Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I am appealing to drop CISC 101 (fall/winter 2015/2016) and econ 112 (fall 2015)outside of the deadline. I have returned to Queen¿¿s this fall of 2017 in the hopes of pursuing an economics degree and fear that having this failed credit may affect my GPA and ability to get into this major and ultimately would like to have it not count against me.

For several years I have struggled with certain mental health issues (anxiety, depression and PTSD) partly stemming from a life-threatening ATV accident that occurred when I was 13 years old and this has affected my ability to perform to my full abilities academically. Over the past 2 years I have been seeing specialists in order to better deal with my symptoms and have made lots of progress however my past academic record is still posing a threat to my success.

I initially came to queen¿¿s in the fall of 2014 and my symptoms became quite severe which prevented me from attending class and completing my work and ultimately, I returned home to Toronto to seek treatment for my mental health issues and take a break from school. At that time my mother was helping me with seeking the appropriate doctors and she handled the academic appeals because I had failed/dropped some courses in the fall and possibly winter 2014/2015 semesters and my record was left in good standing. The following fall (2015) I was eager to return to Queen¿¿s and try again, however I seem to have done so too soon because the same symptoms of anxiety, PTSD, depression and so on began to prevent me from completing school work and I was even afraid to leave my apartment most days. At this time, I decided I had better catch my breath and again returned to Toronto to seek treatment, the only difference was that my parents were now separated and my mom had moved out of the country and was not around to handle the academic appeals like last time and I was in psychiatric treatment, so they were ultimately never dealt with.

Since then I have been in consistent care of a psychiatrist and after much improvement, I began working at a charity which lasted 5 months and then prior to coming back to Queen¿¿s this fall (2017) I had been working at Intact Insurance as a sales agent for 9 months. Noting the improvement in my overall health and my ability to consistently perform at a high level in a professional environment I felt that I was finally ready to resume my education. I am now back at Queen¿¿s full-time and have been off to a great start so far, this fall in all 4 courses I am taking and am determined to continue my plan to pursue a degree in economics.

In summary, I have made great progress in terms of my health and have learned to stay on top of any medical issues, manage my time and avoid any mistakes that I was prone to making in the past. I understand now what I should have done at the time and In the future I will take all necessary steps to stay on top of my academic success and hope that any failed credits can be put behind me and not reflected negatively against my record.

I have contacted my psychiatrist to obtain a letter substantiating my claim and will provide that if necessary.

Thanks,
James Mulvihill