Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Today I am appealing to have my grades dropped in SOCY 225 (Winter, 2018), 275 (Fall, 2017), and 235 (Winter, 2018). I feel that although I absorbed closer to 80-85 of the course content I was unable to function properly, mentally and physically, to complete the course work. This resulted in me either not doing parts of the course work or just rushing it to the point where it was gibberish on a page. As well outside of the pure independent course work I was unable to attend group sessions or even lectures due to my extenuating circumstances.
Throughout the last few years I have been falling deeper and deeper into a pit of despair and self degradation. During this time, I was dealing with the passing of the majority of my grandparents of which in my grief I began the process of quitting my extracurricular activities and distancing myself from my friends and family. This period of undiagnosed depression severely affected my anxiety and social insecurities resulting in me not committing to my studies and also trying to find therapy in the bottom of beer bottles. From the last months of high school to this year (2018) I attempted to hide from the world and just eat junk food that made me gain more weight and drink ludicrous amounts of alcohol. I was drinking at least six oz of rum or four tall boys a day to keep a lite buzz going so that I could deal with my anxiety and also slow my brain down to focus on my studies. As such I finally decided this year to seek medical help rather than self medication and was diagnosed with general anxiety disorder and depression at the Queen¿¿s University Student Wellness Services and began medication and therapy to attempt to treat these issues.
These extenuating circumstances directly affected my ability to output class work or participate in my classes. For class and tutorial participation (of which typically makes up at least twenty percent of my grade for my classes), I was unable to force myself to go to the classes to participate as I would get ready and then be so anxious about dealing with the social situations that I would break out into cold sweats and get sick. As well with essays and studying I was unable to sit down and read the papers or write the essays as I was unable to slow my brain down to focus on what is happening in front of me rather than thinking about and focusing on a variety of different things that are not related to this at all. As such assignments and course readings were slow to finish, if ever done, since I simply could not focus my brain and stop worrying about things that were irrelevant to the topic at hand. This was not a fault of lack of knowledge, I was able to absorb knowledge from the courses, I simply was unable to focus my brain to express myself onto the paper due to the stress and depression that was clouding my brain at the time. This is able to be seen through the fact that for the majority of my fully complete assignments they received moderate to high level grades and the actual issue is not generally lacking understanding but is in fact a lack of ability to complete the assignments due to the extenuating circumstances.
Unfortunately, I am still dealing with these issues and have sought out, and still am seeking, aid in my troubles at the Queen¿¿s University Student Wellness Services (Dr. Webb) as well as at home, my friend groups, and also my family doctor back home. As such I was on an anti-depressant (Cipralex) and was undergoing therapy sessions to help deal with these issues and as such I noticed small improvements to mood and motivation. In addition to the medication and therapy, I was also diagnosed at the Limestone City Sleep Clinic with mild sleep apnea and have been receiving tests and studies for the last four months. This sleep apnea causes me to constantly be exhausted throughout the day and crave sleep no matter if I sleep two or ten hours a night. However, these small improvements were not enough to save my grades or my mental and physical well being. Because of this, I am searching for other solutions and aids to help get myself back on the right track. I am currently awaiting an appointment with my family doctor to discuss the current state of my well being and recommend new medical treatment plans, since the Cipralex was not effective. Also, I will be taking a heavier summer course load then I typically would do to stress test myself for the upcoming fall semester. In addition, I have been researching and testing new methods of studying and working to help myself slow my brain down and focus on the work at hand. As for my sleep apnea, I have begun a treatment program with the CPAP machines so that I can actually sleep well at night.
With the success of these treatments I will hopefully have refocused myself and overcame this slump in my life, but I will still need to fix the damage that has already been done to my gpa and courses. With the dropping of SOCY 225 (Winter, 2018), 275 (Fall, 2017), and 235 (Winter, 2018), I will be able to focus primarily on the redoing of my core four classes (SOCY 211, 210, 226, and 227) to be able to get into fourth year at the same time as my peers. The dropping of SOCY 225 (Winter, 2018), 275 (Fall, 2017), and 235 (Winter, 2018) will allow me to either retake the same courses with the help of my previous knowledge of the courses or move past them and treat it as a fresh start to my second-year. Realistically I can not expect a full dropping or credit standing of all my second-year sociology courses, so repeating the four core courses is hopefully sufficient for me to continue my studies at Queen¿¿s.
Thank you,
Brendan Willet