Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To whom it may concern,

Hello, my name is Marli Robinson, I am a third year art-sci student at Queen¿¿s university and I would like to request an appeal for a late withdrawal from my three classes from the winter 2021 semester. The three classes are LING 320, PSYC 251, and LLCU 205.

I started the semester off with 6 classes as I had successfully done the previous semester. However, as the first few weeks progressed, I soon realized that the workload was far too large to manage this time around and began dropping courses one after the other. By late February, I had to settle with 3 courses as that was the minimum for a full time student. However, despite the much smaller course load, I found it increasingly difficult to keep up in my classes, to the point where I could no longer bring myself to actively participate. Simultaneously, I felt my mental health slipping out of my control. On February 27, 2021 I reached out to my personal therapist to explain my situation. She expressed concern for the severity of my mental state and referred me to a doctor at Queens to examine it as well. On March 10, 2021 I had an appointment with Dr. Susan Billing where she diagnosed me with depression and prescribed me medication to combat it. I was also granted an academic accommodation from the doctor for 8-12 weeks. I immediately reached out to each of my professors to discuss working within the accommodation. However, this accommodation extended past the end of the semester, making it difficult for me to arrange a plan that I believed would work well. As I was meeting with multiple therapists, Dr. Billing and my professors, I faced many more hardships that were detrimental to my mental health. I was diagnosed with a life-long thyroid condition, and had to start taking another new medication, a close friend of mine passed away and the Covid-19 cases increasing within the community made my job as a frontline worker on campus more stressful. Under those circumstances I realized that it was unlikely I would recover within the originally expected timeline and felt it was better for me to appeal for a late withdrawal from my classes for the semester. With the support of my therapists, doctor and professors, I would like to request that the circumstances outlined in this letter, along with the additionally provided documentation be taken into consideration for my request.

Moving forward, I will be continuing to receive treatment both medically and psychologically for my mental health and am hoping to recover before the beginning of the Fall 2021 term in which I can continue my studies at Queen¿¿s. My current plan is to take an extra year to complete my undergrad so I can lower my course loads moving forward to avoid another severe decline in my mental health. I have been and will continue to implement the treatment plans provided by my healthcare professionals to not only improve my current well being, but also my well being long term. I am still motivated to earn my degree and will continue to work hard until I do so.

Thank you for your consideration, I hope to hear back soon.

Sincerely,

Marli Robinson
She/Her
20112606