Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To whom it may concern,

My name is Patrick Downe, and I am writing you today to get the 21-day appeal deadline waived. During my first year of studies at Queen's University, I started battling with severe depression and anxiety to the point where I contemplated suicide. If you look at my transcript, I was able to get no grades on two of my courses in the second semester, as I was unable to write the exams. Before I received the no grades for those classes, my parents were nervous that if I had returned to school the next year, I wouldn't have enough credits to continue to play on the Men's Hockey team. Therefore, I enrolled in a summer course called WRIT 125. Throughout the summer I saw a psychologist several different times and was on two prescription drugs to combat my depression and anxiety. The reason I am writing you is to appeal my grade for WRIT 125, which was an F. I received this mark because I had help from someone on the internet to write my final essay. I was scared to ask for help from my teacher or anyone around me. At this point of my life, I was not fully capable of making the right decisions. It was like I was in a total fog. After the summer I still battled depression and anxiety and to this moment still have my bad days, but I am ready to talk about it now. I wasn't able to appeal this mark in the 21 days because I wasn't willing to speak about my issue. It was an issue the tightened around me everytime I talked about it. From that summer on I have been CIS Academic All-Canadian two years in a row and also have been on the Dean's Honor list, so this goes to show that this mark was not indicative of my capabilities. I hope you understand why it took so long to come forward and comprehend the issue I was battling with at that time.

Sincerely,

Patrick Downe