Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Dr. Jenn Stephenson, Associate Dean (Studies):

I am appealing to drop PSYC 204, PSYC 370, PSYC 398 courses (Winter, 2019) HLTH 200, PSYC 241 courses (Fall, 2018) and appealing for a credit standing in PSYC 399 course (Winter, 2019) and PSYC 205, PSYC 251 courses (Fall, 2018). I had an abysmal fourth year at Queen¿¿s due to extenuating circumstances.

Extenuating circumstances beyond my control surfaced in the Fall of 2018 and directly affected my academic performance throughout the entire school year (Fall 2018/Winter 2019). It began when I learned of some major family issues (job loss of a parent, mental health issues with my sibling) in middle of my Fall semester that consuming my thoughts and distracted me greatly from my studies. Living across the country I thought I could escape the majority of family issues in Calgary, but as I worried about it, it triggered underlying mental health issues in me that began to impact and impair every aspect of my life, including my academic performance. Living alone in residence I began to self-medicate, rather than ask for help. As a result, I had trouble focusing on class lectures, I failed to complete course work, and was missing all kinds of deadlines. I couldn¿¿t find the mental strength to apply myself to finish assignments and when I failed to submit some key assignments or submitted them late, I incurred penalties that contributed to me failing or getting a barely passing grade in almost all my courses in the Fall. I could barely make it through my exams and the results showed.

I thought once I saw my family at Christmas break, that would help turn things around for me. But I didn¿¿t let them know how much everything was affecting me. I made an attempt to submit an appeal at the end of December 2018 to have an extension for some overdue assignments from the Fall for a chance to receive full marks without a late penalty, but at that time I still didn¿¿t fully acknowledge the state of my mental health. Once I returned to school for the Winter semester, my mental health quickly deteriorated. I didn¿¿t know what to do or where to turn. In studying psychology, I was too proud to seek help from a counsellor as I thought I could handle this burden myself. But I was a shell of a person who was severely depressed and couldn¿¿t even see how bad I was. I walked into Winter exams performing poorly and failed almost all of my courses.

It was only when I came home in May and my family saw the drastic difference in me did it begin to sink in how severely my mental health affected me in my school year. Still I was thinking I could manage everything myself and continued to turn to substances to mask my pain. However, it came to a head in July where I was admitted to hospital to help address and diagnose my mental health issues. Since then I have been on a treatment plan where I continue to consult with my family doctor on my progress and attend ongoing counselling with a psychologist in Calgary.

In all, I didn¿¿t see how critical my situation was and how it continued to get worse through the year as I was in denial. I didn¿¿t drop courses in the Fall because the extenuating circumstances happened well after the Week 8 drop deadline. In the Winter, I was trying to convince myself everything was okay, so I dropped one course, thinking lightening the load from five courses to four would address my problems. Clearly, I didn¿¿t understand the gravity of my mental health issues.

Going forward, to succeed in completing my degree at Queen¿¿s I know I first must take care of myself, so my plan is to take this semester off in order to focus on my mental health. Through this Fall, I am maintaining regular meetings with my psychologist and family doctor to get mentally well. I plan to resume my studies in the Winter semester with a goal to graduate next spring. It is a work in progress but I believe I can be successful at Queen¿¿s again now that I have the help I need.

I have always tried to fix things myself, not truly understanding what was mentally in the way. I now understand that there is a process to appeal to drop courses and upon advisement from an academic advisor, I am also appealing to drop ANAT 101, taken in Winter 2016. I mistakenly enrolled in this class, thinking it was ANAT 100, another more general Anatomy class recommended to me by an academic advisor (which I eventually did). ANAT 101 turned out to be a very intense pre-Med course, and medicine was not my intended area of study. I understand this is from my first year at Queen¿¿s but I would have appealed to drop it had I reached out for help to understand this process earlier.

I appreciate your consideration of my appeal requests.

Sincerely,
John (Jack) Wasylenko
10202695