Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: February 1st, 2020

To the Associate Dean (Studies),

I am appealing my grade for credit standing (CR) in Phil 301(Fall, 2019) on the grounds that my mental health affected the punctuality of my assignments throughout the course. Toward the end of last semester, I missed a crucial assignment deadline on November 12th for reasons beyond my control, which detrimentally affected my overall mark (C-) in Phil 301.

At the beginning of last summer, I was diagnosed with severe depression and anxiety. As part of my treatment plan, I attended therapy four times a week, along with bi-weekly check-ins with my psychiatrist and counsellor. In my aftercare package that was given at the end of my treatment, I was told that my symptoms could reoccur at any time, especially during seasonal changes. During the week after the add/drop date, I fell into a deep period of isolation and did not attend any of my classes for 1-2 weeks. This affected most of my academics and extracurricular activities. In my other courses, I missed several minor assignments and quizzes, but I managed to keep up with the work since there were more structured deadlines and reminders. In Phil 301 however, the impact of my absence was most significant because I missed a 25 assignment deadline and I exceeded the provided grace period to submit it. Without attending class, I was not reminded to hand it in on time. When I was ready to submit, not only was this paper not of good quality because of my mental status, but I could not submit it properly on OnQ. I failed to change my OnQ settings from the European time zone, from when I studied at the Queen's UK Castle last summer, and this altered most of my deadline times. I reached out to my professor, Dr. Kerah Gordon-Solmon, immediately after I realized what had happened. She was very forgiving, agreeing to only deduct 15 and reweight the rest of the paper to my other assignments. This reweighting however was not enough to boost my grade, and my final grade ended up being a C-.

This behaviour was very unlike me, considering that the previous year I made the Dean's List for my academic performance, and have not used any sort of extension form to submit an assignment. If I had known my symptoms would resurface earlier in the semester, I would have applied to drop the course, or applied for personal interest credit. However November 12th falls after most major academic course deadlines, and I could not do so. Additionally, this course was one of my electives and not required for my major. Typically, I excel in my elective courses and actively keep up with the work. But seeing that Phil 301 is now the lowest grade on my transcript, I felt that applying for credit standing was necessary because my mental standing severely affected my performance.
I have taken many steps since this event occurred. On November 13th, I met with a counsellor because I realized that I needed to take care of myself first before missing any more assignments or classes. She offered support during our session, as well as several resources to help me come out of isolation, eat on schedule, and attend classes. I have also spoken to several people who have given their support on this matter--including my professor, the Undergraduate Chair of Philosophy and his assistant, counsellors at Student Wellness, and my TA.

Should this appeal be granted, it would significantly improve my GPA which would help for my grad school and job applications. I am set to graduate this year in June 2020, and I am in the midst of applying to several grad school programs in public health. This grade has detrimentally brought down my GPA, and has erased most of the hard work I put in last year to bring it up. In regards to the future of my mental health, I have been taking the necessary self-care steps to alleviate the severity of my symptoms and have made attending class every day my priority. I also met with my student wellness counsellor recently on January 30th, and we discussed my progress, as well as my plan to get better in the upcoming months. She has been very supportive throughout this entire process and even recommended more programs such as workshops through the health promotion centre, Empower Me, and other resources on campus.

I want to thank all the people who have helped me through this difficult time, as well as the Associate Dean for taking the time to read this letter. I hope you thoroughly consider my appeal for credit standing in Phil 301. Please do not hesitate to reach out with further questions.

Kind regards,

Simmona Coelho