Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean (Studies),

I am a first year student and I am appealing to drop Psych 100 without academic penalty.

In late December 2016 I required emergency medical intervention at hospital in Toronto. This intervention led to me ultimately being diagnosed with three concurrent episodic medical conditions requiring ongoing treatment which I was able to secure in Toronto, my home town. My doctors and I developed a plan to allow me to complete my academic year and continue to attend ongoing, weekly medical treatments/appointments in Toronto. That medical plan also heeded my specialist¿¿s advice that ¿¿the support and structure of her home environment will be necessary for this term to enhance the possibility of Grace making a full recovery.¿

As a consequence, I dropped the two half credit courses that I was taking in semester 2 and moved one Sociology lab to Thursday from Wednesday. The result was that many of my classes and labs were scheduled on Thursday and Friday. Thus, I lived in Toronto from Friday night until Wednesday evening or Thursday morning and returned to Kingston for my classes and labs on Thursday and Friday whenever possible with the goal of successfully completing my three full year courses.

Unfortunately, the trajectory of recovery from my medical conditions has not progressed as hoped. This is due to a number of factors including that my beloved dog Tucker, who was not only my best friend but whose companionship was therapeutic to me coping with my illnesses was suddenly diagnosed at the end of January 2017 with cancer and I held him as he was euthanized on February 16, 2017. This traumatic loss and the almost unbearable grief exacerbated my conditions and set me back in my recovery.

Even still, I really hoped to be able to complete my three full year credits and my doctor and I felt that it was medically possible with the ongoing treatment/appointments and support from my family.

Unfortunately, a further issue arose in late March: a recurrence of a fourth periodic medical condition for which I am undergoing surgery on May 10, 2017, has left me feeling ill on a daily basis. In addition, my medication for one of the three other conditions stopped being effective and last week was adjusted by one of my medical specialists. Both of these have made studying more difficult.

My doctor and I concluded that in order for me to have success with my remaining courses, something had to give. I was scheduled to write PSYCH 100 on April 18, SOCY 122 on April 19 as well as ENGL 110 on April 26. I have managed to successfully complete most Sociology and English assignments and the final exams in these two classes carry less weight than the final exam for Psych. As a result, and given the time spread before the English exam, I feel, and my doctor agrees, that my best chance of success given my medical conditions and setbacks is to proceed with Sociology and English and drop Psych, hopefully without academic penalty. As of March 3 I believed that I could complete all three courses and did not consider dropping one until I recently realized that it was not a possibility in all of the circumstances.

I intend to continue to pursue a university degree. I have chosen to do so next year in Toronto, rather than return to Queens so that I may continue to attend the necessary medical treatments/appointments. This will facilitate me attending classes throughout the week without commuting between Toronto and Kingston.

Thank you for your consideration of my Appeal. Tess Grant, Accessibility Advisor has written a letter of support which I am attaching.

Best Regards,
(Elizabeth) Grace Regan