Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To Whom It May Concern,

My name is Diana Ingham and I am a third-year Undergraduate student majoring in Spanish with a minor in French. I am writing this letter on my own behalf, to appeal the completion of two courses; PSYC 204 and BIOL 103. Although I have accommodations through the University, I have found that they have not been suitably implemented by my professors and furthermore, I have been continuously ill-advised throughout the duration of my University career. As such, I feel as though I am constantly playing catch up; I am working my hardest to work through the issues for which I have accommodations, while also providing damage control for courses that I have not successfully completed in the past due to issues with my mental and physical health.

I was first diagnosed with ADHD at the age of 17, when I experienced significant issues focusing for long periods of time. This diagnosis was soon followed by diagnoses of severe anxiety, major depressive disorder (MDD) and panic disorder. Following years of medical treatment through chronic medication management and behavior modification, I have developed coping skills that allow me to function well on a day-to-day basis. That being said, in times of extreme stress, I still experience symptoms of anxiety and panic disorder. While I have worked very hard to put safeguards into place in my day-to-day life to combat my anxiety and panic disorder, when I am under extreme duress, I still experience debilitating symptoms including: rapid heart rate, trembling/shaking, nausea, headache and feelings of detachment.

During the exam period of Winter 2019, I became physically ill and was unable to write the exams for PSYC 204 BIOL 103. Prior to the examinations, I felt adequately prepared to sit the exams after days of laborious studying. Due to my physical illness and therefore my inability to write the examinations, they were deferred until September of the Fall 2019 term. Prior to the deferment of these exams, I was previously scheduled to sit for two exams for PSYC 100. Overall, this led to four exams being scheduled within a two-day time frame, this however was not the reason for appeal. In order to combat the large number of exams in a short time frame and to set myself up for success on the exams, I attempted to move the PSYC 100 exam to the following week. Due to incorrect advisement from a Queen¿¿s University professor, I was told it was not possible to move the PSYC 100 exam to the following week and as such I ended up having to write the exam. I was unable to write all four exams during the short two-day time period because I began to experience debilitating symptoms of panic disorder, listed above, that made it impossible.

As a result of this experience, I submitted an appeal to defer the exams to the fall 2019 exam period, however, this has been denied. I have two issues with the denial of my request. The first is that the presenting problem that the appeal committee claimed I stated was the reason for my appeal is incorrect. The reason I was unable to take my exams, as I stated in the letter, was because I began to purposefully injure myself which caused the debilitating symptoms and thus, I was not in a healthy mental state to write my exams. The situation resulted in significant emotional distress for me which were beyond my current coping capabilities and the reason for my appeal. The second is that the letter that was written by Queens counseling services was inadequate and did not accurately reflect my current mental health status that I had discussed with a counselor. I understand that the counselling service is having a difficult time with scheduling, however the letter mentioned how my symptoms would affect my future work not how it had affected my work in the past and appeared to be a ¿¿form letter¿ displaying no evidence of personalising to my situation.

I understand the denial and I have decided to take the advice of the committee and not take the exams by appealing to drop both of the courses. I am writing this letter on my own behalf to humbly request that the courses of PSYC 204 and BIOL 103 be removed from my transcripts. I work incredibly hard each day to persevere through the encumbering symptoms associated with my ADHD, major depressive disorder, panic disorder and anxiety. As such, I do not feel that having these courses on my transcripts is an accurate reflection of who I am as a student.

I have also attached a letter from my therapist at home confirming my ongoing treatment and diagnosis.

I would like to conclude by saying that I know that I am capable and deserving of working toward a bachelor¿¿s degree and I have been very earnestly trying to do the best I can considering my circumstances. But I am finding it difficult to navigate the ambiguous accommodation process as well as poor staff awareness for protocol. I have experienced difficulty after difficulty trying to help myself through this process which serves to exacerbate my anxiety.

If I can provide any additional details and/or documentation I would be happy to do so. Thank you for your time and kind consideration.


Sincerely,

Diana Ingham