Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To whom it may concern,


I am Jiamen Li, who is appealing the Faculty's decision that I must withdraw from Queen's for one year.


My extenuating circumstances could date back to the year of 2018 while I was continuously struggling with my mental health illness. Since then I gradually immersed myself in severe depression, sadness, and frustration. It became hard for me to fall asleep or have appetite for food. Actually, in 2018 Winter, I decided with the advice from the faculty to switch my major from Biology to Chemistry which is more suited to my academic background and strength and is more appealing to me (but my grade is not as good to be eligible for this plan during the plan selection period), so in 2018 Fall, I enrolled in the second year core courses for Chemistry major in order to get in the program at the end of May and I had great hope in that term.


Nevertheless, I never expected that instead of getting better, my mental health condition became worse and worse and it should exert such a passive and serious influence on my academic performance. I constantly felt extremely ashamed and comfortless when communicating with people or being in a crowded environment, and I was afraid to participate in things requiring interaction with most people, so I made a terribly wrong decision of keeping this to myself and just focusing on the study. Day after day, my condition was getting worse and worse as the exam date was closer and closer. I thought that I was able to fix my own problems without needing to ask for other's help, but what happened during the final exams proved that I was wrong. As soon as I walked into the exam hall, I started feeling continuous discomfort in my chest and stomach followed by confusion and panic. During the exam, I was totally surrounded by these emotions, and it became tremendously tough as I wasn't able to pay high attention to the exam questions. Throughout the exam, the subtle and different sounds caused by the other students caused a tremendous amount of disturbance to me followed by legs trembling, hands sweating and mood swinging and I could not focus on any of my thoughts. During the whole exam, I could only dash off some superficial and general answers on account of that I could not calm down to recall the knowledge points. As a result, I only passed two of five exams in the 2018 Fall term. CHEM 211, one of the two courses I succeeded, was a repeated course, so it was not as difficult as other courses for me to pass; the other course CHEM 213, though required students to sit together for exam in one room, it allowed us to take along notes, texts or resource materials in the exam situation which hence did not make me so dysphoric during the exam. The fact that I failed almost all of the exams held in students-intensive rooms in 2018 Fall, I believe, has been compelling enough to confirm the negative impact of my mental health illness on my academic standing at that time.


Realizing the severances of my mental health illness, I went to the Student Wellness Service in the beginning of 2019 Winter term and consulted doctor Dennis Pringle for help, aspiring to return to a normal study and life. We discussed how my behavior had changed in the past year and Dr. Pringle helped me figure out the ways to overcome my illness which had stood in the way of communicating with others. Fortunately after the meetings with Dr. Pringle during the month of January, I became confident and comfortable again to seek help from others and began to have consultations with professors, TAs, and the SWS study strategist, to study together with friends, and to complete the courses work more concentrated. I then took a lighter course load to only three courses so that I would not be overwhelmed. Furthermore, being academically accommodated allowed me to write exams (all quizzes and midterms for CHEM 221 and CHEM 222) of in a smaller room that accommodates 7-8 students. During the exams, I got to write in a more familiar and comfortable environment. Hence, I felt much more casual and relaxed than during the past exams in 2018 Fall term. Throughout 2019 Winter term, I gradually overcame the difficulties in writing exams in student-intensive rooms and by the time of the final weeks, I went writing my exams in the normal exam locations (with no accommodations) and didn't experience the negative effects that I did in the exam in 2018 Fall term, and hence performed normally. Thankfully, these adjustments contributed to the increase of my term GPA from 0.74 in 2018 Fall to 2.20 in 2019 Winter which not only was a tremendous academic improvement but also the highest term GPA I have ever gained at Queen's. This tremendous progress is convictive to prove that I have come out of the past, and I am able to perform better in subsequent studies.


I should have submitted my appeal in time to drop my failed courses of 2018 Fall term, but due to my miscommunication on my unit for re-evaluation of my academic standing with the academic advisor plus my misunderstanding that my failed courses will not count towards the 18 units total for re-evaluation of academic standing, I ended up doing nothing. I have now come to a full realization that my unseriousness in my academics and about my mental health indirectly caused the serious consequence that I am now required to withdraw from the school for one year, which I believe should be waived based on my extenuating circumstances as I elaborated above. I believe that I am now in a good position to perform better in future academic studies and that I can complete my following studies successfully, so I sincerely hope that you could offer me the precious opportunity to continue my academic study. Thanks for your patience and favorable consideration on this appeal.


Best regards,


Jiamen Li