Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To Whom It May Concern:


My name is Claudia Sydor and I am preparing to enter my last year of undergraduate studies at Queen's University. Due to extenuating circumstances, I am appealing to late drop the organic chemistry course (CHEM 281) that I took in the Fall 2017 semester.

Due to the circumstances that I will address in this letter, I was unable to write both the final exam for CHEM 281 in December, as well as the course's make-up exam at the beginning of the Winter 2018 semester, which subsequently resulted in me receiving a failing grade in the class. I would greatly appreciate your permission to late drop this course in order to replace the failed (F) grade on my transcript with a drop (DR). While I will be retaking the course in the fall in order to satisfy my plan requirements, I would value the opportunity to do so with a fresh start and move forward from the situation that ultimately led to this appeal.

While I did not recognize it for what it was until discussing it earlier this year with various health care professionals, I've been experiencing bouts of depression since my second year of studies. It did periodically affect my studies during the last three years, but I had attributed those incidents to anxiety and burn out due to stress, and therefore did not seek the appropriate kind of help and resources that, in retrospect, I had needed. Subsequently, my mental health continued to decline throughout the summer of 2017, and even more so during the fall semester of my fourth year. As my goal had been to graduate on time in the spring of 2018, I pushed myself to continue with my studies. However, I continued to decline until about mid-November, when the depression and resulting high levels of stress began to manifest as a physical illness, which impacted my ability to complete my academic work. Despite having various tests run at Student Health Services and KGH over the course of a few days, the doctors were unable to find any physical explanations for the concerning symptoms, and concluded that they were likely stress-induced. Because I was ill, I did receive some assignment extensions and exam deferrals. While I was able to complete three of my fall classes that December, I received permission to write the exams for two of my other classes, including CHEM 281, at the beginning of the Winter 2018 semester.

However, by the time I returned to school for the start of the Winter 2018 term, my mental health had deteriorated to the extent that I was unable to leave home to attend my classes, and the depression had become so debilitating that it was impeding not only my ability to continue with my academic studies, but also my ability to function normally and sensibly. One such consequence was that I was unable to attend my make-up exams, including the one for my organic chemistry course. I did not alert the course's professor at the time that I missed the exam as I should have, and while I do take responsibility for this mistake, I was in a state of mind that made making rational decisions very difficult. By the time I had returned to a healthier state of mind and contacted the professor later in the semester, it was understandably too late to write the exam, and it became necessary for me to write this appeal.

Shortly after missing my make-up exams and speaking to my family, a physician at Student Health Services, and an academic advisor, I made the decision to drop my winter semester entirely and return for an extra year to complete my studies - a decision that was incredibly difficult to make, but ended up being the best possible thing that I could have done to help myself at that point. Since dropping my winter semester in January, I have been meeting with a psychologist in Kingston who has helped me work through various issues that I had been struggling with. I plan on continuing to see her once I return to Queen's in September as a proactive measure to prevent myself from winding up in a similar situation again. Taking this break also gave me time to reflect upon and strengthen both my physical and mental health over the course of the last six months, and for the first time in years, I feel confident and genuinely excited to return to my studies in the fall.

However, before I return to school and move forward with my undergraduate studies, I have a few loose ends to wrap up from my last academic semester. That is why I am writing to you now in hopes that you will consider allowing me to late drop CHEM 281, so as to remove the failed grade from my transcript. I have been a strong student throughout my studies at Queen's University, and I would like to be able to continue with my studies without having this failed grade on my academic record as a lasting consequence of the situation that I went through last fall and winter. If permitted, I will be able to retake the course in the fall with a clean slate, which is an opportunity that I would value tremendously.

Thank you for taking the time to read this letter, and I hope that you will take this appeal into consideration.


Sincerely,

Claudia Sydor