Petition Letter
To the Associate Dean,
My name is Lily Crump and I have just recently completed my last semester of my undergraduate degree in political science at Queen’s. I am writing to you to appeal some of the lower grades on my transcript from my first year of school. Specifically, I am requesting consideration for a late drop of LAW 201 and GEOL 106 both of which I failed, and a change in status to CR for GEOL 107 (C-), CLST 130 (D-), GEOL 104 (D-), PHIL 115B (C), and HIST 121B (C). These courses are all from the 2018 fall and the 2019 winter and fall semesters, and while I am aware that appeals are generally made soon after the grades in question are received, it is my hope that the story behind these low grades will not only shed some light on why this delay occurred but more importantly why it should be negated. In this letter I will discuss two circumstances that affected my grades, how they affected my grades, an explanation as to why the delay in sending this letter is justified, and evidence that the grades in question do not reflect my academic ability and should therefore be removed from my transcript. I will also attach a report from a psychiatrist that corroborates my diagnoses mentioned in this petition.
When I came to Queen’s University in 2018 I was dealing with many mental health issues which mainly stemmed from a sexual assault that occurred when I was 14 years old. For reasons that are beyond the scope of this letter I never felt comfortable disclosing what happened to me to my parents, and so throughout highschool I depended on one of my teachers who took a particular interest in helping me for support. Blinded by teenage naivety, I did not sense the ulterior motives a grown man might have had in maintaining a relationship with a young, mentally damaged, former student. I therefore continued a close friendship with him even after I moved to kingston. I ended up returning to my home town for a weekend in October of my first year and paid him a visit; during this visit he raped me, and it goes without saying that my mental health spiraled out of control from there. Again, I chose to deal with the trauma on my own which led to self isolation, self harm, depression, and PTSD. I barely went to classes and when I did I was withdrawn and unable to focus. I missed assignments and those that I turned in were poorly done due to my lack of attendance and lack of ability to perform academically while dealing with intense trauma.
In my second year, I took a semester off after finally telling my parents everything I had experienced. I began therapy sessions where I was diagnosed with severe depression, anxiety, and PTSD. Over the next couple years I took a reduced course load so as to not detract from my goals of improving my mental health, but I was still struggling. A breakthrough occurred when I took a psychoeducational assessment where I was diagnosed with ADHD, which is the second circumstance I’d like to discuss. On top of dealing with PTSD and concomitant mental health issues, I was stumbling through university with an undiagnosed - and therefore unaccommodated - neurodiversity. I will not spend too much time discussing how this affected my grades, as it is fairly self explanatory, but my struggles with focus, time management, and task completion greatly disabled my ability to do well on assignments and exams.
There is a great deal of shame that comes with being a survivor of sexual assault, and when my grades suffered with my mental state it heightened said sense of shame and self-hate. I did not feel that I could tell my own family about my experiences let alone the associate dean of my university, and I could not appeal grades due to a neurodiversity that I did not even know that I had until recently. Furthermore, when someone is grappling with depression, especially when combined with suicidal thoughts, they do not consider how their current circumstances may impact them in the future. With everything I had been through it felt like there would never be a future, and my transcript was the least of my worries. I am proud to be writing this letter, even if it is years late, because it reflects a shift in my thinking where before I was consumed by my past and now I am ready and preparing for my future.
The next step in my life is a Masters degree, and I know I have the ability and intellect to attend a better school than my current transcript will allow. This is evident by the change in my grades from my first year, when my mental health was at its worst and my ADHD was unaccommodated, and my grades in the past two years when I had accommodations and had made great strides in improving my mental state. In my first year my term GPAs were a 1.2 and a 1.8 respectively; my last complete term GPA was a 3.78 and although my final grades have not yet been entered I anticipate my term GPA for this past semester will be even higher. In my last couple years I have also made great relationships with professors, one of whom I even worked for as a research assistant.
I am so passionate about my field of study; I love academics and I would hate to think that the vile actions of one individual should determine my future involvement with them. I hope you agree and are willing to remove these grades from my transcript. I thank you greatly for your consideration and understanding and anxiously await your decision.
My name is Lily Crump and I have just recently completed my last semester of my undergraduate degree in political science at Queen’s. I am writing to you to appeal some of the lower grades on my transcript from my first year of school. Specifically, I am requesting consideration for a late drop of LAW 201 and GEOL 106 both of which I failed, and a change in status to CR for GEOL 107 (C-), CLST 130 (D-), GEOL 104 (D-), PHIL 115B (C), and HIST 121B (C). These courses are all from the 2018 fall and the 2019 winter and fall semesters, and while I am aware that appeals are generally made soon after the grades in question are received, it is my hope that the story behind these low grades will not only shed some light on why this delay occurred but more importantly why it should be negated. In this letter I will discuss two circumstances that affected my grades, how they affected my grades, an explanation as to why the delay in sending this letter is justified, and evidence that the grades in question do not reflect my academic ability and should therefore be removed from my transcript. I will also attach a report from a psychiatrist that corroborates my diagnoses mentioned in this petition.
When I came to Queen’s University in 2018 I was dealing with many mental health issues which mainly stemmed from a sexual assault that occurred when I was 14 years old. For reasons that are beyond the scope of this letter I never felt comfortable disclosing what happened to me to my parents, and so throughout highschool I depended on one of my teachers who took a particular interest in helping me for support. Blinded by teenage naivety, I did not sense the ulterior motives a grown man might have had in maintaining a relationship with a young, mentally damaged, former student. I therefore continued a close friendship with him even after I moved to kingston. I ended up returning to my home town for a weekend in October of my first year and paid him a visit; during this visit he raped me, and it goes without saying that my mental health spiraled out of control from there. Again, I chose to deal with the trauma on my own which led to self isolation, self harm, depression, and PTSD. I barely went to classes and when I did I was withdrawn and unable to focus. I missed assignments and those that I turned in were poorly done due to my lack of attendance and lack of ability to perform academically while dealing with intense trauma.
In my second year, I took a semester off after finally telling my parents everything I had experienced. I began therapy sessions where I was diagnosed with severe depression, anxiety, and PTSD. Over the next couple years I took a reduced course load so as to not detract from my goals of improving my mental health, but I was still struggling. A breakthrough occurred when I took a psychoeducational assessment where I was diagnosed with ADHD, which is the second circumstance I’d like to discuss. On top of dealing with PTSD and concomitant mental health issues, I was stumbling through university with an undiagnosed - and therefore unaccommodated - neurodiversity. I will not spend too much time discussing how this affected my grades, as it is fairly self explanatory, but my struggles with focus, time management, and task completion greatly disabled my ability to do well on assignments and exams.
There is a great deal of shame that comes with being a survivor of sexual assault, and when my grades suffered with my mental state it heightened said sense of shame and self-hate. I did not feel that I could tell my own family about my experiences let alone the associate dean of my university, and I could not appeal grades due to a neurodiversity that I did not even know that I had until recently. Furthermore, when someone is grappling with depression, especially when combined with suicidal thoughts, they do not consider how their current circumstances may impact them in the future. With everything I had been through it felt like there would never be a future, and my transcript was the least of my worries. I am proud to be writing this letter, even if it is years late, because it reflects a shift in my thinking where before I was consumed by my past and now I am ready and preparing for my future.
The next step in my life is a Masters degree, and I know I have the ability and intellect to attend a better school than my current transcript will allow. This is evident by the change in my grades from my first year, when my mental health was at its worst and my ADHD was unaccommodated, and my grades in the past two years when I had accommodations and had made great strides in improving my mental state. In my first year my term GPAs were a 1.2 and a 1.8 respectively; my last complete term GPA was a 3.78 and although my final grades have not yet been entered I anticipate my term GPA for this past semester will be even higher. In my last couple years I have also made great relationships with professors, one of whom I even worked for as a research assistant.
I am so passionate about my field of study; I love academics and I would hate to think that the vile actions of one individual should determine my future involvement with them. I hope you agree and are willing to remove these grades from my transcript. I thank you greatly for your consideration and understanding and anxiously await your decision.