Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To the Associate Dean of Studies:

My name is Claudia Sydor, and I am an upper year undergraduate student doing a major in Life Sciences and a minor in World Language Studies. I am appealing to late drop the following courses taken during the Winter 2019 semester: PSYC 100, CHEM 282, ANAT 417, PHGY 350, MUSC 104, and CISC P81.

In recent years, I have been struggling with my mental health, particularly with recurring major depressive episodes that have impacted my ability to complete courses and graduate within the regular four-year timeframe. Despite struggling in the fall and having to drop down to three courses, it was my intention to graduate in the spring of 2019, and so I took six courses this semester in an attempt to wrap up my undergraduate degree. Within the first few weeks of starting my winter semester, I did experience the onset of another depressive episode, but I was determined to push through and so I continued on with the semester. During this time, I also sent in my application to do a Master of Public Health here at Queen's University in the Fall of 2019, which was an additional factor that pushed me to persevere despite the depressive episode.

However, by the very end of January/beginning of February, the depressive episode had escalated significantly in severity, and it became very difficult to attend class, concentrate, and complete academic work. During this time, I began to fall behind in my classes and I also missed a few midterms and tests. I was still adamant on continuing with my full course load, and so after the reading week break, I began seeing a doctor biweekly at Student Wellness Services and received documentation that I was able to use to apply for academic consideration for several of my courses. Yet, as the weeks went by, the depressive episode continued to worsen, and I fell further behind in my work. Looking back, it was at this point that I should have made the decision to lessen my course load. In March, however, I received a conditional acceptance to the MPH program that I had applied to; this was a program that I had worked very hard to get into, and so despite my deteriorating mental state, I told myself that dropping was absolutely not an option and that I had to graduate after this semester.

At this point, I was in extreme denial with regards to the extent to which I had fallen behind, and I had convinced myself that somehow I would finish; I thus worked myself extremely hard in mid-March as a last-ditch effort to catch up. However, by the end of Week 11, my mental health had deteriorated to a dangerous extent, and I ended up in what my doctor deemed to be a 'crisis mode'. I was no longer able to think or function in a healthy or rational manner, I could not attend any classes, and I was unable to complete any of my academic work or prepare for my exams. Over the next few weeks, I continued seeing my doctor at Student Wellness Services and I also spoke with an academic advisor; in the end, my doctor recommended that I take an academic hiatus for the next few months to take some time to recover, and to return to my studies in the fall after this break. That is why I am appealing to late drop my winter semester rather than to receive an IN and complete my courses over the summer.

If permitted to late drop all of my Winter 2019 courses, I will repeat these courses during the Fall of 2019 and Winter of 2020 with the intention to graduate in Spring 2020. While I recognize now that it is possible that these depressive episodes may very well occur again in the future, I plan on taking various measures to mitigate the impact that they may have on my future studies. I have already made biweekly appointments with my doctor for this upcoming fall. Once their appointment calendar has been set for the fall, I also intend to make regular appointments with a counsellor or psychologist at Student Wellness Services; I hope to work with him/her to develop healthy coping strategies so that even if I am faced with a recurring episode, I will be able to manage it more effectively. Furthermore, following a recommendation from my doctor, I will also be looking into the accommodations offered by QSAS, and I will submit an application in the fall if I find that any of these may help me successfully complete my last year of undergraduate studies.

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

Sincerely,
Claudia Sydor