Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To the Associate Dean,


This letter is an appeal to extend the incomplete grades for three courses noted above. It is with great disappointment that I write this letter. However, its purpose is to request that I be given an extension to complete the three courses I have remaining from Winter 2019 (POLS 242, 212, 264) be the end of the Fall 2019 term. The state of my mental health between Winter 2019 and Summer 2019 was terrible. While I understand and greatly appreciate that I was already given significant accommodation by the university, my health condition became unbearable, and regressed over both terms, I could not keep up with my schooling. I was recently hospitalized (in June) for over a week and since then I have had extreme difficulty with daily functioning. This was a result of extreme anxiety, substantial side effects (memory loss, very low stress tolerance etc.) from adjusting to daily medications, other depressive symptoms and an overall terrible mental state. I did not tell others of this, with symptoms beginning in January 2019.

In addition to these issues, I also recently experienced a family tragedy (the passing of my grandfather) in February. The aggregation of these things had prevented me from leaving my room most days. I felt overwhelmed by this illness, and as a result did not hand in the essays for my classes or attend most tutorials. While I understand it would have made more sense to contact the school earlier and drop the courses before March 1st, I felt incredibly uncomfortable with the idea of telling family, friends, and others until I came home for the study break in April. I have attached documentation substantiating my condition. I also understand that I was given an additional period of three months to complete the overdue work, however the doctors have told me the recovery process could take up to 6 months. I have been seeing a psychologist weekly, participated in a 6 week outpatient program from Sunnybrook hospital and have begun treatment from a new clinic under which I see a psychiatrist bi-weekly (CMHA Early Psychosis Intervention Program). It is for these reasons that I will be staying in Toronto.


The plan for my future studies is to take online courses at home with the university (in Toronto) for the Fall term, with the expectation that I will be well enough to return to Kingston for Winter 2020. I have registered with QSAS, and have attached the completed disability documentation form. The Fall term will be a reduced workload of online courses, as I would like to complete the three winter 2019 courses I still have outstanding while also engaging in new online material. I aim to take a wait and see approach to view my progress and prevented any feelings of being overwhelmed, being mindful of the drop deadline of November 1st.

In addition, I have also started working on the essays and other course material for the outstanding courses, so that I can write the exams in the near future. I will be writing an exam for LAW 201, the fourth outstanding for which I only have the final exam remaining in early September. As a result, I have not included this in this appeal. While this is the case, I still do need more time to complete the rest of the coursework.

Thank you for your time, I hope something can be worked out. Again, I really do appreciate the university's support and understanding throughout this difficult situation. After many months of struggling, I finally have begun to feel like myself again. Due to this, I feel capable of completing these courses by the end of Fall Term. I am attaching letters from Sunnybrook regarding my admission, discharge and other letters of accommodation.

Thank you and please contact me if you require any clarification

Jake Giller 20063418
16jcg6@queensu.ca