Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To the Associate Dean (Studies),

My name is Felicity Cole and I am a third-year student in the faculty of Arts & Sciences. My student number is 10133567. I am writing this letter as I would like to request an appeal for aegrotat standing for two of my courses from the Fall 2017 semester; notably PSYC 241 and PSYC 301. My reasoning for this request is due to an extenuating circumstance that I had experienced, which dates from November 24th through to the end of the term.

During this period of time, I had gone to KGH due to suicidal urges. After being sent home I was then brought back to my hometown of Penetanguishene, where I went to the hospital once again. This time, I was admitted to Waypoint (a local psychiatric facility) on a 72-hour psychiatric hold. Upon my discharge, I was brought home and spent the month of December working towards both physical and mental healing. During this time, I focused on practicing self-care, receiving support from loved ones, consulting with a health-care professional and spoke with Queen's to discuss my options for the end of the term.

This experience was out of my control and extremely traumatic. Because of this experience, I suffered many emotional, cognitive, and physical consequences, of which the effects are still ongoing. Due to these circumstances, I was unable to study for, or write many of my final exams. I was also unable to complete an oral presentation in my PSYC 335 class. I faced severe, almost paralyzing anxiety at the thought of anything school-related, and had an overall lack of motivation, concentration, and emotional affect.

Since then, I have focused on finding a balance between my academic success at Queens and focusing on my mental health. This has included meeting regularly with a therapist, reaching out to other support systems, breaking my workload into small and manageable chunks, and taking breaks when needed. I am still working on coursework form last semester, and to avoid becoming overwhelmed I dropped a course for this semester. I believe that adding the remaining coursework for the above-mentioned courses would be consequential to my mental health, and the progress I have made thus far.

I sincerely appreciate the time taken to review this appeal. I look forward to your response.

Sincerely,

Felicity Cole
10133567