July 27, 2007
When Your Mentors Fly the Coop
In this morning’s item on the departure of four senior economists from George Mason U. to Chapman U., we noted that at least a few GMU students might feel stranded in exurban Virginia. Chapman does not offer doctorates, so there is no option in this case for graduate students to pack up and move cross-country with their mentors.
Our efforts to contact those grad students were unsuccessful, but one of them, Ali Hasanain, posted an item on his blog yesterday about his dilemma.
Hasanain doesn’t express any hard feelings; he praises the departing scholars’ “humility and dedication to their students.” But he writes that he’s not sure whether he should transfer to another university, change his research focus at GMU, or abandon his Ph.D. altogether.
He also notes that because of the GMU program’s sudden reorganization, he’ll probably have to take a major field exam three weeks from now – which is much earlier than he’d expected.
Six years ago in The Chronicle, Daniel Kowalsky urged grad students to line up their references as soon as possible:
Once your course work and research are done, the home stretch tends to be about you and your major adviser. A universe of two. Your earlier contacts will typically become less and less reliable with each passing semester: Some will be hired away to other programs, a couple may all but forget you, and at least one will die.
But even that advice doesn’t help when your prospective adviser himself is lured away.
David Glenn | Posted on Friday July 27, 2007 | PermalinkComments
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When mentors/advisors leave their institutions it is not the student’s fault, and the student should not have to suffer as a consequence. Universities and academic departments have an implicit contract with students and corporate responsibility for ensuring that students whom they admit to their departments who are making satisfactory progress are able to complete their degree in situations such as this. A huge amount of talent, not to mention time, effort, and personal sacrifice will be wasted if students of these professors are unable to complete their doctorates.
— Barbara Lovitts, author, Leaving the Ivory Tower: The Causes and Consequences of Departure from Doctoral Study Jul 27, 03:45 PM #
This is what happened to me. I was orphaned in the department when my major faculty member and another important person on my committee left. No one who remained wanted to take me on because my interestes weren’t similiar to theirs and I was “not their problem”. I was 3 years into the program when these folks left and it was too late to transfer that year. Had to transfer in my 4th. Result was I had to start all over again. Ended up only being admitted to a school one tier down from the one I was originally admitted in (no matter what anyone said the assumption was that there was something wrong with me.). The combined number of years I was in a PhD program has been used against me (eg interpreted that I am a loser). The fact that I came out of a school 1 tier down reduces my career options. The entire thing is so unfair and NO ONE cares because the customer in graduate programs, due to the fact that the currency is reputation, is faculty and not the student. Graduate students are disposable entities and most schools don’t seem to care what happens to us after we are admitted if our “advocate professor” leaves. I wish these folks luck surviving this major career setback. No one seems to care what a waste of intellectual resources it is for graduate students to be treated this way.
— Anon Jul 28, 11:43 AM #
Sometimes a mentor (major professor) or other graduate committee member who leaves will continue to work with student. This can work, it doesn’t necessarily work well.
IMHO, the department does have a serious obligation to make it feasible for the student to complete the degree.
— Henry Schaffer Jul 29, 08:51 PM #