Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean (Studies),

I am appealing the Faculty¿¿s decision that I must withdraw from Queen¿¿s for a minimum of three years. In this appeal letter, I will be explaining the extenuating circumstance in which disallowed me to focus on my studies.
In mid-December 2017, my roommate and I received an email from our house management that the owners are being changed. I then receive an email with the updated contracts of the rent, which was a huge surprise to realize that the amount went up by 12. Originally, my roommate and I had plans to continue to live there and have friends move in to fill our 4-bedroom home. This was no longer an option since the rent hike was an amount that I couldn¿¿t afford due to my financial status; my mother is a single unemployed parent, and I support myself through summer jobs and OSAP. Due to my financial circumstance, I was not able to continue living at this home for the upcoming school year of 2018-2019, my roommate agreed and we decided to look for apartments or houses once we finished exams and came back from the winter break. Second semester was where I developed a serious personal problem which consumed most of my time and energy which made it impossible to focus on my studies. Immediately coming back from the December break, my roommate and I were always looking for any available houses for the upcoming year. The stress of not knowing where I was going to live or if I will be able to live somewhere close to campus was extremely unsettling and nerving. My roommate was more stressed than I was, which started to influence me and cause my anxiety issue to rise. The longer we searched and came up dry escalated my anxiety and stress levels and constantly felt as if I was carrying a weight on my shoulders. At the beginning of March, my roommate and I started to have problems at home and this caused us to drift; without any warning, my roommate told me that she would no longer be moving in with me next year and that she found a place with another friend. This news shattered me, my only friend that I made at school decided to abandon me, at this point I never felt so alone, worthless and vulnerable. I spent all my available time searching for any available postings for a roommate wanted. Day and night, I would be using all my time to search social media for any postings and constantly schedule houses viewings during my spare time. For months, my day consisted of looking online for rooms to rent; the stress of not knowing where to live and on top of not having anyone to lean on or help me left me feeling so utterly alone and devastated. The start of this year went so well and I was so proud of myself, but this circumstance during second semester completely destroyed my confidence, my social life, my focus on school and motivation to do anything. The entire semester was me stressing and only focusing on living somewhere for the upcoming year, all my energy was directed to this circumstance that left me with a pit in my stomach every second of the day. In class I would be looking and messaging anyone that had a room available, trying to fix a mess that I never asked for. I was trying to recover from my anxiety from last year¿¿s issue and this problem only induced it and left me so vulnerable, alone, and empty. The only person I would confide in was my cousin, who always supported me and tried to help me during this stressful time. The betrayal that I felt from my friend and stress of house hunting was a feeling that I don¿¿t want to relive, University is a place to enjoy the youthful years, and it was so unfortunate and saddening to feel unbearably lonely for months. Loneliness and anxiety were the only two feelings that woke up with me every day and went to bed with me, a feeling caused by circumstances I could not control from my landlord and another person¿¿s actions.