80 234) and I am a student of the Politics Sociology medial program. I am writing this letter to request an academic drop and removal of courses from my transcript for courses I have taken in the semester of fall 2014 and winter 2015. Additionally I would like to request the academic drop for part A of a POLS 250 course from fall 2013.

The courses associated with this appeal are therefore:
SOCY 211, Introduction to Statistics, 2015 winter;
SOCY 226, Sociological Theory, 2014 fall;
SOCY 227, Theorizing Contemporary Society, 2015 winter;
SOCY 273, Social Psychology, extended from 2014 winter to 2015 fall;
HIST 209, Intro to Themes Canadian History II, 2015 winter;
POLS 250A/B, Political Theory, full year course from 2014 fall to 2015 winter
POLS 250A, Political Theory, full year course 2013 fall term

In the winter of 2014 an appeal was submitted and approved for 3 credits due to a concussion sustained halfway through February. These credits were:
POLS 280, Intro to Women Gender and Politics, 2014 winter
SOCY 211, Introduction to Statistics, 2014 winter
POLS 250, Political Theory,
(While I requested that the whole POLS 250 course be dropped, only the B section was wiped from my transcript. This would have been logical if I could have signed up only to take the B section in the future, which ¿¿ after discussions with some of the teachers I was told would not be possible. Thus I would like to request that the POLS 250A of 2013 fall also be wiped from my record so that I can receive a refund that would help me better afford other courses in the future.)

It was my belief that after multiple months of recovery that I would be able to return to my academic career. What I did not know at the time was that not only would I have to attempt to deal with the symptoms of the concussion but also the exacerbation of these symptoms form a much ignored car accident that occurred in August 2014. Thus, my return to class in September was marked by symptoms such as constant fatigue, an inability to complete tasks of daily living and depression which resulted in an inability to complete course material. A lack of guidance regarding these symptoms and the Post Concussive Syndrome diagnosis they stemmed from, resulted in my poor academic performance from the time of February 2014. Everything from my inability to do my readings to my inability to independently manage my already reduced course load, are well known symptoms of my case.

Since I left Queen¿¿s for Toronto in January of 2015 I have fought to receive the necessary care to allow me to return to normal life. Only recently, and after much improvement, has a return to studies with help from my healthcare and rehabilitation team, been considered.
Such a return however, would be much slower than was originally assumed by the physiotherapy, and Sports injury doctor O¿¿Connor at Queen's University. This would need to be carefully watched and managed by additional resources that were not involved in my disability accommodations for the 2014-15 school year, such as my Occupational Therapist and Speech and language Pathologist, in order to ensure that the current trajectory of my recovery remain not only positive but, hopefully, permanent.

I thank you for considering the drop of the aforementioned credits despite it being past the initial 21 day drop deadline.

Sincerely,
Kimberly Davies