Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Monday, January 16th, 2017
Dear Associate Dean (Studies),

I am appealing for credit standing in PSYC 235 (Fall2015/Winter 2016) in addition to the request to drop PSYC 205 (Fall, 2015), GPHY 101 (Winter, 2016), and SOCY 122 (Fall 2015/Winter 2016).

I am a Sociology Major in my third year of study. I am also the sole-support parent of two little girls, age 15 months and 3 years. On September 9th 2015, my daughter Amelia was born over five weeks early at Kingston General Hospital. When she was born, she had to be resuscitated and she spent the next ten days in the NICU recovering. Once home, Amelia was very fragile and needed a lot of extra care. For the first several weeks, was extremely irritable and was breastfed constantly through the night. I did not receive any OSAP until the second week in October 2015. This prevented me from being able to purchase my books and materials for my classes. Childcare for my oldest daughter was also limited to three days a week, excluding two days that I had classes. Shortly before Christmas 2015, my youngest was struggling to feed and was showing signs of failure to thrive. At this time, Amelia's diet and feedings were extremely important and became very time consuming. In January 2016, Amelia contracted RSV and bronchiolitis. She was hospitalized at KGH again, for a period of five days. She received supportive care, deep suctioning and nasal tube feedings. I was obligated to stay with her for the duration of her visit. Once discharged, she took several weeks to recover, and I was prevented from attending classes on campus due to Amelia's susceptibility to illness. On February 9th, my Grandmother passed away after a long battle with heart failure. This was a very difficult time for me and the rest of my family.

I struggled financially over the summer, making it a priority to catch-up with bills and necessities for both myself and my children once I received OSAP. Without proper daycare for my youngest daughter, as well as financial stress during the past semester and some confusion in trying to submit work from previous courses had prevented me from requesting an Appeal before now.

This year, I have been accepted into the Sociology Department as a general Sociology Major. I think I have done considerably better in this past semester than previous semesters. I was able to achieve a 1.83 GPA by the end of the 2016 Fall Term.
As of January 9th 2017, I have finally obtained subsidized daycare for both of my children. My family is committed to helping me throughout the duration of the academic year. As well, I have been working with a family support worker to help access resources in the community that will help to support my family during my time at University. I have been working with both my family doctor and psychiatrist Dr. Prost, with assistance from my family support worker, to discuss a new medication for my anxiety and depression. Moving forward, I hope to receive better grades as a result of being able to attend classes and be on campus during the school week.

I am unable to attach them to this document, but I will submit my daughter Amelia's Hospital Discharge Summaries, as well as my Grandmother's obituary, as was recently advised to me by Kathryn Morrissey in Arts and Science Student Services. If you would confirm and email to use to do so that would be greatly appreciated. If you require any more information or have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me.

Thank you for your time and consideration,

Sarah Hanna
9slah@queensu.ca
613-929-1656