Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean (Studies),

I am writing to request appeals for the following:
- I am requesting to late drop ECON 232 and ECON 212
- To drop failed BIO 205 off my transcript.
- I am also appealing for credit standings in these following courses: CLST 201 (FALL, 2017), BIOL 201(Fall, 2018), ECON 111 (Fall, 2018), PHYS 117B (Winter, 2018), and CHEM 112 (WINTER, 2018).
- If the above requests are not granted, I ask the Associate Dean, at minimal, to waive my requirement to withdraw

I am appealing all this on the grounds of compassion as well as medical.

Over my past two years at Queens, the feeling of being detached and unmotivated from my academics, family, and friends has been recurring. I went from being an advanced student in highschool, completing International Baccalaureate Diploma. School was my solace and I was always an excellent student. My academics alongside my friends always held great importance in my life. However, the transition from my home city to Kingston was harsh. I became disconnected from everything and everyone around me. Quite frankly, I was feeling lonely in a brand-new city. I went from being surrounded by people I know to not knowing anybody. The pressures of being independent alongside post-secondary education was catching up to me.

It was during my first semester of first year where I first started experiencing the symptoms of my condition. At first, I did not know why I was feeling so much despair. I grew up in a South Asian household with parents who immigrated to Canada. The topic of mental health is almost never discussed. It is not considered a significant matter and is highly stigmatized. Thus, I could not turn to my family during these times, as it was unspoken of due to cultural differences. I have never assessed myself in regard to my mental health, because I genuinely never thought of it to be something that could or would affect me. Therefore, I honestly thought that my severe symptoms were not a product of a poor mental health. Therefore, I continued to dismiss my poor mental health. Now I realise that I had been pushing myself beyond my limits, to the point where it had become a very unhealthy cycle.

Despite not having much support because of my culture and family, I am proud to say I have now been able to recognize that I need help. The simple act of taking the initiative to seek help for myself is a substantial step in the right direction, considering the stigma in my community. The journey to this realization was lengthy and difficult but I desperately needed to get my health back on track in order to do the things I have always dreamed of doing.
Although my symptoms have been recurring for the past two years, it was only very recently I got my condition diagnosed. With the help of my family doctor, I was diagnosed with anxiety and depression. The circumstance that made me finally put an end to my adversity, and to seek medical help was during the exam period of the winter semester of 2019. During this time, I had to go to Kingston General Hospital on more than one occasion because the stress of exams alongside my poor mental health, started to affect me physically. I had begun to get physically sick. The burden of trying my best to complete my exams began to take a toll on my body. I had high fevers and nausea caused by stress, which forced me to defer my exams. I had to submit documentation for extenuating circumstances to the faculty, for this reason.

After reflecting on my consistently poor academic performance across the board these past two years
I recognize that my condition, which was undiagnosed, and not in my control, severely impacted my academic performance. Even though I have been recently diagnosed, it is evident that the psychological effects of my health condition have been ongoing and worsening over the past two years. I believe that this is the major reason for my poor performance at school.
Upon reflecting on my journey this far, I know I should have reached out for help, but the stigma surrounding mental health, especially in the environment and cultural background I come from, played a big role in my decision to silently suffer these past years. For years, my own mental health was something I never even considered about reflecting on. However, I am able to sit and see the damage that ignoring it has done. My time at Queens, which was supposed to be filled with determination, hope and success, became a dark time. I had isolated myself from everyone back home due to feeling ashamed of my poor grades. I found that distancing myself from the people I loved became easier than having to put on a brave face. I did not recognize who I had become on the inside. I had worked hard all throughout the years leading up to university, but felt helpless when despite my best efforts, my grades were so low. I had always been a focused student and the fact that I was able to get into such a prestigious school shows that.

Firstly, I would like to late drop Econ 232 and Econ 212. On SOLUS, these two courses are marked as incomplete as I deferred these exams, due to the extenuating circumstances I have previously outlined and provided documentation for. Upon evaluating the weightings of what I have and have not completed in these mentioned courses, the mass pressure placed on the percentage of the final exam means that the likelihood of passing them is very low. I recognize that dropping these courses before week 8 would have been ideal, but I did not drop these courses for two main reasons. At the time, I strongly believed that with additional time dedicated to reviewing course content, I would be able to do well and pull my weight in the course. However, although I tried my best to succeed in the courses, the lack of attention to my severely declining mental health inhibited me from being successful in these attempts. Additionally, I did not receive any type of written or verbal feedback from my professors suggesting I drop the course due to my low performance in the course. Overall, I experienced personal struggles and found it difficult to overcome these obstacles in order to meet deadlines when submitting and writing assignments and quizzes which made up a large portion of my mark. Even though this circumstance was out of my control, I tried to remedy it and reached out to my professors and requested if they could change the weightings of certain components in the course, or allow me to resubmit, but unfortunately, I was told that those options were not possible.

Secondly, I am appealing to remove my failed Biology 205 grade off my transcript. I believe that my deteriorating mental health led me to failing this course. Overall, my condition at the time led to my detachment and lack of motivation to grasp course material. I struggled under the pressure and did not drop the course, because at the time I was working towards majoring in Biology. I thought that since this course was one of my favourites in high school, that I would be more than able to complete this course with high marks. I pushed myself beyond my limits and thought I could do better to raise my mark and satisfy the criteria to obtain my degree, turning a blind eye to my declining mental health. Throughout the weeks leading up to the final exam, I was experiencing many panic attacks that left me feeling alone and weak. On the day of the final exam, I found myself having a nervous breakdown which forced me to defer the exam. At the time, I seriously thought that if I took some extra time to compose myself and try to spend extra time on course material, I would be able to do well on my final exam. Unfortunately, I was wrong and failed to recognize that how I was feeling was not something I could blame on lack of sleep or lack of preparation. Even with extra time, my attempt to be successful failed and I cracked under the pressure. This experience with the course jump started my program change. After realizing that Biology doesn¿¿t interest me the way it used to, I have since taken the initiative to change my major to economics, an area of study I thoroughly enjoy, showing that I am working on becoming more self-aware and am taking the right steps to find a degree plan that suits me.

I am appealing credit standings in the four mentioned courses because during the time I was taking these courses, it is evident that I was silently suffering with a condition I had absolutely no control over. Moreover, I strongly believe that these poor grades are a direct result of my condition. I do not believe these grades are an accurate representation of my abilities. However, despite severely struggling, my efforts can be seen, as I still managed to pass these courses. I strongly believe I can succeed in my academics and my ability for success can be clearly seen in my Anatomy 100 mark. The primary reason behind my success in these courses was my interest in the courses themselves and, for me, they were not as difficult in comparison, so even with my poor mental health, I was able to stay on top of the material.

Upon serious reflection of the past, I recognize that my dismissiveness of my own mental health prevented me from being successful. I have taken the initiative to get my condition diagnosed, and I am proud that I have broken the stigma surrounding mental health and am actively seeking the help I badly needed. Since being diagnosed, I am in regular contact with a counsellor and my family doctor. I am also taking the prescribed medication. With the guidance and help of my healthcare professionals, my condition is a work in progress and continues to improve. I am spending time with myself and the people who know me best, to get back to who I was before. My circumstances are currently being managed because I am taking prescribed medication and actively seeking therapy. I am seeing a counsellor who was referred to me by my family doctor at CAMH (Centre for Mental Health and Addiction). These practices will continue during the school year and continue to improve my mental health so that it does not continue to negatively impact my academic performance. Additionally, I plan on reaching out to the Student Wellness Centre for a counsellor on campus. I find that this method is very effective for me because gives me an outlet to alleviate my stress, in a healthy and positive way.

If granted, my future years of studies will include taking core courses in Economics in order to obtain my Bachelor of Arts (Economics). I plan to retake both Econ 212 and Econ 232 in the following year. Econ 212 is a core course and prerequisite for other courses. In other words, I need it to obtain my Economics degree, which is why retaking and being successful in obtaining a credit for it, is crucial to my completion of a degree. Additionally, retaking Econ 232 will also satisfy specific criteria I need to get my degree.

Upon serious reflection of what went wrong in the past besides my health condition, I did not effectively balance my course load. For example, I had a very heavy semester of core courses and little to none electives. Going into the future, I plan to overcome this by balancing out my course load between the two semesters by distributing the number of electives and core courses I take. This action will reduce my workload and allow me to have enough time to dedicate to courses that require more effort and are more difficult. Furthermore, my health condition caused me to avoid asking for help when I needed it because I felt unintelligent and lacked confidence.
As my treatment continues, I am regaining the drive and motivation. My condition directly impacted my self-esteem and I did not have the confidence to ask for help from my professors. In the future,
I plan to ask for help when I need it and take any required steps to help me stay on top of my academics, such as getting a tutor or joining a study group. I also plan on taking advantage of all the student support resources being offered on campus, such as the Student Academic Services. I would also like to have a support group in Kingston to help guide me through the school year. Staying in regular communication with my professors will keep me on track and on top of my academics.

To end things off, my last two years have been bumpy and difficult, but I have made clear efforts and taken responsibility to manage my extenuating circumstances in the best manner I can. I would like to finish my program with grades that reflect my ability to perform without the various challenges that I had to face the past two years. I am confident in my dedication to stay in this program and school and would like another second chance, as I had to go through unexpected life changing events without the support I desperately needed.

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Neha Gupta