Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean (Studies) of the Arts and Science Faculty,


I am appealing to drop CLST 201 (Roman History, Fall 2014). I am writing to request a review of this recent decision I have made, and hope you can take all things into consideration.

In April as of last year when it was time to choose a major, I was excited to make the choice of a Classics Major at Queen¿¿s. I took Introduction to Archaeology in first year and absolutely loved it, and so I was excited for the future in this discipline. However, as of very recently, Classics 201 has not been what I expected. After studying profusely for the first midterm in the course, I was extremely disappointed when I received my mark back, especially since the midterm was worth 30 of my final mark. I thought I would push through and study even more in order to do well on the next 30 midterm, which was on Tuesday, November 4th. Even though I yet again studied for this midterm, I walked out of the exam extremely disappointed in my performance. I am now in the unfortunate position of likely not having a passing grade for 60 of the course. The final examination is worth 40, and it is therefore unlikely that I will pass the course at all. Prior to Friday, October 31st (the last day to drop courses on SOLUS), I had a positive mindset about trying to work very hard in the course. I talked to my parents profusely about dropping it based on the initial failed midterm, but I didn¿¿t think I was ready for that big of a decision, because I was once so passionate about Classics. However since doing badly on the second evaluation as well, I have realized that this type of Classics course is not what I was as passionate about a year ago, and is not what my academic style is suited for. Clearly, despite being a dedicated student, Classics 201 is not where I succeed. I have also realized how detrimental this mark will be to my final GPA if I fail the course. Not only will it bring down my GPA, but the amount of time I will have to put into this course in order to try and pass ¿¿ which may not be possible ¿¿ will cause me an extreme amount of stress. I in no way take my academics lightly, and am also worried that the amount of time it will take to attempt to pass Classics, will cause me to lose time on my other courses, which are also very important to me.

Having spent much of my time planning for my future, I am positive that I would like to request to change my Plan for third year to English as my major. I am already in three English courses this year, which is more than the amount of Classics courses I am in currently. I am better suited to these courses, though I will always have some interest, and respect for the study of Classics. If I am able to drop this Classics course, it would give me more time to put the work into my English courses in order to do well, and succeed in changing my major come May/April 2015. I know that I missed the deadline to properly drop this course, but I do hope that you can take into consideration what I have thought about and stressed over for the past few days. My academics are incredibly important to me, and I hope that by appealing to drop this course it will benefit me in my future academic career at Queen¿¿s University.