Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To whom it may concern,

My name is Meghan Bayley and I am in my fifth year as an undergraduate student majoring in Global Development studies, minoring in film and media. Until my fourth year I have been a very consistent student in good academic standing and highly involved on campus. At the beginning of September 2017 I became extremely ill and had multiple health issues that spanned over 18 months that had a severe impact on my ability to complete my classes during both the fall 2017 and winter 2018 academic school year, leading into my fall 2018 term.
In the summer 2017 I went to Tanzania as part of my DEVS410/411 Placement course from June to August. While my experience was incredible, I came back to school in September not feeling like myself. Hoping to return back to my normal day to day activity I noticed a sharp decline in how I was functioning in day to day activity, until the end of September when I was at a point in which I could not get myself to class or able to complete any of my school work. Not feeling well mentally and physically, I went to student health services on campus and completed tests based on my symptoms. What was discovered was that I had two parasitic infections in my gut that I had contracted while on my internship. In October I did took a very strong course of antibiotics to try and get rid of my parasites, which was unsuccessful. Instead, the mixture of the parasites and the antibiotics stopped the uptake of the antidepressants I was on for the mental illness I have been dealing with for years. At the end of October I was unable to take care of myself all together and I decided to go back to my parents house where I was closer to the help I needed. I did not know the how to approach this situation with the university, other than talking to all my instructors from that term, as well as an academic advisor and hoping I could finish my coursework from home.
Working with doctors and therapists to try and help improve my health from home, the first course of action was to increase the dosage of the antidepressants I was on. I had talked to my professors before leaving school who allowed me to be able to finish my coursework from home, as well as dropped a class to lower my workload. I was overly optimistic that I would be able to complete the rest of my course work from home by the end of the semester. Unfortunately, my parasitic infections had not gone away, my mental health did not improve and I was unable to complete any coursework. On December 4th, I had major surgery on my knee, after which I was on very strong painkillers for 1 week and unable to walk for over 4 weeks. This was a very hard recovery and it also impacted my ability to finish my classes. At the end of 2017, I still had two parasitic infections, but felt more optimistic that the winter term would be better.
In hindsight, I realize that I should have deferred the rest of my 2017-2018 year and taken more time at home to feel better both physically and mentally and not have returned until I had resolved all of my major health issues. I was unsure of how to defer a term, and I still believed at the time that I would be able to continue my studies with these ongoing health issues after receiving more full time care from November to December. I decreased my course load to 3 classes, hoping I would be able to handle the workload while working on my health. The recovery from surgery was much harder and longer than anticipated, and I had not found a dosage for antidepressant that was strong enough to be absorbed while I still had my parasites. At the end of January I requested more tests for the internal infections as the first ones were not followed up, and completed another treatment of antibiotics, different to the first round after moving treatment from Queen's to my family doctor back home. At the end of January I also was taken off of the antidepressant I had been taking and started on a new one. By February, after multiple unsuccessful treatments for my infection and the parasites still stopping my medication from taking effect I was then referred to specialists. I was referred to the Tropical medical clinic at Toronto General and the mental health department at Sunnybrook hospital. These referrals gave me appointments in late April, meaning I had to wait months in my current state.
While going through all this I was doing my best to try and finish my classes. While I was able to complete some of the work for them. I was not able to fully complete some of the class requirements and therefore either failed the class or my grade was not reflective as the final grade was missing some assignments. I found the classes that were more based around smaller assignments and class involvement much easy to stay engaged in and focused, versus the classes that had major assignments to be much more challenging, as my mental state was unable to focus, and often would lead to major downspells when attempting to complete them. While putting my focus on finishing my classes, my health took control of my ability to live day to day and take care of myself, and I recognize now that I should have taken time off of my studies.
As of March 2019, I have gotten rid of my parasitic infections thanks to the doctors at the tropical medicine clinic at Toronto General. I have had my medication changed for my mood disorder a total of 5 times since fall 2017, the latest change being in January 2019 with positive results. I have been working extremely hard and close with doctors, therapists and other healthcare professionals to ensure that I will be able to finish my degree, and not limit my ability to further my academic career.
Unable to complete my classes, I received F or incomplete grades on my transcript. For my fall 2017 classes FILM335 and ENIN301 I am appealing to have these turned into DR on my transcript. I have been also be speaking with Dr.Kumar for my DEVS410/411 course work. I am hoping to have my DEVS410 internship credit moved to a P/CR for passing. I completed the internship itself in whole, and only was not awarded the credits as it is currently connected to the DEVS411 portion of the class. I also have not used either of my personal interest credits, and am hoping that after everything I am able to receive credit for the internship that I completed. I also have been speaking with Dr.Kumar about having an INC for DEVS411 with the hope that I can submit the coursework by the end of this term. For Winter 2018 classes, I am appealing to have the F from my incomplete DEVS492 class changed to a DR as I was unable to complete the coursework after another unsuccessful change of antidepressants.
I decided to strive to complete my undergraduate degree in Fall 2018, and was able to complete my classes. I hope to be able to pursue further my academic career and I hope that I am able have a transcript that is more reflective of my level of academic success. I have attached medical documents and communications with this letter which will back up my story and recount the last 18 months.

Thank you for your consideration,
Best,

Meghan Bayley