Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Dr. Johanne Bénard,

a) I am appealing to appeal the Faculty¿¿s decision that I must withdraw from Queen¿¿s for one year, and to drop courses from Fall 2015 ¿¿ Winter 2017. The courses are as follows:

Fall 2015/Winter 2016:

ENGL 215A&B
ENGL 292A&B
PHIL 111A&B
PROF 210A&B
Fall 2016:

ENGL 258
ENGL 237
ENGL 234
ARTH 120 A
PSYC 235 A
Winter 2017:

ARTH 120 B
PSYC 235 B
ENGL 257
ENGL 217
ENGL 271

b) During my time at Queen¿¿s, my mental health has plummeted, (starting in my first year and reaching a low at the end of my second year) and has severely affected my ability to function from day to day, and therefore, academically. In my first appeal, I believed that my depression was situational, however, now, I have come to accept that my illness is still affecting me on some level.

I have experienced quite a bit of denial about my illness in the past: first about whether mental health was a valid concern because of the severe stigma that surrounded mental health - especially depression as ¿¿laziness¿ - when I was growing up, then of how much the illness was affecting me, and finally, that my illness could be cured by addressing the situations that had made it disabling. In other words, it was manageable before certain traumas that happened just prior to university.

In high school, though I believe I was fighting depression and an intense amount of situational anxiety/fear, I believe that my resilience in performance came from my fight or flight instinct, after which (in university when I was no longer in this environment), the mental, physical and emotional exhaustion of running on adrenaline seemed to make the existing illness disabling.

Working through these symptoms of exhaustion and trauma over the past three years I have seen myself recover and grow in many ways, though it seems the academic side of things has been the last to be resolved.

In the past summer months of this year, I saw a recovery in my mental state and performance begin to take place; however, this late September and October, I had noticed a general return of my depression symptoms. Since I had been working towards recovery, and mistakenly believed that this recovery would result in returning immediately to being successful once again, I was unfortunately taken aback at the realization that I may have to cope with these symptoms for some time.

Though mainly recovered from traumas now, I am still actively working on coping mechanisms that will help me to continue functioning, despite the symptoms, and chemical imbalances that come with depression. This is why I took some time after receiving the waive of the 21 days deadline to appeal, because I needed to revaluate my present state of mental health. I am now therefore continuing to work with my illness medically, and professionally.