Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Dr. Johanne Bénard,

Thank you for approving my request to waive the 21 day appeal deadline. As I mentioned in my previous letter, my name is Emma Clark and I am a third year Life Sciences student here at Queen¿¿s. I am writing to request to drop CHEM 282 after the course drop deadline, as well as have PHGY 214 marked as a credit on my transcript instead of the final grade I have currently been given.

In January of 2016, I was diagnosed with Major Depressive Disorder by a physician at LaSalle, as well as a psychiatrist at CDK. I had begun struggling with symptoms of MDD halfway through my first semester of second year and was referred to the physician at LaSalle by Freeman Woolnough, a residence counsellor. The Loran Scholars program that I am a part of required me to live in residence for my first and second year, so I was working as a House President in Smith House at this time. The MDD, combined with the isolation of living in an upper year residence with no option to leave, created a very negative environment for me, and I struggled a lot with my academics. I found myself unable to focus and I became very distressed when in a quiet place trying to read over and memorize information. Once I was diagnosed, I was put on medication that had numerous negative side effects. One of the major effects that I experienced during this period was anxiety, which caused me to have panic attacks while in my chemistry labs and in Douglas Library. At this point in time, I contacted the Loran Scholars Foundation to ask them to allow me to drop a course as usually I am required to take a full course load. I ended up dropping MICR 221 on the course drop deadline as I thought it would help me put more time into my other courses. I was able to do quite well is both GNDS 215 and PSYC 100 as GNDS required less focus since it was a course with minimal memorization. PSYC was a combination of application and memorization; however, I was learning a lot of the material through my own experiences of dealing with my mental health and was able to apply this knowledge in the final exam. Unfortunately, I needed to be in a quiet place in order to memorize material for courses like CHEM 282 and PHGY 214. I was not in a position where this was possible since time alone also lead me to pretty serious self-harming behaviours as well as suicidal ideation. The worst of the major depressive episode lasted from December 2015 until April 2016 and left a significant and lasting impact on my winter semester marks.

During the semester, I sought help from some of the counsellors at LaSalle as well as from Freeman, the residence life counsellor. I also continued to take the medication prescribed to me by Dr. Banic at CDK. Since April I have slowly been able to get my life back on track and am taking many steps to ensure that it stays this way. I have moved into a house with two good friends, continue to see Dr. Banic, as well as keeping myself active and engaged in the Queen¿¿s community. I am also trying to change into a Health major so that I can take less courses that are memorization based and allow myself to succeed even with my current circumstances. I have also demonstrated that I am capable of excelling in an academic environment since I have achieved 4 A¿¿s, an A-, as well as a B- in my courses since the end of the MDD episode.

I would really appreciate you allowing me to drop CHEM 282 after the course drop deadline, as well as having PHGY 214 show as a credit course only on my transcript since I believe that these circumstances were outside of my control and led me to a place where I could not be successful with my academics. Please let me know if you need any more information from me.

Regards,

Emma Clark