Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean,

I am a second year Concurrent Education student and I am appealing to defer my studies for one year and to drop the courses that I failed last semester (ENGL 237 and CLST 205) so that they do not affect my GPA when I return to studies. I would also like a credit standing.

Due to mental health issues that started around October of last year (2016) I am looking to take time off of my studies until I am in a position to successfully complete them. Symptoms arose in November and began to affect my ability to attend classes, keep up with course loads, complete assignments, and study for examinations and tests.

These extenuating circumstances have affected my ability to be a successful student as Queens University in a number of ways. My attendance began to decrease in October and then I stopped attending classes altogether by November. I was eventually unable to leave my house altogether due to my depression and anxiety, further affecting my academic performance because I was unable to attend lectures and tutorials where most of the course material is explained. My completion of readings and participation in online discussions was also affected. Due to my extenuating circumstances I felt hopeless and anxious and could not force myself to open my computer, let alone participate in online discussions on topics which I knew nothing about due to my lack of attendance to lectures and tutorials. I stopped completing all of my assignments and the quality of the assignments that I managed to complete dropped drastically. I was unaware of the assignments that were assigned to my classes because of my absence from classes and online material. I could not force myself to open the assignments and complete them. The assignments that I did complete, mostly from October, were very poorly done because I could barely push myself to sit down and complete them, and I would only do so at the last minute out of fear of failing. In November I stopped studying for online and in-class tests and by December I was virtually unable to study for exams and one of them I did not attend. I was barely able to bring myself to open any books or read any online material because of my circumstances and when I did I had a very hard time absorbing any of the material. This affected my grades immensely. For these reasons I had to drop CLST 205, ENGL 237, and HIST 124 in the first semester of this academic year.