Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To whom it may concern,

I am writing this letter of appeal as I would like to drop my Summer term DEVS220 course without penalty. I recognize that the class will be ending in a week, however, I have not had the strength to do much work and have just recently gained the knowledge that I could appeal to drop the class.

To describe the reason why I would like to drop the course, I will say that this summer has been incredibly challenging for me, especially in terms of mental health. My ability to do work and work with deadlines has been severely impacted because of how awful I have felt this past summer. To speak to how it is going now, I am slowly getting back to ??normal? and have made attempts to get back into a routine that works with my study habits.

Towards the beginning of the summer, May to be exact, I was extremely depressed and unable to garner any motivation to get out of bed. At that point in time, I was just starting this summer course and was making attempts to keep up with readings, assignments, and deadlines. However, doing any work was just taking such a large toll on my mental and physical health that I just couldn??t continue. I made an appointment with a Queen??s Student Wellness counsellor and discussed how I was feeling with her. It did make me feel much better, but I still was not able to do work and build an effective study routine.

At the beginning of June, because of how stressed and depressed I was, I caught a bad cold which left me in bed for almost 2 weeks. I was unable to eat, get out of bed, and do work as I was in a lot of pain and distress. Because of my physical and mental anguish, and after I explained my situation to my boss, he recommended that I take off July and the first half of August to spend time with myself and try to get better. So, in mid-June, I decided to go home to recuperate and destress with my family. I made an appointment with another counsellor because I knew I had to pick up my studies again. I was given accommodations so that I could do some quick catch ups, and I tried my hardest to engage with course material. At that point in time, I was a little bit better as I wasn??t alone, unlike my current living situation in Kingston. However, things took a turn for the worse again at the beginning of July.

On July 3rd, my grandma passed away. She lived with us full-time since even before my birth and was like my second mother. Her death was incredibly shocking to us and my whole family had to take off almost 2 weeks of work because of how traumatic it was. Because of her death, I could not physically, as well as religiously, do any work. I had to extend my stay at home for more time because I didn??t want to leave my parents, and honestly did not want to be alone at that time. I tried my best even then to continue to keep up with course content, but it was extremely difficult.

Currently, I am back in Kingston trying to catch up on any and all work that I have left to do to ensure that I can pass my summer classes. However, given that I am trying to push almost 2 or 3 months of work into a couple of days, I am even more stressed than before any of these events have occurred. When I reached out to Professor Ian Fanning and explained my situation to him, he said that the best course of action would be to appeal for a late drop without penalty instead of ending the course with a fail, especially since I could not control these circumstances.

I really, really would have liked to engage with this course more and been able to do the assignments because I genuinely enjoy this type of content, however, my mental health has been quite shaky recently and doing any and all work has just been too hard. I am an incredibly strong student, and I have been for a very long time. I am usually able to balance school, work, a social life, and self-care, it??s just that this summer has been so challenging that even taking care of myself has been arduous.

Not accounting for DEVS220, my marks are high in all my classes and I have tried my hardest to avoid using my accommodations unless absolutely necessary. I don??t think I can afford to fail a class, especially this one as DEVS is my major. I would really like to retake this class when I am much more mentally equipped to take it.

To speak to what I have been doing more recently to recover, I have been in contact with my family doctor who is helping me get more support for my mental health. I also will be looking into doing more one-on-one work with SASS, as per a QSAS counsellors recommendation, to help with my study routine so that this will not carry into the year.

Thank you so much for understanding.