Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To Whom It May Concern,

I am writing to you to appeal to have the following courses removed from my transcript: DRAM100 (2015 Fall/2016 Winter) and ENGL257 (2017 Winter).

In the 2016 Winter term, I successfully appealed to drop all of my courses except for DRAM100, as I had been working with my professors to develop a plan that would allow me to succeed in the course. These plans involved extending the course deadline into the summer months, and shortly after making a plan with my professors, my family was displaced by the Fort MacMurray wildfire. This severely impacted my mental health, and I was unable to successfully complete the course. I attempted to return to studies in Fall 2016, however, I was not in a stable enough condition to be a student, and this required me to not only withdraw from my classes, but resign from my job with the Alma Mater Society. This caused me further stress, and after all of the stress my family in Alberta was going through, I became very isolated and independent. I applied for financial assistance through Ontario Works to help me make it through the semester (as I was no longer employed nor a student, and my family had no stable home for me to go).

In the 2017 Winter term, I once again felt I was ready to return to studies. I thought I could ease myself back into it, and I decided to just take one course and see if I could handle it, and unfortunately, I was not able to participate in the course. I did not take part in this course whatsoever, and sadly did not have the foresight to meet with a university official to deal with my situation.

It would mean the world to me to have these Fails removed from my record, as I do not feel they were entirely earned. Since the 2017 Winter semester, I have been on quite a journey, and received treatment for trauma that I experienced as a child as the result of negligent parenting. I am a C-PTSD Survivor. It's only recently that I have come to terms with the fact that my life is now in my own hands, and in navigating these experiences, I finally feel stable enough to return to studies. I am eager to thrive at Queen's over the next two years and I look forward to hearing back from your office. Thank you kindly for your time.

Michael Taggart