Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Dean Stephenson,

I am writing this letter to ask that the requirement to withdraw from Queen¿¿s be waived and that GPHY362, GPHY337, GPHY368, GPHY365, GPHY314 be dropped from Winter-Fall of 2016. I am also requesting that PHIL261, HIST200, and HIST207 be dropped from Winter 2019. In this appeal I will outline the extenuating circumstances for these requests, provide documentation and explanations for my actions, and present my academic plan to finish my degree.
In March of 2016 I was sexually assaulted. Along with 80 of sexual assault cases among undergraduates1, my assault in 2016 went unreported. It has taken me years, combined with trauma-focused therapy, to understand that my assault was real and that even if I did not report it, it met standards of sexual violence. I¿¿m asking that 1 Winter 2016 course and 4 Fall 2016 courses be dropped due to my inability to perform up to expected academic standards.
Completing coursework was easier right after my assault, partially because I only had finals to get through, but also because I was able to initially brush aside my experience. My brain was not processing the full weight of what had happened, and it wasn¿¿t until later in the summer and fall that I began to really feel the physical and mental repercussions of the assault. Through working with my current therapist I¿¿ve learned that one of the most common ways the human body protects itself after an experience like mine is by shutting down. When I shut down in the months following my assault it made completing my coursework impossible. I would have recurring thoughts about the assault, I would get tired quickly, I had low energy, and I did not feel safe in an environment where I felt like I didn¿¿t have good enough reasons to explain why I was performing poorly in school. Everything about the experience told me that I was making up the symptoms I was feeling. I was not in therapy at this time and had no meaningful way to unpack why I was feeling the way I was.
Therapy has taught me that when a sexual assault happens, it drastically influences self-perception. I had never thought of myself as incapable or weak, if anything I felt exactly the opposite -my primary extracurricular activity at Queen¿¿s was competitive debate. However, as my grades slipped, I grew increasingly scared to approach professors or attend class because I would see a reflection of someone who was struggling and incapable. In fall of 2016 I tried to actively reject that view of myself by turning away from schoolwork and focusing on areas where I felt strong and in control, like debate. You may know that up until the month of my assault, Queen¿¿s did not have a functional sexual violence policy.3 As such, I did not feel like I was in an environment where my reasons would be taken seriously.
I¿¿m asking for the courses from this past Winter Term to be dropped because I was experiencing debilitating anxiety every day. I knew that if I did not get my GPA to a 1.6 in that term, I would be deported from Canada. My student visa requires that to remain in this country I remain a student in good academic standing at Queen¿¿s, and I knew that if I failed, I would receive the letter you sent me asking me to withdraw for 3 years. The PTSD from my sexual assault in February 2019, coupled with the paralyzing anxiety of leaving Canada and the life I was building here made it impossible to be in the right headspace to complete coursework. I was working part time during this semester to pay my rent and I was unable to balance that with my course load while being in the midst of untreated anxiety and depressive episodes.
I did not understand until a few months ago that all that was standing in the way of me completing my degree was my GPA, not my credits. I¿¿ve taken 6 years to complete a 3-year degree, and therefore I have a surplus of credits, but my GPA is not at a 1.6. Before my Winter Term grades, I had a 1.34 cumulative. I was never told by an academic counselor that the fastest way to boost my GPA was to drop old Fs from my transcript. I believed, and was never told otherwise, that I had to continue to take courses at Queen¿¿s to try to boost my GPA, and that¿¿s what I tried to do. My academic plan is to see how close this appeal brings me to a 1.6 (if all my requests are met, I will exceed a 1.6 and be eligible to graduate). These Fs have held me back from graduating with my class, and they represent a time when I was at my lowest in University. I sincerely apologize for how long it has taken me to understand the best course of action for completing my degree. I hope you will understand that dropping these courses is not me asking for special treatment but is asking for my experience to be taken seriously by Queen¿¿s, as it should be. My therapist will be sending supplementary documentation as soon as possible, and I genuinely thank you for your consideration.

1 Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Bureau of Justice Statistics, Rape and
Sexual Victimization Among College-Aged Females, 1995-2013 (2014).
2 Rosen, Jacob. ¿¿Queen's Approves Sexual Violence Policy.¿ The Journal, 4 Mar. 2016, www.queensjournal.ca/story/2016-03-04/news/queens-implements-new-sexual-assault-policy/.