Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Dear Associate Dean of Studies:

I am appealing for a credit standing for the courses of ECON 310, ECON 351, and DEVS 250. (Fall, 2019)

In the fall semester of 2019, I encounter extenuating health circumstances at the end of September 2019. During this time, I had completely lost my energy, focus and was feeling dizzy for at least a week and a half. I was completely unable to focus and keep up with any schoolwork that week and continued to fall really behind. During this time, it was only two weeks after it started I was able to work on slowly and catch-up on missed content and assignments. More specifically, first started the Friday before and during the weekend, in which I thought I could give myself a break and catch up during the week. Then during the week every day, as much as I tried and I thought I could regain focus and concentration complete coursework the next day, I was only falling weaker each day. I continued to realize I could not focus in class or meetings, and by Wednesday and Thursday, I was feeling weak to sit up properly. During this week, I had considered and was encouraged to reach out to health services multiple times, but at the time, I was too scared to. At the end of the week, by Friday, I woke up feeling really unusual, and I did seek the next health support I could connect with.

Over the course of the semester, I had dropped one course due to difficulty but continued the rest. Although I am registered with QSAS, I decided to attempt the midterms while still quite behind as I did not want to risk for a final worth 80 for most courses. Although my midterms were spread out weekly, as my extenuating circumstances happened the week right before the midterms, I spent the rest of the each of the weeks catching up and studying the content for each midterm while concurrently trying to keep up with assignments. Ultimately, I did not do well for the midterms. Although, I studied hard for the finals but were only able to catch up to a passing grade. I did not drop them before the drop deadline as they were mandatory core courses for my major. Additionally, at the time, I was also aiming not to drop too many courses to fall behind in courses.

Out of the four courses I took during the fall 2019 term, I am applying to appeal only 3 of them as ECON 231 was a project-based course with a final paper rather than a heavily weighted midterm and final.

Future plan:

During December, I reconnected with a physician at Student Wellness. Since September, I have also been continuously meeting working with Katie Bala (OT) and Meghan Stouffer Leuprecht (Counsellor) over the past year. I will continue to do so in the future when needed to manage my academic stress and health condition. Moving forward, I am taking summer courses to reduce the course load I am taking during next year and drop courses before the deadline if needed.