Submit an Academic Petition or Appeal

Petition Letter: To whom it may concern,

Hi, my name is Ivan Koffi and I am a 4th-year student. I am requesting an appeal to drop my MATH 221 course as I attempted to do so through SOLUS prior to the November 1st deadline, but I was met with an error telling me I could not do so, due to it being a co-requisite to one of the other courses I am taking. However, the listed co-requisite courses in the error message did not match any of the courses I am taking.

I reached out to SOLUS support for help but never heard back and ultimately contacted Arts and Science Student Services for assistance, after the deadline. After looking into it, they claimed that my STAT-268 course was indeed a co-requisite to MATH-221, and that to drop it I would also need to drop STAT-268.
It was only after searching through the queen??s website course directory once notified that I saw this to be true. Had I known through the error message that the courses were linked I would have dropped them both, but I had no such warning through SOLUS.

I am planning to switch my plan from ECON-STAT medial to an ECON major, as such these two courses would no longer fall in line with my curriculum. After a difficult 3rd year where the COVID-19 pandemic and tensions among my family had heavily affected my mental health and thus my academic performance, I failed several courses with MATH 221 being one of them. My only intention in retaking the course was to make up for the damage it had induced on my GPA but deciding to change my major in mid-September made me reconsider my decision.

I am currently depending on a foreign bursary for my education and living expenses that is reliant on my academic performance. Since my troubles from last school year, I have found myself in therapy, which I have seen myself to be in dire need of this year as the early school year coincided with several difficulties in my personal life, including but not limited to coping with a loved one??s suicidal tendencies that lead me to be involved in a missing person??s investigation. Although, despite therapy, I have still encountered difficulties getting through the school year, with combatting sporadic mental breakdowns becoming recurrent.

With my class attendance dropping, I have had to create a personalized schedule alongside my therapist to keep up with my academic duties as well as my own personal health which had seen a decline.

This academic year is comprised mainly of my attempts to increase my GPA and so if my appeal were to be approved, if possible, I would like to stay in my STAT-268 course so that all the work I have already put in may not go to waste. Should this not be possible I understand and would request for both MATH-221 & STAT-268 to be dropped.

Should evidence be necessary I am more than happy to provide the email exchanges I have had with SOLUS support as well as Student Services, on top of my therapist??s information, the error message I received from SOLUS, and any other required details. I simply do not wish for my academic career to be tainted any further so that I may graduate with a GPA that is more reflective of my efforts as a student rather than the mental health strains I have had to endure.

Thank you for your time and I eagerly await to hear back from you.

Sincerely,
Ivan Koffi