Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: Hello Dr. Bénard,
My name is Michael Amoroso, and I am hoping for assistance on an aspect of my transcript. I finished at Queen's with my Bachelors in 2012. While it had originally been my intent to complete an Honours degree, in my last semester at school I received an opportunity to pursue volleyball professionally in Europe. This had always been my dream, and a major deciding factor in my initial choice of Queen's. When this happened, my academic focus changed as well. I decided that I was content with just my Bachelor's degree, eager to commit entirely to training and preparing for this next venture, so when I signed a contract with an agent to be represented and officially start athletic contract talks, I decided to drop out of all my classes. I was training twice a day, in constant communication with contacts in Europe, and fully committed to being the best athlete possible. For the last three years, I have continued this career, the first year in Sweden, last season in Greece, and this season I am writing to you now from East Germany. This has been a full-time commitment, and I have given my life to it, missing countless family events and other milestones as a result (my sister got married January 3rd, and I was only able to phone in by Skype from Germany for the vows).
In the last month, however, I have decided to return home to pursue a new academic avenue. There is a Masters program at the University of Western Ontario through the Kinesiology department, with a specialization in Coaching as the main focus. I have been in consistent contact with the professor in charge of the program, who is eager to have me attend next year and be my mentor, and have the option to return to Queen's University as part of my placement to coach with the volleyball team as part of the placement process. I enrolled in three courses at Queen's through the Continuing and Distance Studies department, to complete my Honours degree, which I am so far doing quite well in.
At this point, the last semester of courses in 2012, and one summer course which I had misguidedly enrolled in that summer, remain on my transcript, all as failing grades. Without these courses on the transcript, my GPA would sit in about the B range (over my last ten full courses of study), which is good enough to grant me acceptance into the Masters program at Western. With those failing grades, my GPA would be catastrophic, and I would be forced to either retake all of those courses, or complete enough new courses to push the failures out of my last ten full courses.
What I am really hoping for is help, from you and from the Arts & Science department, to remove these last 15.0 units from my transcript. I brought this all on myself; I was supremely confident that I would pursue athletics until the wheels fell off, and then fade away into the sunset. But since starting back with my online classes, I've found a passion for academics that I haven't had in years, and I am eager to pursue a higher level of this, and to leave Queen's successful. Those 15.0 units of failures at the end of my university career do not define me as a student or as a person, and I am hoping for a chance to move on from my lack of foresight.
If you are also available for a phone call to discuss any of this I would be thrilled, I am six hours ahead here in Germany but can certainly find ways to work around your schedule. Thank you, and I look forward to your response
Sincerely,
Michael Amoroso