Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Hello. My name is Jacqueline Ryan, and I am appealing today in the hopes of dropping my PSYC100 class without any academic consequences. To begin, I would like to apologize for my delayed decision to drop this course ¿¿ I have never dropped a course before now in my academic career, so I am very nervous, skeptical and ignorant of the process. Also, throughout my life, I have tried to make a point of refusing to let any of my dispositional shortcomings, whether they be financial or family matters, define my capabilities or success. Thus, I have always tried to toughen it out and work through any extenuating circumstances I may be enduring. It took me until today, the day of my deferred exam, to recognize how truly unprepared I am for this evaluation resultant of my situation ¿¿ I can no longer lie to myself and say everything is simply going to work out. I have been unable to properly prepare for this exam and ultimately participate in this class due to the personal extenuating circumstance that initially deferred it. In short, my family is currently part of an ongoing financial lawsuit against my extended relatives, more specifically my father¿¿s sister, which has been psychologically and emotionally draining for me to undergo. In April 2015, when my grandmother passed away, it became apparent that my aunt, who was appointed as my grandmothers power of attorney (the person who controls your funds when you became mentally unfit to do so yourself), was consistently taking money out of her account that was supposed to be equally distributed to parties of her will. Over 120,000 was unaccounted for that should have otherwise been claimed by my Dad, as well as me and my siblings. We then commenced the tiring, lengthy, draining process of suing her, which has been an emotional and strenuous rollercoaster for the past 5 years. It was finally coming to a climax in December 2019 when we were supposed to meet for the last time in court, and my Aunt was to be ordered to pass the accounts, like she should have done from the beginning, so we could prove that she stole the money. This court date was at the time of the initial Psychology exam date, and so I had to go through the whole deferral process which ultimately ended with a trip to student wellness where I received a form of Verification of Confidential Extenuating Circumstance, which I will attach with this appeal. The outcome of that court date was unsatisfactory to say the least. The court has yet to hold my Aunt accountable for her transgressions, and we now must file another motion of contempt that I am actively helping my parents write, for I am very invested in the wellbeing and overall happiness of my family. I will spare any more details for my appointment at Student Wellness, but I hope I am effectively conveying how taxing this whole endeavor has been on me and my family, both emotionally and psychologically. At times, this lawsuit and its potential outcomes are all I can think about ¿¿ I have spent the last 5 years wondering when the justice system was going to run its course, and, in light of these most recent occurrences, I have now been questioning if we will get our money at all. Again, the court date was at the time of the initial psychology exam, and because of this timing I now see that there was no way I was going to be able to effectively study for the deferred exam with this last hearing so fresh ¿¿ over this last month a pattern arose of me sitting down to study only to end up calling my Dad to see if there were any updates in the hearing or if I need to write another affidavit/component of the motion. Even though I have not gone to a doctor, I believe that I have become very depressed over this situation which has subsequently prevented me from properly focusing and studying for this exam. Additionally, the stress and pressure of this exam accounting for just under half (45) of my overall grade has caused me copious amounts of anxiety that quickly became too overwhelming, which also effected my concentration. Resultantly, I cannot see myself being successful in passing this course, and because of the reasons presented I would be very grateful if the 21 day deadline for dropping the course (that ended yesterday) was waived on account of the court date timing as well as my personal scepticisms and delusions that prevented me from dropping the class sooner. This has been an extremely hard decision for me to make, and I found the information concerning the dropping courses to be very ambiguous, which has impacted the time of my decision as well. If no refund is available, that is perfectly understandable. I am just very worried that my GPA will suffer at the cause of something I truly had no control over. I am currently setting up an appointment at Student Wellness to receive their tangible support, and I will attach the copy of my initial Extenuating Circumstance form to verify the situation. Please let me know if there is anything else I can/should do to see this course drop through. Thank you so much for your help and understanding, and have a great day.