Petition Letter
I am appealing the Faculty's decision that I must withdraw from Queen's for one year.
At the very start of the first semester last year, I was excited to be moving from the UK to Canada to attend Queens, where both my parents were alumni. However, amidst my excitement, I knew that I was not organised. I was attending classes, but I was not working as hard as I should have been. I told myself that this was fine, as I could catch up if I got myself organised a little way into the first semester. As I got more and more behind in my courses, I quickly realised that I was fooling myself.
Once the initial excitement of being in Canada wore off, I felt very alone. I had no family or social support. I felt like a failure, and I became very depressed. Due to my depression, I stopped talking to my friends and family in the UK which made things even worse. I stopped going to lectures, and I was not leaving my room for anything other than one meal a day.
I was unfamiliar with the Canadian medical system, and I did not have a doctor or therapist to speak to. I certainly was not in any mental state to figure out the health system in another country. This means that I do not have a doctor's note with a diagnosis of depression, but if you can access my student card's information to look at the dining hall usage history it will corroborate my account. I have also included a note from my mother confirming my story.
During this time, my already flawed plan of catching up on work became even more flawed.
Around halfway into the second semester, I managed to pull myself out of my depression, and I decided enough was enough - I needed to sort myself out. I set up a meeting with PASS, and on the 15th March, I explained the situation in full to them, asking for their help to come up with a plan of what I could do now, considering I was on track to fail all of my courses. As a solution, I was offered information about a 24 unit threshold, which I was told was a threshold whereby if I ended the year below it, I would be able to come back undeclared in September. In order to ensure I fully understood, I asked if that meant I could fail all of the courses I was taking, and still come back in September with no problems. I was assured that this was the case, provided I had 24 units or less.
After this call, I spent time figuring out my plan to turn myself around. If possible, I wanted to take summer courses in order to kick start my turnaround. However, I was not sure whether this threshold that I had been told about was to do with attempted units or passed units, and so wanted to know if taking summer courses would put me above this threshold that I had been informed of. I therefore set up another call with PASS on the 6th April, explained my situation again and then asked about this threshold- was it for passed or attempted units? I was told that they were not sure, so would go and speak to a higher up and get back to me. Later that day I received a message on Microsoft teams chat that if I did not pass a course I would not receive the credits for it. I did not feel that this was clear enough so I asked again for absolute clarity- is the 24 unit threshold relevant to passed courses or attempted courses? I was assured again that it was only relevant to passed courses. At no point in either of these interactions was I informed about a requirement to withdraw, but rather was told that all would be fine and I would have no problem coming back in September. I therefore made no attempt to drop any more courses to meet the actual threshold - which I now understand is actually an 18 unit one. I had no reason to doubt what was being said to me by PASS, therefore I did not look at the academic calendar to check that it was all true. Of course, hindsight is 20/20 and now I wish I had.
Based on the PASS information, my plan was to stay in Kingston to complete two online summer courses: Computer science and Economics. I wanted to take these courses to prove to myself that I could succeed in them. I did. Even though I knew I would be lonely in Kingston without any housemates, I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it, and I also wanted to be able to get back in a studious mindset so that come September I would be in a much better place to start. I was determined to turn myself around, and I am on a positive trajectory now.
It was not until I tried to select courses for September, but was blocked from doing so, that I found out that I had a requirement to withdraw. I was shocked by this, as PASS had reassured me I could continue in September 2022 despite failing my courses. I thought I did not have to worry due to the 24 unit threshold.
At the very start of the first semester last year, I was excited to be moving from the UK to Canada to attend Queens, where both my parents were alumni. However, amidst my excitement, I knew that I was not organised. I was attending classes, but I was not working as hard as I should have been. I told myself that this was fine, as I could catch up if I got myself organised a little way into the first semester. As I got more and more behind in my courses, I quickly realised that I was fooling myself.
Once the initial excitement of being in Canada wore off, I felt very alone. I had no family or social support. I felt like a failure, and I became very depressed. Due to my depression, I stopped talking to my friends and family in the UK which made things even worse. I stopped going to lectures, and I was not leaving my room for anything other than one meal a day.
I was unfamiliar with the Canadian medical system, and I did not have a doctor or therapist to speak to. I certainly was not in any mental state to figure out the health system in another country. This means that I do not have a doctor's note with a diagnosis of depression, but if you can access my student card's information to look at the dining hall usage history it will corroborate my account. I have also included a note from my mother confirming my story.
During this time, my already flawed plan of catching up on work became even more flawed.
Around halfway into the second semester, I managed to pull myself out of my depression, and I decided enough was enough - I needed to sort myself out. I set up a meeting with PASS, and on the 15th March, I explained the situation in full to them, asking for their help to come up with a plan of what I could do now, considering I was on track to fail all of my courses. As a solution, I was offered information about a 24 unit threshold, which I was told was a threshold whereby if I ended the year below it, I would be able to come back undeclared in September. In order to ensure I fully understood, I asked if that meant I could fail all of the courses I was taking, and still come back in September with no problems. I was assured that this was the case, provided I had 24 units or less.
After this call, I spent time figuring out my plan to turn myself around. If possible, I wanted to take summer courses in order to kick start my turnaround. However, I was not sure whether this threshold that I had been told about was to do with attempted units or passed units, and so wanted to know if taking summer courses would put me above this threshold that I had been informed of. I therefore set up another call with PASS on the 6th April, explained my situation again and then asked about this threshold- was it for passed or attempted units? I was told that they were not sure, so would go and speak to a higher up and get back to me. Later that day I received a message on Microsoft teams chat that if I did not pass a course I would not receive the credits for it. I did not feel that this was clear enough so I asked again for absolute clarity- is the 24 unit threshold relevant to passed courses or attempted courses? I was assured again that it was only relevant to passed courses. At no point in either of these interactions was I informed about a requirement to withdraw, but rather was told that all would be fine and I would have no problem coming back in September. I therefore made no attempt to drop any more courses to meet the actual threshold - which I now understand is actually an 18 unit one. I had no reason to doubt what was being said to me by PASS, therefore I did not look at the academic calendar to check that it was all true. Of course, hindsight is 20/20 and now I wish I had.
Based on the PASS information, my plan was to stay in Kingston to complete two online summer courses: Computer science and Economics. I wanted to take these courses to prove to myself that I could succeed in them. I did. Even though I knew I would be lonely in Kingston without any housemates, I wanted to prove to myself that I could do it, and I also wanted to be able to get back in a studious mindset so that come September I would be in a much better place to start. I was determined to turn myself around, and I am on a positive trajectory now.
It was not until I tried to select courses for September, but was blocked from doing so, that I found out that I had a requirement to withdraw. I was shocked by this, as PASS had reassured me I could continue in September 2022 despite failing my courses. I thought I did not have to worry due to the 24 unit threshold.