Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To whom it may concern,'

I am writing today to, quite frankly, plead for your consideration of what I believe are highly extenuating circumstances regarding my need to drop a course. I understand how severely I have prolonged this process but hope you will be considerate of my experiences. To concisely summarize, there are two major aspects which have contributed to my delaying this process.

The first and more self-inflicted, being that at the start of this term I ran for an was elected to a student government position on campus. This commitment meant that I required myself to reduce my courseload. I fully intend to extend the length of my academic time here at Queen's in order to balance this elected role and ensure my academic success. In January I determined that it was unrealistic to continue with the course load I had enrolled in and as a result, I stopped keeping up with the course I am requesting to drop- fully intending to drop the course within the appropriate timeframe.

The second piece and the one that has notably landed me in this difficult situation is financial. In January I did not pay my student fees as I struggled to budget food, rent, and tuition costs. A senate block was placed on my account and without a solution in sight, I focused my attention on my finances, not even fully realizing the difficult academic situation I would be putting myself in. With the senate block on my account, and my time and attention focused on my financial situation I neglected to resolve this situation and thus I am humbly and desperately requesting your consideration at this time. I come from a low income family, which has always been a barrier to my academic and extra-curricular success, but now more than ever. I am months behind in this course as I had every intention of dropping it in the conventional way, but seeing as that was not the case I would appreciate such an accommodation at this time more than I can adequately express.

My intention of contributing positively to the Queen's community, in combination with my family's difficult financial situation
and the logistical and mental strain that this has caused has put me in this position and I hope that it can be resolved without costing my academic success.

Thank you for your time and consideration.