Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To the Associate Deans (Studies):

Dear Sir or Madam,

I am submitting this appeal to waive my requirement to withdrawal for a year from my undergraduate studies. Due to various stressful and life-altering events of the past year, I truly believe this should be reconsidered.

The end of my first year of undergraduate studies was incredibly mentally taxing. Being one of the first children to go to university in my family and live alone, away from home, was stressful. I felt as though I had no one to talk to and I did not know where to turn for help. It was difficult adjusting to the work load and rigors of university life and ending the year with academic probation was difficult to grasp. However, after conversing with my peers I understood that it is not uncommon to struggle in first year, especially because one has a lot of adjusting to do and must learn new study habits. I felt like I could turn things around in second year with new study habits and my new knowledge of how university works. Unfortunately, near the end of my first year, my aunt passed away due to a sudden relapse in breast cancer. It was incredibly sudden and she was the closest family member I had ever lost. This extremely deteriorated my mental health and I was completely unfocused. What started out as going to some classes at the beginning of the year slowly turned into rarely going to any classes as I was consumed with grief and was managing my family¿¿s company at the time due to my parents struggling to make ends meet for a funeral and related services. I started seeking help from my closest friends because I felt more comfortable talking to them.

Shortly thereafter, at the beginning of my second semester of my second year of studies, I discovered that my sister had retinal nerve damage and was in risk of losing her vision. She went into surgery and this impacted my mental health greatly. I was focused on providing support for my sister and family through this tough time. My thoughts were completely consumed with worry for her well-being, causing me to lose track of my school work. In addition to this, my sister¿¿s illness was also financially taxing to my family as she does not reside in Canada at the moment, and her surgeries were funded for out of pocket. I was even more stressed due to our lack of financial stability and needed to help my father with running our family business. This left very little time for me to focus on my studies and I found that I went to class even less. I struggled to catch up with information and found I had no energy or time to focus on school as I was working from Kingston to support a business based in Mississauga.

I am able to provide my aunt¿¿s obituary and a doctor¿¿s note from my sister¿¿s doctor providing the extent of her conditions and proof of her surgery to establish a clear timeline of events in parallel to my undergraduate studies here at Queen¿¿s University.

Sincerely,
Nilani Rathakrishnan
20062989