Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: December 02, 2016

Queen's University Faculty of Arts & Sciences,
Dunning Hall, 1st Floor, 94 University Ave.,
Kingston, ON K7L 3N6.

Attn: Dr. Johanne Bernard, Associate Dean (Studies).

Dear Dr. Johanne Bernard:

I am writing this letter as the second-stage of my appeal (first stage was to waive a 21-day appeal deadline, which was approved yesterday) and am hoping to extend my IN in COMM 311, COMM 324, and GRMN 419 up until Friday December 9th, Sunday December 11th, and Monday December 12th respectively. Respective Professors for these course are Prof. Cara Chesney, Prof. Wulin Suo, and Prof. David Pugh. I have discussed writing exams for all three courses in the upcoming exam season with these Professors, they are all OK with it, and I have arranged dates and times with them.

Since second year, I have struggled with severe depression and anxiety. Queen's Student Wellness Services has me on file and Tonya Bauermann is my current counsellor. My father had a heart attack in February and had to deal with complications that required me to be at Sunnybrook Hospital in Toronto to support him. My mother lives in Berlin and my brother lived in Halifax at the time, so they weren't able to be present at his side. The state of my father also launched me back into depression. After writing one exam (COMM 309), I emailed my Professors in COMM 311, COMM 324, and GRMN 419 explaining the situation and they allowed me to defer their Winter 2016 finals to the Fall 2016 semester.

I previously had to defer finals in the Fall 2015 semester and in doing so, submitted medical documentation from Tonya Bauermann at the Queen's Student Wellness Services and was then allowed to complete the finals in the Winter 2016 semester. I was not however aware of regulations from the Faculty of Arts & Sciences regarding appealing to extend an IN due to extenuating circumstances. I was also not aware that the summer term would come into play in regard to the status of IN on my transcript.
Prof. David Pugh emailed me on April 25, saying my grade was entered as IN on SOLUS. He advised me to contact him late summer to arrange the final, which he thought would have to be in the first week of September. He told me that IN grades remain on the record for a term, after which they convert automatically to F unless an appeal has been submitted for an extension. Given that the summer term did not even cross my mind, I assumed my IN would not convert to an F. I also knew that I would not be able to be back on campus until the second week of September due to a summer job I had secured. Prof. Pugh also asked me to provide documentation. I had met with Tonya Bauermann in April regarding my father's situation and so I sent her a request regarding documentation, but she responded saying that she would not be able to provide documentation regarding my father's condition as an extenuating circumstance. I somewhat understood, despite the clear link between his condition and my dive back into depression. I sent her back an email asking if a note from my father's heart surgeon (Dr. Mousa) would suffice and she said it likely would. Thusly, I asked Dr. Mousa if he could draft me three identical letters for my Professors before my father got discharged mid-May. He told me he was quite busy but would get around to it. I finally received the letters in the mail on June 9 from Dr. Mousa's office, one of which I attached (the other two I recycled after having thought I didn't need them anymore). Please also note that I have attached screenshots of the emails with Tonya Bauermann.
The summer passed by and I thought I would be fine to write the exams and would contact my Professors and provide them with Dr. Mousa's letter. Prof. Pugh's email from April did not come to mind. Then, on September 16, I was back on campus and received another email from Prof. Pugh about the IN being converted to an F and the need to appeal. This very much confused me. I sent Prof. Chesney and Prof. Suo an email about whether I would need to appeal their courses and Prof. Chesney asked Julie Carty in the Commerce office about that. I was informed that I did not need to appeal her course. Thus, I scheduled to write my COMM 311 and COMM 324 exam this upcoming exam season. I was still confused about the GRMN 419 course and thought that if I have an F already, I can then talk to Prof. Pugh later on and hopefully get something done about it. Obviously, my thought process somewhat failed me.
I chatted again with Prof. Pugh last week and outlined that I was writing the COMM 311 and 324 exams in the upcoming exam season. He asked me if I would be able to write my exam this upcoming exam season as well. I said yes. However, he said he'd need to confirm appeal regulations with the Faculty of Arts & Sciences and then forwarded me a correspondence with Katie Phillips in the Student Services Office, informing me that I would need to appeal all three courses. So on Monday, I set up an appointment with academic counsellor Spring Forsberg-Lewis and she explained to me the appeal process in detail. This brought back a wave of anxiety because I was worried that the appeal wouldn't get reviewed in time and that I wouldn't be able to graduate.

As I wrote in my previous letter, I intend to keep a much closer eye on Faculty of Arts & Sciences regulations to ensure that I am within guidelines. This is especially important for me, given my history of depression and anxiety.

Apologies about the long letter. Thank you very much for being so quick with reviewing my first stage appeal - this really helped me calm down.

Kind regards,

Philip Smith