Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: I am appealing these four courses because I had untreated moderate-severe ulcerative colitis throughout the Fall 2017-Winter 2018 school year. I first developed symptoms of the disease in February 2017, however they went away within the month. The symptoms returned sometime in June 2017 consisting of severe stomach cramps and bloody diarrhea. I was scheduled to see the surgeon for the end of August, however, the meeting got pushed back; first by a family trip that was in August, and second by a midterm test in late October. Even though I was in immense pain daily, I was under the naive belief that my symptoms would pass naturally. Due to the fact that I am only 19, and have rarely been sick throughout my youth, I was under the false impression that nothing bad would happen to me by postponing these meetings. I will now explain how this illness affected my academics. One of the biggest problems was how this disease affected my sleep schedule. I would have to get up between 5-10 times a night to go to the bathroom. This was paired with painful stomach cramps that made it difficult for me to fall asleep. Many nights I would only get between 3 and 4 hours of sleep which was not enough to work effectively throughout the day. This lack of sleep affected my morning classes the most, especially ECON212 and ECON250. I would often miss these lectures which was extremely unfortunate considering ECON exams were highly lecture based. I did not do as badly in the courses that were half lecture focused, half reading focused. Another problem was that my bowel movements could not be controlled easily. I was constantly finding myself leaving half the lecture unattended so that I could go to the bathroom. The last main problem was the way this disease affected my eating habits. Since my bowel movements were causing me so much pain, I was reluctant to eat food in general. I ended up losing 20 pounds which was alarming considering I am already a skinny person. I found myself with so little energy on a daily basis that I only had time to study for certain subjects. I chose to focus my energy on the subjects that would be easier for me to keep up with.

During both first and second semester exam season, I came to the conclusion that I had missed too much information to catch up on. I came up with a strategy that I would put most of my effort into both classes that I had been going to, and classes that I enjoyed (sometimes these courses overlapped). While I did decently on many of my courses, I did horribly in ECON250, GPHY228, and ECON212.

The reason I am asking for an appeal to drop COMM221 is a bit different. Early in the second semester, I was feeling extremely stressed about being unable to keep up with my academic schedule due to my disease, so I went on SOLUS to drop the course. I either clicked the wrong button, or my internet froze while dropping it, because, by the time I rechecked SOLUS on March 12, I was still enrolled in COMM221. I attempted to drop it that day, however by that time it was too late. I never submitted any assignments, did any quizzes, or took an exam for the course. I went to an ArtSci advisor (around mid-April) and she said I would have a good chance of appealing it. By the time exams ended, I was aware that I would need to appeal many courses so I thought it would be more organized to send one appeal form for all courses. The reason I am waiting until August to send this academic appeal is because I was not sure if I was going to return. I discussed my opportunities with my parents a lot this summer and they agreed that I should take some time this summer to see how I feel physically and mentally about returning in September.

I have decided that I do want to return. The pills that I am taking and will continue to take are minimizing my pain. I will be able to focus on getting back to my usual standard of academic success. However, if I have these marks on my transcript it will greatly limit my options once I finish my BAH. I hope you will grant my appeal so that I can continue to succeed at Queen¿¿s and after.