Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To whom it may concern,

I am making a formal request to keep the following email confidential (with the exception of those that are need-to-know). I also apologize if this is longer than the recommended 800 words; however, I am writing about two different situations for two different courses/examinations.

My name is Justin Bush. I am a student under the Computing faculty. Due to my mental / physical conditions of Bipolar Disorder, Mania, ADHD, Depression, Severe S.A. (Social Anxiety), as well as a history of Manic attacks due to overwhelming stress ¿¿ we (parents, academic advisors, as well as the QSAS advisors) have decided that it would be wise to drop the two courses from the Fall 2016 semester to reduce the stress of the other imposing examinations (at the time).

The first course I am appealing to drop is ASTR 101. I was told to focus on my current exams, and then figure out a solution for dropping the Astronomy course after the stress load had decreased ¿¿ which it had, significantly. This was only brought on by the stress of the second event written below, that will explain why tensions were so high at this point in the year.

Secondly, I would also like to appeal to drop the STAT 263 course. Statistics was a course I was fond of and good at; however, due to the unfortunate grading distribution that consisted of a 30 midterm, a 60 final exam, as well as the weekly quizzes that summed up to be 10 of the final mark ¿¿¿my circumstance seemed to have put me in the worst possible position to finish the course. During the week of the midterm (as well as the week following the midterm, where I could have potentially made up the missed mark), I was hospitalized with severe, comorbid Streptococcal pharyngitis and Influenza. On 2 different occasions during that week, when I attempted to go to classes, I was brought to the hospital via ambulance, twice: one situation where I had blacked out in the middle of a park on the way to campus and woke up in the hospital an hour or so later; another where I had uncontrollable puking with mixed blood at 3AM in the morning. Along with this, I was hospitalized for 4 days during these horrific two weeks.

Furthermore, to make the situation even worse, I had to miss the 30 midterm and was faced with a single option. This option required that I take the final exam with a grade weight of 90. More or less, I most likely would have passed the course ¿¿ but was simply not keen on the idea that the entire semester, as well as my knowledge of the course, be represented by a single (not to mention, challenging) examination. I believe that the mixture between the 30 midterm and the 60 exam would be much more fair in terms of a final mark that would represent my true knowledge of the course.

The professor of the course offered me to take the exam at a later date, either January or April; however, the fact still remains that my final mark would be based off of a single test. We discussed it a bit more and we eventually came to the verdict that retaking the course would be the most-wise decision in this trickiest of situations. This way, I would have a fair chance at the 30 midterm, as well as the 60 final ¿¿ all while retaining my knowledge of the course that I had worked so hard towards in first semester.

In conclusion, this, along with my other examinations, as well as the contemplation of dropping ASTR 101 ¿¿¿not to mention the mental illness that puts me over the top when reaching certain levels of stress, and furthermore, can put me out for an entire day, all depending on what my brain decides to feel in that moment ¿¿¿I was faced with a very difficult decision, but one that I believe to be the correct one.

Thank you for your time,
Justin Bush
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People that I was in contact with during these two different (yet, related) scenarios:
Irene LaFleche (Academic Advisor): irene@cs.queensu.ca
Charles Molson (Professor of STAT 263): cmolson@mast.queensu.ca
Tess Grant (QSAS Representative): tess.grant@queensu.ca