Petition Letter
December 21st 2014
To: Associate Dean (Studies)
My name is Aramita Gomes. My student number is 10062389. I am a 3rd year Philosophy and Gender Studies Medial Arts student and I am writing this to appeal to drop PHIL 351 (Fall, 2014).
I suffer from chronic insomnia that is linked to my level of stress and sometimes I am unaware of my morning alarms and therefore unable to wake up at the desired time. In retrospect, I realize that I have had insomnia since my first year of university at a level that I was able to manage on my own. I have experienced an increased level of stress over the past semester due to the nature of my courses being more concentrated than in earlier years. Even though there was a choice given as to which courses we could take, all the courses available were the same in terms of concentration. I had not previously identified my sleeping issues in this way because it was not affecting my day-to-day activities significantly. Lack of sleep would leave me feeling exhausted affecting my concentration during my lectures and completion of course work. For example, in PHIL 351, on the day of the in-class test, I was not able to sleep at all during the previous night. As a result, I could not focus on what I was writing and could not remember any of the information I had previously studied. In addition to this, starting this semester, some mornings I was completely unaware of my alarms even though I would set multiple alarms on multiple devices and upon waking verified that the alarms had worked properly and had not been snoozed. On many occasions, I have missed my lectures because of this.
I had thought that I could handle my issues on my own as I had many times before but this issue was only getting worse. In mid-to-late October, I realized that my previous coping methods were insufficient and so I tried various new approaches, which also proved to be ineffective. It wasn't until the beginning of November that I realized I needed professional help. When I went to see an academic advisor, she told me that I would still be able to drop the course through an appeal and referred me to a counsellor. The counsellor gave me some tips and also suggested I should book an appointment with a doctor. The doctor ordered blood tests. She also gave me tips and told me about equipment I could buy to help me sleep at night. I was told to book another appointment to go over the results of the blood tests but I was not able to book anything earlier than January of next year.
To help alleviate this problem in the future, I am implementing the techniques that were suggested to me by the professionals. I am told that once the results from the blood tests are ready, I will be able to get more information on what other steps I would need to take in order to mitigate my issues. I plan to book appointment with my counsellor to discuss my results and what more I can do to help lessen this problem. Once the appeal is granted, I will make sure to makeup for PHIL 351 by taking another 300-level PHIL course in the winter semester. This will put me back on track to fulfill the requirements of my academic plan. Since I cannot choose courses with a lower level of concentration, my only recourse is to deal with the level of stress that I get from them by booking regular meetings with my counsellor and by following her advice.
Yours sincerely,
Aramita Gomes
To: Associate Dean (Studies)
My name is Aramita Gomes. My student number is 10062389. I am a 3rd year Philosophy and Gender Studies Medial Arts student and I am writing this to appeal to drop PHIL 351 (Fall, 2014).
I suffer from chronic insomnia that is linked to my level of stress and sometimes I am unaware of my morning alarms and therefore unable to wake up at the desired time. In retrospect, I realize that I have had insomnia since my first year of university at a level that I was able to manage on my own. I have experienced an increased level of stress over the past semester due to the nature of my courses being more concentrated than in earlier years. Even though there was a choice given as to which courses we could take, all the courses available were the same in terms of concentration. I had not previously identified my sleeping issues in this way because it was not affecting my day-to-day activities significantly. Lack of sleep would leave me feeling exhausted affecting my concentration during my lectures and completion of course work. For example, in PHIL 351, on the day of the in-class test, I was not able to sleep at all during the previous night. As a result, I could not focus on what I was writing and could not remember any of the information I had previously studied. In addition to this, starting this semester, some mornings I was completely unaware of my alarms even though I would set multiple alarms on multiple devices and upon waking verified that the alarms had worked properly and had not been snoozed. On many occasions, I have missed my lectures because of this.
I had thought that I could handle my issues on my own as I had many times before but this issue was only getting worse. In mid-to-late October, I realized that my previous coping methods were insufficient and so I tried various new approaches, which also proved to be ineffective. It wasn't until the beginning of November that I realized I needed professional help. When I went to see an academic advisor, she told me that I would still be able to drop the course through an appeal and referred me to a counsellor. The counsellor gave me some tips and also suggested I should book an appointment with a doctor. The doctor ordered blood tests. She also gave me tips and told me about equipment I could buy to help me sleep at night. I was told to book another appointment to go over the results of the blood tests but I was not able to book anything earlier than January of next year.
To help alleviate this problem in the future, I am implementing the techniques that were suggested to me by the professionals. I am told that once the results from the blood tests are ready, I will be able to get more information on what other steps I would need to take in order to mitigate my issues. I plan to book appointment with my counsellor to discuss my results and what more I can do to help lessen this problem. Once the appeal is granted, I will make sure to makeup for PHIL 351 by taking another 300-level PHIL course in the winter semester. This will put me back on track to fulfill the requirements of my academic plan. Since I cannot choose courses with a lower level of concentration, my only recourse is to deal with the level of stress that I get from them by booking regular meetings with my counsellor and by following her advice.
Yours sincerely,
Aramita Gomes