Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean (Studies),

My name is Sophie Stevenson and I am a third year student in Economics. I am appealing to drop Economics 280 due to a severe concussion.

I suffered a concussion on January 14th 2017 at my track meet at St. Lawrence University, New York. I was representing Queen's because I am a member of the Queen's varsity Track team. At the time of the incident, my coach and I were sitting down on the sidelines watching one of the events. One of the runners from University of Ottawa ran off the track uncontrollably and kicked me in the side of head. I have been dealing with symptoms of nausea, intense pressure on the left and right side of my brain, chronic migraines, extreme fatigue and confusion. While some of my symptoms have started to alleviate, I have been dealing with serious lingering symptoms that prevent me from doing more than one hour of work a day. I also suffered from a concussion in grade 11 which has given me a chronic eye pain condition. Unfortunately this second concussion has made it worse and my eye pain has become even more debilitating.

I have been to numerous doctors' appointments and have been doing everything in my power to try and heal my concussion as quickly as possible. I also have met with student wellness services and received a letter of accommodation from the school. Student wellness services suggested that I consider dropping out of the term but I have been trying my best to catch up in all of my courses despite all of the pain that I am in.

While I was hoping that I would not have to drop any courses and that I could handle all of my work, I have come to the realization that it is physically impossible to catch up on more than two months of missed school work in all of my courses. I am appealing today to drop Economics 280. I am aware that I have far surpassed the academic deadline to drop courses however I was trying my hardest to keep pushing through and finish the year with all five of my courses.

The reason why I have chosen this course to appeal to drop is because it involves the most amount of memorization and I am finding it extremely hard to remember all of the material for tests. The reason why I missed the deadline to drop the course was because I was hoping that I would be able to catch up on everything and not be faced with the situation of taking a lighter course load. I plan on taking this course again next year because I don't want to give up and I have really been enjoying the material.

Thank you very much for taking the time to read my appeal and for considering my application. Please let me know if there is any more information that I can provide you with to help reach a decision for my case.

Thank you again,

Sincerely,

Sophie Stevenson (10138313)