Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To whom it may concern,

I am writing this letter to appeal to late drop two courses; CISC 101 (2019) and PSYC 110 (2017-2018). As the two courses took place during different semesters, I will write about the problems and the effects they had on my academic performance separately.

I will start by addressing PSYC 110. I have dealt with mental health issues for a few years before entering University but it became much less manageable during my first and mostly second semester at Queens. The independence and freedom that I was looking forward to turned into loneliness and feelings of not having a purpose. My anxiety was constant and I became depressed. It severely affected my mood and I began sleeping for up to 16 hours a day. I had no appetite which probably contributed to my lack of energy and I had no motivation to do anything. It would come in waves of intensity but every now and then I would decide to turn my life around and try to do better in school, nutrition and mental health. I booked an appointment with the Student Wellness Centre at Queens (around early November) and saw Dr. Stephanie Butt. We had two sessions and then she prescribed me antidepressants which I took for a couple months before stopping due to side effects. I saw Dr. Butt one more time after and neither she nor I reached out to each other again. Although I was on it medication, I still didn't feel better and a very cold winter began which really didn't help with getting me outside of my room. I had a strong support system during high school with my parents and friends but I didn't really have to much of that during my first year at queens which made me feel lonely and worsened my mental health. It got to the point where I was only leaving my room in Brant (where I had a single plus room which helped with me never having to socialize) once a day, maybe, to get food at Location 21. I began sleeping during the day almost completely and staying up all night which meant I had even less people to talk to and hardly saw sun. It was a very bad time in my life and my mental health had very damaging effects on my academic performance. It was debilitating. I was hardly ever going to class by second semester which is especially bad for a class like PSYC 110 because there are mandatory tutorials once a week that contribute heavily to our grade. I attended as many tutorials as I could but my knowledge in the course was severely lacking. I had no motivation to do work or to reach out again to support systems. It was my first year at queens and I was overwhelmed with the responsibility and disappointed in myself for doing so poorly. I tried to study as much as I could when I realized I was most likely going to fail but I couldn't recover and failed. It was a full year course so I was concerned about dropping the course, as this would mean I was behind 6.0 credits. Given the severity of the impact of my mental health, I wasnt able to recognize that I was not well enough to continue and should have dropped the course. It was also my first year and I didn't really understand the process of things. I am requesting to late drop this course as I had extenuating circumstance, beyond my control and it was not an accurate representation of my abilities. It is also bringing down my GPA and making it harder for me to get back to the place I believe I should be in, academically and mentally.

Regarding the more recent course; CISC 101, I am also appealing to late drop due to extenuating circumstances. My second year at Queens started off better but quickly spiralled. My housemate at the time was going through a difficult time mentally and became increasingly aggressive, then violent. She attacked me and threatened me and I didn't feel comfortable living at home. I went to live with my boyfriend for the remainder of the year. I felt like I didn't have a space that I felt completely comfortable in and it began to start exaggerating the state of my mental health. I did, unlike the year before, have a better support system, but despite that, I began repeating bad habits such as hiding out and not eating. My struggles surrounding going outside returned and I started falling behind in school. It is slippery slope because once I started falling behind, I started stressing about that. I don't have very good coping methods so my stress would turn into wanting to sleep all day and then I fell behind even further and the cycle would repeat itself. This semester was already particularly stressful because I was taking an extra course (six total) to catch up from failing PSYCH 110 last year. I should of dropped the course before the deadline but when I'm in a bad state of mental health, my judgment is not clear and I often make bad choices. After a few months of poor mental health, I was able to reach out for support in early March. I connected with academic services again and started communications with Occupational Therapist; Tess Grant (March 7th). Tess and I began having very constructive meetings discussing how I can take steps to improve my bad habits and eventually my mental health. I was reaching out to all of my professors, trying to complete incomplete assignments with the hopes of passing all my courses. By the last couple months, I was seeing Tess more often and was granted multiple extensions in my other classes due to the accommodation letter Tess had written. In CISC 101, I connected with the instructor to discuss consideration for the course, but the professor was unable to provide any accommodations for the tests that I had missed because they had taken place earlier in the term. Due to my circumstances, going out was very difficult and tests caused me a lot of anxiety which is why I didn't go. Unfortunately, all 5 assignments (which I did well on) in CISC 101 were only worth 25 of my grade and I had missed 3 out of the 4 test which were worth 10 each. By the end of the year, I was working on multiple overdue essays and studying for my final exams, including CISC 101. Despite me doing well on the assignments, I didn't have a great understanding of all the course material. I studied as much as I could, while still being under a lot of stress. By the time the exam came around, I was pretty sure I would not be able to pass the course with the knowledge I had. I set up another meeting with Tess to discuss my options and we talked about late dropping this course. I still wrote the exam (to some extent) but I understood that I would fail the course and already planned to appeal to late drop.

As far as the steps I'm taking to improve my mental health and coping mechanism, I have seen my family doctor in Toronto and am working on a plan for therapy and treatment. Tess and I are working on getting me registered with Accessibility Services at Queens and I am going to separate therapy on top of all of that. I have been working on improving my nutrition and developing healthier sleep patterns and aim to be on the right track, come next semester. I am passionate about learning and really love the environment of Queens. For next semester, I won't be taking 6 courses and may consider taking a smaller course load of 4 classes. I know that when my mental health is regulated and I take the steps and advice provided my doctors and Tess, I would excel in my program.

Thanks for your consideration,
Sarah Elliott.