Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Dr. Michael Kawaja,

I am appealing the Faculty¿¿s decision that I must study at University of Toronto as a visiting student for my third year.
I have suffered from bad anxiety this past year, which has largely effected my academic performance and class attendance. In addition to my anxiety, I am currently living in a house at Queen¿¿s that is an extremely hostile and toxic environment for me in terms of the girls I am living with. This has only made my anxiety that much worse. I have missed numerous classes because I am constantly feeling the need to go home to Toronto and be with my family for comfort, as that is the only way my anxiety is kept under control. The girls I live with at Queen¿¿s are extremely mean towards me, and my anxiety has never been worse. We have been fighting for months now, and it hasn¿¿t gotten any better. During this time, I have been seeing my doctor whenever I go back to Toronto to help me cope and talk to a professional about what has been going on. While being in Kingston in the presence of my housemates I often have panic attacks, lose sleep, barely eat and I never leave my room. It has become almost impossible to focus and study at my house here even though that¿¿s where I used to do most of my studying. Unfortunately, I signed another lease with them this past November for the 2017-2018 school year. I pay my own rent, and I can¿¿t afford to live on my own and living with people I do not know won¿¿t help my anxiety at all, but would probably make it worse. Third year is a very important one for me academically, and I want to do the best that I possibly can. Lately, the situation has been getting worse and worse. During the last few months of school I would be home in Toronto until I had to go back to Queen¿¿s for my Organic Chemistry lab, but then would immediately go back to Toronto right after. I missed every single lecture some weeks simply because I feel so anxious and stressed being here at school.
I consider this to be one of the largest psychological challenges I have had to deal with. I have exhausted all other options to stay at Queen¿¿s next year such as living on my own, or living with people I don¿¿t know but those situations would only add to my stress level and anxiety. While being home with my family I am able to focus and feel comfortable while I study. Attending classes contributes to better marks, and if I am unable to mentally handle being at Queen¿¿s and miss all of them I will not succeed next year.