Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To the Associate Dean (Studies),
I am submitting an academic appeal to drop the failed course MUSC104 (Fall, 2017) from my transcript; ie replaced with DR. First and foremost, as this course was in the fall term of 2017 I am requesting to also waive the time restrictions on submitting this appeal due to having my account on Senate Hold and still gathering the required documentation to back up my reasoning.
Due to extenuation circumstances I had to travel back and forth from school to home, I was constantly under emotional and financial stress, and was having major issues with anxiety. These came as a direct result of issues at home. My mother was in a car accident and is unable to work. Being my only support there were a lot of things, such as finances, that were hard to get in order. I would constantly be unaware if I would be able to finance my education and living despite my working and aid. My mother had also experienced, what was thought to be at the time, a heart attack during orientation week. She also encountered issues around the house and needed drives to medical appointments in Toronto. Which is a hour from my hometown of Cobourg. Being my mothers only support in Ontario at the time I had to struggle to balance home life and school. This became increasingly difficult, especially in MUSC 104 due to the late class times, long sessions, weekly tests, and fast paced material. Mentally and physically I found it hard to keep up as I was constantly fatigued and battling major anxiety. In on instance I even missed a 10 test due to having to travel home to help my mother. The professor was aware of the situation but only later in the course. My grades in the course reflect this as my test grades dropped from 80¿¿s, in the beginning, to 30¿¿s by the end. Overall the mental stress from home and the issue of constantly traveling home made it hard to keep up in class. As most of my courses were reading intensive it made it hard to distribute what little time I did have. My grades at midterm reflect this issue.
Due to being unable to work my mother is just able to support herself and being unable to help pay the remainder on my winter term until the end of April made it impossible to appeal by the time I had actual documentation of her injury.
For the future, the stress in the winter term was greatly reduced by my aunt moving to Ontario to look after my mother as well as help financially. I found I was able to successfully work in the winter term; striving to a standard of which I know I can achieve. I have also explored services on campus incise I have issues with stress like this again and have spoken with a councillor at home.

Michael M Fraser - 20079462