Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean,

I am appealing to drop the following Fall 2019 courses; ANAT 315, PHGY 215, HLTH 200 and PHAR 230.

I am an international exchange student from Scotland, studying at Queens University for semester 1. The extenuating circumstance beyond my control severely negatively impacted my studies and forced me to return home early. In short, someone very close to me at home had been struggling with severe depression, which got much worse once I left for exchange. The extenuating circumstance began affecting my classes on October 3rd,2019, where an incident involving a FaceTime call and self-harm led me to call the police to their home to make sure they were still alive. I was on the phone with the police until 4am and the situation prevented me from sitting HLTH 200 midterm and submitting HLTH 200 assignment the following morning, Friday October 4th. I submitted an online extenuating circumstances form and met with my professor to rearrange these deadlines for the following week. My PHAR 230 midterm on Thursday October 10th was also impacted from the aftermath of this horrible experience, as I really struggled to focus and was constantly worrying about the individual, however I proceeded to sit the exam. On October 18th, this person came to visit me in Canada, a trip which had been planned one month prior to the incident. On the night of Monday October 21st, they opened up about their suicide plan and the active steps they have taken to ensure they have everything ready to go for when they return to Scotland in one-weeks¿¿ time. The following day I called their doctor and she advised I get the person seen by a psychiatrist immediately. I had to leave my PHGY 215 midterm, Tuesday October 22nd, 90 minutes early to go to the student wellness centre and get their help and I also spoke to a counsellor there. I had to use the only time we had apart, which unfortunately was the time I should have been sitting exams, to help this person without them knowing. I had to return the following day to call their doctor again to set up appointments for their return, which meant once again, I had to compromise my studies by leaving the ANAT 315 midterm after just 15mins. My grades in both of these midterms clearly reflect the negative impact this situation was having. On Tuesday October 29th, one day after the person returned to Scotland, I spoke again to a student wellness counsellor and she advised not to sit my ANAT 215 lab exam that afternoon due to the ongoing stress and anxiety preventing me from studying and focussing on anything. On Thursday October 31st, the person attempted suicide, was rushed to hospital but thankfully survived. The impact of the whole situation was so immense, I never returned to class after that night. I couldn¿¿t sleep, eat, socialise or barely leave my house in the days after due to severe anxiety and PTSD, as I had been on the phone with them just before. I spoke to two counsellors on separate occasions on the Friday and Monday after that night, and after consulting with the student wellness occupational therapist, made the decision to return home as I was not coping with the stress and anxiety being so far away from everyone. My grades were severely affected, and due to the nature of the extenuating circumstance, was hard to say when things would improve and therefore, I believed that the only thing left for me to do was come home and be surrounded by family and friends who could help me through the situation.

On returning to Scotland, I have been receiving on-going weekly counselling sessions to help me cope with the situation and have met with my course coordinator and advisor of studies to discuss reducing my course load for next semester and work out the next steps to achieving academic success the following year.