Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I¿¿m appealing to drop Math 126 from my first year because when taking the class I had deferred the final, with permission from the professor, until October/November of the first semester of my second year (Fall 2016), however before I was able to take it my mom passed away and I wasn¿¿t in the right headspace to take it (I can ask the professor at the time for a letter of support as well if needed). For Law 201, if a credit (CR) standing isn¿¿t approved, I¿¿d like to appeal for a drop of the course, however I took it last semester as well and have a strong understanding of the course. I¿¿m appealing to drop Econ 280 and Econ 232
I¿¿m appealing my courses based on the fact that I¿¿ve been over encumbered with emotional trauma severe enough to heavily impair my ability to function as a student at Queen¿¿s. Last semester in late September, my mom passed away after a painstakingly drawn out battle with cancer. I immediately went back home to attend the funeral, but due to my dad¿¿s wishes I came back to Queen¿¿s the day after carrying my mom¿¿s casket and burying her, all in all I didn¿¿t stay home for more than a week (my father meant well, he believed I would be worse off if I fell behind academically and socially). There¿¿s an earlier appeal that accounts what I went through up until December, so I¿¿ll be talking about my circumstances from the Winter break until present. Winter break was a much-welcomed vacation, being with my family for the first time since my mom's funeral was like being able to breathe again after a life guard saved me from drowning. However, it was short lived because after a week I left for Texas to be a part of a close cousin¿¿s wedding. I tried to make use of my 2nd semester hoping that with the slight breathe of life I felt come back into me I would be able to sustain myself until summer vacation when I could finally be with my family. It did not. Primarily, ever since the funeral I¿¿ve felt numb in terms of ambition, love, hobbies, sports, and things that used to matter so much to me. School seems so irrelevant to me right now even though I do know I want to be here; (I came here all the way from California so I know I want to be here to excel and reach new heights) up until my mom passed away I definitely had all those things I¿¿m missing now (ambition, love, excitement, curiosity, thirst, etc.) but the only thing I want is to be with my family and get all this out of my system. I want to talk to my aunts and uncles and cousins and Dad and brothers about my mom and grieve with them and not walk around school and feel like my problems are just my own or that I need to fake being happy to socialize. In truth by, regrettably, agreeing with my dad to immediately come back to school after my mom¿¿s funeral I feel like I robbed myself of a very pivotal healing process, and by not going through this process and being alone in a foreign place scared and dealing with thoughts and emotions I¿¿ve never had, a worse outcome than staying home became my reality.
I missed the deadlines to drop these courses because at the time I believed I could will myself to succeed, even if it was apparent that my ability to digest information, in my numb state, was seriously impaired (even having instances when it took me days to read a simple chapter and remember what I read). Plus, more than anything I believed that if I dropped the courses and went back home I would be adding on to the strain of my family and adding another burden into the pain everyone is going through. I have gone to see both Dr. Tonya Bauermann (my personal counselor at the student wellness center) and Spring Forsberg-Lewis my academic advisor and both have helped me choose this appeal as my course of action for dealing with the situation I am in.
The only way I can rectify these problems now, after appealing my courses, is to go home and finally grieve with my family and get help with this toxic mentality that has festered within me in the past year, to bring back color into my life. Only then can I even begin to think about school, friends, and anything outside the realms of my family.