Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: March 9, 2017
Dear Associate Deans of Studies:
I am appealing to waive the 21 day/one term appeal deadline due to extenuating family circumstances. I registered in courses during the Winter 2012/Summer 2012 term which I did not attend. Should I be successful with the waiving of the appeal deadline, I will appeal to have late drops for 5 courses be late dropped. I understand it has been 5 years and the big question is why am I appealing now

My extenuating family circumstances include having an alcoholic abusive father who was sent to jail, my mother getting sick, job loss, and the corresponding financial constraints are the rationale for leaving school.

Here is a timeline of my educational events:
Winter 2012: I registered in BIOL 315, CHEM222, GPHY102, PHGY 210, FREN100A but I did not attend any classes.
Summer 2012: I registered in COGS100, GNDS125 and World Religion. I attempted only one course and passed, World Religion.
Fall 2012: I was offered admission to Teacher¿¿s College (teaching intermediate: biology, chemistry) at Queen¿¿s and I dropped it.

Looking at this timeline and transcript, Winter/Summer 2012 is not representative of my academic ability. The only course I actually attempted and passed during that time was World Religion. I had a lot of questions and confusion about life and the religion course was my attempt to see if it can answer anything. I desperately registered into classes in 2012 so that I can graduate and find a job immediately but emotionally and physically, it was too much. In terms of academics, I couldn¿¿t focus, I couldn¿¿t sleep, I couldn¿¿t talk to anyone about it and in our culture there is no such thing as depression. Depression is known as ¿failure¿¿ to my family and I was ashamed of myself. I understood my mom was also in depression and I had to do something now so I quit everything and moved with her to Mississauga.

2013-2014 Financially, we were both dependent on Ontario works (OW). I took care of her health, and I started job hunting. I didn¿¿t look back into my studies. My focus was to get off of OW and support my family. I attended workshops and sharpened my technical skills.

Feb 2014-present, I landed a casual job in one of the top Clinic in Toronto and worked very hard. With additional paid training from the company, not only was I promoted but also offered a full time position (Jan 2016). Financially, I am doing well and have taken care of my family. I also attended a Cognitive Mind Training weekly session to meditate and find inner peace. My manager sees great potential in me and has been pushing me to do further certification and training for the past 1 year. So I finally decided to open my Solus and see where I left off at Queen¿¿s. I had no idea about the 2012 courses, over-due fees, and failures on my GPA. I was shocked at my history and quite disappointed. I understand that I have enough credits to graduate with a degree but my GPA is greatly affected.

My goal is to drop the courses and graduate with a decent GPA that allows me to engage in further training. It would greatly be appreciated if you grant this appeal.

Thank you again for your time,
Illakiya