next »

[onliner]

How do you deal with unresponsive dissertation chair?   A friend has been working on his PhD online for close to 6 years.  Almost three years of course work and the rest working on his proposal (70 pages and counting).  She had to fire her initial chair because of unresponsiveness for one and a half years.  Her second chair defers to other committee members without trying to offer his own advise.  Recently, she was asked to defend the proposal where it was practically torn apart although none of the raised were ever asked during the review process.  Also her last proposal review with comments prior to her scheduled defense was never made available to her and has still not been made available.  She was told to come back and re-defend with about 8 corrections.  This chair does not respond. My friend was never advised how to defend.  The chair simply left her hanging.  How do you deal with such chair?  A previous complaint to the dissertation director resulted in no change of behavior according to my friend.  She is frustrated.  Any advise? Any thoughts?  My friend is becoming a wreck after putting so much effort. 

[london1]

You will likely find more help on the graduate student board:

http://chronicle.com/forums/index.php?board=42.0

[larryc]

Perhaps she should ask one of the people who tore apart her proposal to become chair? At least that person reads and responds.

[fiona]

I think your "friend" is getting the passive-aggressive we-don't-want-you-in-our-club message.

My suggestion to you: please proofread more carefully. You've switched your friend's gender from he to she, and you need to spell "advice" correctly. If your friend has similar writing difficulties, that could be part of the committee's unresponsiveness.

The Fiona   

[minidonut]

Wouldn't it be more effective if your friend - who, after all, is the only one who really knows what happened/is happening - posted the query him/herself?

[pocksuppet]

My suggestion to you: please proofread more carefully. You've switched your friend's gender from he to she, and you need to spell "advice" correctly. If your friend has similar writing difficulties, that could be part of the committee's unresponsiveness.

This is why this was posted to the "Two-Body Problem" forum.  The friend has two bodies; one is male and the other female.

[onliner]

Thank you all for those that responded.  My friend is angry with me because I was the one that strongly recommended this school against her initial choice.  I wrote my last post after a serious bout of "it’s your fault" type of blame and I needed help on how this could be addressed.  During the heat of the moment, I wrote the post and failed on my part to edit it and or spell check before the send key was pressed.  There was no need for sarcasm on the part of those who tried to make my error an issue with my question.  We all make errors and none of us here can truly say they have not made an editorial error at one point in their life.  In any case I appreciate the response.  Hopefully, my relationship can still be rehabilitated with my friend.  I was only trying to find fresh ideas to pass on to her other than my own which obviously has been discredited at least now.   

[fiona]

Definitely time for a "Goodby, cruel fora." Your problems are all my fault.

The Fiona

[tinyzombie]

Thank you all for those that responded.  My friend is angry with me because I was the one that strongly recommended this school against her initial choice.  I wrote my last post after a serious bout of "it’s your fault" type of blame and I needed help on how this could be addressed.  During the heat of the moment, I wrote the post and failed on my part to edit it and or spell check before the send key was pressed.  There was no need for sarcasm on the part of those who tried to make my error an issue with my question.  We all make errors and none of us here can truly say they have not made an editorial error at one point in their life.  In any case I appreciate the response.  Hopefully, my relationship can still be rehabilitated with my friend.  I was only trying to find fresh ideas to pass on to her other than my own which obviously has been discredited at least now.   

<playing the world's tiniest violin to accompany the GCF>

[inthelab]

How do you fire your diss chair?  I never heard of that.

[dellaroux]

You get another one, and then you tell the first one that you have found someone to work with whose research interests are closer to yours, or something equally innocuous.

But you only do it when you know they're not reading what you give them, don't understand it, don't agree at all with your political/theological/philosophical stance, etc.

[madhatter]

I did it. My first chair/adviser was the poster child for introversion. He only came into work between 9 PM and 4 AM, so as not to be bothered by students and other humans. (Since I needed to work in his lab and still attend classes during the day, this messed up my sleep schedule something fierce.) He hated human interaction so he demanded that his 'advising' of me be done through memos exchanged through the departmental mailroom.

I sent him a memo with a bunch of questions to get me started on writing my thesis. I had never written a thesis before and had some anxiety about doing it right. One question was about the literature review -- how exhaustive should it be? His response was, and I quote, "Confine your reading to relevant literature. Do not read irrelevant literature."

I figured I could get the same or better quality of advisement elsewhere with less condescension, so I fired him.

[sciencephd]

How do you deal with unresponsive dissertation chair?   A friend has been working on his PhD online for close to 6 years.   

So it is an online program ?  Is it from a B&M school with a good reputation ? 

[onliner]

So it is an online program ?  Is it from a B&M school with a good reputation ? 
[/quote]


It used to be part of a B & M School before it was sold as a stand alone institution.  It is regionally accredited.

[sciencephd]

She needs to contact the director of graduate studies, and explain what is going on, and ask for some resolution.