Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To Whom It May Concern:

This letter of appeal is to request a change to my grade standing in several courses from the 2015-2016 academic year. I would like to appeal my marks from these courses because they were heavily affected by an illness that I am still recovering from.

My mental illness first presented itself in the spring of 2014 as an undiagnosed major depression disorder. This disease affected me in multiple aspects of my life but primarily in my school work. Depression caused me to withdraw and isolate myself from my friends and family, to lack concentration and to not be motivated to finish task and assignments. My grades started to fall and I ended the school year with a failing grade in one class. I didn't start any form of treatment until the next fall when I began speaking to a school counsellor once a week.

Although the depression has only been a recent problem, I've been suffering through the anxiety for all my life. After years of struggling I have finally been diagnosed with Generalized Anxiety Disorder and a Panic Disorder. Since being formally diagnosed the disease has grown and become more complex. I am more prone to panic attacks and experience heightened anxiety daily. This has led to avoidance, isolation, intense mood swings and harmful behaviours such as self-harm and suicidal ideation.

While the diseases ebbed, and flowed in intensity, they never went away. They came back even stronger in the spring of 2016. The feelings of hopelessness became more aggressive and caused me to engage in more unhealthy behaviours. Much of what I experienced and felt in 2014 returned and with worse consequences. I was barely able to get out of bed, much less study for my final exams. I wrote all the exams but only spent a third of the allotted time in the exam room and didn't finish any of the exams. This lead to a failing grade in Chemistry 112 and a D+ in both Math 111 and Math 120.

Recently I have been seeing a psychologist and tried different partial hospitalization programs to work through the problems these diseases have caused me. I have also started taking medication which has helped to some degree but have also caused some of their own issues. Over the past summer and into the fall I have done everything that I can to become the functioning person that I know I can be. The diseases have taken longer to deal with than I expected and as such I have set aside my academic pursuits to focus solely on therapy and recovery so that I may return to classes in the Fall of 2017.

I don't believe that these grades accurately portray the work I put into these classes before my illness made it impossible to work. By appealing my first-year marks I would be able to put my university career back on track and drop grades that were heavily affected from an affliction that was beyond my control. While these illnesses will be with me for the rest of my life I have worked vigorously to not let that fact get in the way of my career and personal aspirations.

Thank you for your consideration and time.

Sincerely,

Rachel Berry