Petition Letter
As advised by my QSAS advisor I submitted an appeal to be able to have a late drop and re-enrollment into PHAR 100 without financial penalty which was denied. The denial references academic regulation 5.5.2, meaning I did not show significant excruciating circumstances. My appeal was based on my accommodation request seeking a change in method of proctoring for my exams, initially when dealing with QSAS the request was denied, I further escalated a couple of more times with QSAS, all times my request was denied. The request was escalated through Human Rights Office at Queen's and was approved after the end of the term. During this period I missed my midterm and final exam and one assignment, this information was always communicated to the teaching team as well and it was to be rectified once a final decision was made on the request I made under protected grounds of the human rights act of Ontario. The period where my request was ongoing caused a great deal of exacerbation to my mental health, adding onto my stress and anxiety, causing a severe impairment to my emotional regulation and ability to focus on my content, I had fallen behind by missing the exams. Under the given situation I made my request to be given consideration to be allowed to redo the course, as a direct result of the accommodation request for change in proctoring method being denied and needing to be escalated caused the excruciating circumstances that hindered my ability to successfully complete and partake in all course content, including the midterm and final exams. In my denial letter it also states, I had the opportunity to drop the course within the deadline and did not show any reason why I did not do so. The reason for not doing so was that I had an accommodation request in process of being appealed and escalated and was awaiting the decisional result of the request before taking the needed next steps. The course instructors previously advised that all weighting would be transferred to the final, this adds to my stress further, as this is something that was out of my control, I should not have the burden to perform much more higher on the final exam in comparison to my peers now because of the missed exams due to the denial of my request previously prior to being approved. I hope I have been able to demonstrate the circumstances in this situation in accordance with the academic regulations surrounding the request for retaking the course without penalty.