Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: November 17, 2019

Dear Dr. Jenn Stephenson,

My name is Trevor Gooden and I am a third year applied economics student here at Queen's University. I am writing this letter to you to appeal to drop one of my courses, ECON 391, as soon as permissible. I understand that this letter finds you past the drop deadline of November 1st, 2019, however a combination of troubling personal and course-specific circumstances have transpired over the past few weeks such that I am unable to carry on in the course due to impact these circumstances have had on my academic and personal wellbeing.


To begin, I would like to go over the complications with my mental health and personal circumstances that have affected my ability to engage in schoolwork. Over the past few weeks, situations with my immediate family in Ajax, Ontario have diverted much of my attention from schoolwork. My mother is heavily affected by seasonal depression, which, combined with the recent moving of my siblings to different areas has impacted her deeply. Visits with my family during the weekends of November 2nd, and Thanksgiving diverted much of my attention to matters at home. Focusing my attention of such matters has impacted my mental health, and I worry that I too am suffering from seasonal depression like my mother. Between worrying about the status of my family/mother these past few weeks, and my own depression/possibility for a diagnosis if it, I have been unable to fully focus on schoolwork and commit myself to all my courses. Still, I have worked through adversity in my 2 and half years at Queen's and I would normally be able to overcome such setbacks. However, the structure of ECON 391 and circumstances surrounding the course have prevented me from doing so.


The way that ECON 391 is carried out creates an abundance of uncertainty that makes succeeding in the course difficult in my current state. As it stands, I would be able to complete my courses if I was able to adequately plan for how they will proceed. However a large percentage of marks in ECON 391 are derived from group work and group quizzes that severely impact my stress and contribute to my worsening mental state. The group quizzes in particular are unpredictable and incredibly stressful, as we are paired with groups that are not predetermined and as such forced to rely on individuals who are unprepared and do not contribute to the group effort. This puts excessive burden on my mental health and the uncertainty in knowing how each group work will proceed adds directly to my stress and depression. Being forced to over-rely on others for my contributions to the course has put an unnecessary amount of stress on myself due to important factors being beyond my control. Again, taken by itself this course format would be surmountable. However when taken in conjunction with my mental health complications from the past few weeks, I find it is exceedingly difficult to succeed in the course. Understanding this, I am working towards a professional diagnosis of any/all of the mental health issues I may currently be facing, but in the meantime this appeal is some of the only action that I can immediately take.


I hope I have been able to outline why it is necessary for me to drop ECON 391 the earliest opportunity. Ideally this would have been prior to the drop date, but my mental health, family problems, and course uncertainty has only peaked in the past few weeks such that I am forced to request an appeal it at this point in the semester. As a student I pride myself on working through adversity, however the extenuating circumstances at present are too much to work through. This, in addition to the fact that ECON 391 is merely an optional course for my major are the reasons why I would like to submit this appeal to you today.

All the best,
Trevor Gooden