Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I am appealing to drop CISC 124, CISC 203 and CISC 204 for the Fall 2016 semester retroactively. I performed poorly in these classes as a result of extenuating circumstances in my social and extracurricular life, compounded by my documented ADHD.

During the Fall semester, I was involved in a few extracurriculars, one being Queen's Students on Broadway, a theatre club. Many of my close friends were in it with me and I started experiencing a lot of interpersonal tension with them within the club. This, in addition to workload in the club and courses, resulted in the buildup of a lot of stress. I am registered with Student Accessibility Services as a student with ADHD. The effects of the stress I experienced was compounded severely by my ADHD, leaving me unable to complete basic tasks related to my courses. My performance in my courses began to deteriorate. I tried to drop these courses on the day of the add/drop deadline, but was very unsure of myself and gave up when SOLUS returned a very confusing error message. I decided to try to keep trying to balance my social, extracurricular and academic life, but all three only deteriorated further. The stress I experienced from the club became so much that I was forced to quit, but I had fallen so badly behind in all my classes that my stress did not abate very much. As a result, my stress and ADHD continued to impede my performance in all three courses. I also had a few specific anxiety attacks, brought on by all the factors mentioned above, which made me miss tests and classes, and had so much anxiety regarding emailing professors to make them up. I did manage to email my professor for CISC 204 and make up two tests, but was too anxious and stressed to follow up on his offers of further help.

I have thought of several ways to improve my academic life in the future. I decided to take a lighter course load than last semester, now 5 instead of 6, and am involved in less time-intensive and stressful extracurriculars. I am no longer working in Queen's Students on Broadway. I am currently retaking CISC 124, which is a required course for my degree plan, and am doing well in it at the moment. I also plan to schedule regular sessions with a mental health professional to help me deal with all the issues I have stated above.

I hope you will consider my appeal. I would be delighted to answer any questions you may have.