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[punchnpie]

I'm writing on behalf of a friend and would like the advice of deans before I advise something that's just going to cause more of a problem.

Short story - friend was in PhD program in which you get the masters as part of your progress toward the PhD. He did his paper for the general exam, but family obligations made scheduling an oral defense difficult. Not impossible, just difficult.

Apparently his committee chair didn't want to deal with it and failed him. He is out of the doctoral program, with the consolation prize masters.

This is where I'm uneasy:
1. 4 faculty members read the paper and said it should pass
2. said chair told my friend not to have any more children.
3. friend is black (knowing my uni, he is probably the only, or one of a very few, blacks in his program)
4. friend belongs to a religious minority which may or may not rub chair the wrong way, I don't know, but I'm putting it out there

Now, I hesitate to play the race card, but I have never heard of a chair refusing to schedule an oral defense, nor have I heard of one telling a student not to have more kids. Because the chair is the dept head, none of the faculty who read the paper want to go to bat for him. So now friend and his family are sans income, he lost his TAshp, insurance, everything.

Should he go to the dean? Is this something that deans would step in to investigate or are dept heads the last word? I think my friend has been wronged and I'd be more comfortable if he took it up the chain of command before just taking this kick in the gut. Even if it doesn't work out in his favor, I think it's worth the effort to go to the dean, I would, but I've got an adversarial nature.

So, what say you? Does this sound kosher or should he talk to someone else? Thanks.

[bud04]

WOW, oh WOW!

[slac_vap]

What is the appeal process for failure of the exam?  Has the student followed the appeal process?

[busyslinky]

I'm not sure I understand.  They failed their comprehensive exams?  What do you mean completed their paper?  What oral defense is required, is this for the dissertation?

I'm not familiar with the terms/process.

In terms of telling them to not have any children.  Did everyone hear this or is it just the word of your friend?

[simplesimon]

The dept. head is not the last word (remember heads come and go).  Go to the Graduate Dean with all the compelling documented facts.  If necessary s/he can order the scheduling of the oral exam.  There are several avenues for appeal or redress including the Dean, the Provost, and the President.  As a last resort, your friend may threaten to sue!  An attorney would want to know if anything like this has ever happened before.  How did the university handle it?  Never mind race or religion, “selective enforcement” is a de facto form of discrimination and it is illegal!  No campus leader wants to face that charge in court or in the newspapers.  

If your friend is academically qualified, and he jumped through all the correct hoops, he should get his degree.

Good luck.

[larryc]

What country and what type of institution are we speaking about? The terms you use are not standard in American doctoral programs, so it is hard to know what to advise.

[punchnpie]

What country and what type of institution are we speaking about? The terms you use are not standard in American doctoral programs, so it is hard to know what to advise.

Really, larryc? This was standard in mine (US), and we were a new program that copied from others - you do a comprehensive exam which requires a paper and an oral defense before you are allowed to proceed to the dissertation phase. If you don't pass this portion, you get a masters (though many in my program already come in with a masters, it's just the nature of the field). Maybe 'comprehensive exam' is a term not used everywhere, but certainly 'general exam, ' qualifier,' etc. are typical terms and I believe, interchangeable as referring to an exam following coursework and before the dissertation research.

I didn't realize I was so unclear - everyone I know, in all kinds of programs, has an exam before they can do the dissertation work. Maybe I just know weird people in strange programs.

This is someone I know, but of course, I'm at the mercy of what was told to me.

[busyslinky]

What country and what type of institution are we speaking about? The terms you use are not standard in American doctoral programs, so it is hard to know what to advise.

Really, larryc? This was standard in mine (US), and we were a new program that copied from others - you do a comprehensive exam which requires a paper and an oral defense before you are allowed to proceed to the dissertation phase. If you don't pass this portion, you get a masters (though many in my program already come in with a masters, it's just the nature of the field). Maybe 'comprehensive exam' is a term not used everywhere, but certainly 'general exam, ' qualifier,' etc. are typical terms and I believe, interchangeable as referring to an exam following coursework and before the dissertation research.

I didn't realize I was so unclear - everyone I know, in all kinds of programs, has an exam before they can do the dissertation work. Maybe I just know weird people in strange programs.

This is someone I know, but of course, I'm at the mercy of what was told to me.

You did not say comprehensive exam, nor did you say qualifier exam.  You used the term 'general' exam.  I (maybe similar to larryc) have never heard this term until you just mentioned it in this thread.

In terms of the 'paper', not all programs require papers to get to ABD.  In overseas locations, 'giving a paper' is terminology used for taking a test.

But, your friend failed a comprehensive exam is what it sounds like.  Yes, failed comprehensive exams have been used to not allow students to move on.  Also, scheduling an 'oral' is not common in many disciplines for comprehensive exams (some schools may do this, but I'm not familiar with it either).

Your friend can go to the Dean, but it is like a student going to the Dean for a failing grade.

If your friend has solid documented evidence that four people passed him on the comprehensive, or qualifying, exam, than they should present that evidence.  It is very unlikely, as  you state, for any faculty to support your friend.  The expertise of these other people in the field is also an issue.  A comprehensive exam may have expertise from a variety of sub-fields in a discipline.  It may be very likely that the questions from these four people were answered correctly, but not necessarily the answers for the other person (who may have made up most of the exam). 

Your friend really needs to have their story straight with appropriate support before they place any card.  And if they decide to play the race card, they better have support for that as well. 

[punchnpie]

How can you fail an exam if you didn't take it? He didn't take the oral portion because the chair wouldn't schedule it.  It seems that one person on the committee shouldn't be able to arbitrarily fail a student just because they can't agree on a date for the oral defense.

If someone here wants to tell me that it's OK for that to happen, well, all right, but wow.

[hegemony]

I think there's some part of this story that hasn't been relayed -- maybe because the student didn't understand everything, maybe because he's ignoring some part of it.  The chair does not usually have the discretion to fail a student.  The first step would be for him to go to the Director of Graduate Studies and get the full story. 

[aandsdean]

How can you fail an exam if you didn't take it? He didn't take the oral portion because the chair wouldn't schedule it.  It seems that one person on the committee shouldn't be able to arbitrarily fail a student just because they can't agree on a date for the oral defense.

If someone here wants to tell me that it's OK for that to happen, well, all right, but wow.

As it happens, I have a faculty member who's finishing up at p'n'p's university who is in her second year and who came with her diss basically finished, and she has not been able to get her director to schedule her defense ever since (we are now talking 15+ months since she had a completed, defense-ready draft).  I am concerned that something is not quite right there.

If punch's story is accurate, there's a real issue here: the committee chair really can't refuse to schedule an oral exam (let us just stipulate that an oral defense of some sort of prelim paper is part of the getting-to-abd process in this program, shall we?) unless the committee concurs that the paper isn't ready to defend.  Can't just say it's too much of a pain to schedule around the family obligations (though of course the student can't absolutely prioritize these obligations over said scheduling, either, and I hope he's not, as that would change my position).  

Especially can't say the friend shouldn't have more kids as part of this refusal.  That steps past the area of thin ice and plunges into the icy water of costly and embarrassing EOE litigation.  The friend should talk to the graduate dean for sure.

If there's something else about this story we don't know, that might change. But assuming the only issue is the challenge of scheduling the oral, and the chair doesn't feel like bothering, this is not OK and needs to be rectified.

[slac_vap]

FTR, the terms punchnpie used were exactly the same as the terms I would have used for my wholly mainstream US doctoral program.  But that's not really what's important here.

Punchnpie, I am still curious about what the official appeal process is for such a thing.  I can't believe their isn't one.  If the student can't approach the department head, then there is likely a Dean of Students or Student Ombudsperson he can speak to.  Alternately, he could contact the president of his graduate student senate to find out what the appropriate course of action is.  Once he finds out what it is, he should follow that procedure before he or someone else goes running to the Dean.  Otherwise, after the Dean's first question "What happened when you did [X, Y, Z official steps in the appeal process]?" there won't be anywhere to go but back out the door.  The student needs to be proactive about this.  He shouldn't expect that someone on the faculty will take up his cause, because unfortunately that's not likely to happen. 

[oatmeal]

OP--The student should follow the appeals process. There should be one in place. The student will need all the documentation and probably supporting letters from faculty. This will go to the Dean of the Graduate School. I suggest that your urge your friend to follow the appeals process with documented evidence. Ultimately, it will go to the Dean. If your friend does not want to do this, then hu will have to give up. But hu should explore the options on the appeal process.

[msparticularity]

OP--The student should follow the appeals process. There should be one in place. The student will need all the documentation and probably supporting letters from faculty. This will go to the Dean of the Graduate School. I suggest that your urge your friend to follow the appeals process with documented evidence. Ultimately, it will go to the Dean. If your friend does not want to do this, then hu will have to give up. But hu should explore the options on the appeal process.

I'm not even sure the student needs documentation from the other faculty to take the first step in the appeal process: just the refusal of the chair to schedule a defense ought to be enough. If there is not a formal appeal process in place (and some places actually don't have one)--or even if there is--the Dean may well be the first place to go since the committee chair is also the department chair.

The other thing I want to say here, Punch, is that there is literally no downside for this student in pursuing the appeal: the worst has already happened.

[polly_mer]

OP--The student should follow the appeals process. There should be one in place. The student will need all the documentation and probably supporting letters from faculty. This will go to the Dean of the Graduate School. I suggest that your urge your friend to follow the appeals process with documented evidence. Ultimately, it will go to the Dean. If your friend does not want to do this, then hu will have to give up. But hu should explore the options on the appeal process.

I'm not even sure the student needs documentation from the other faculty to take the first step in the appeal process: just the refusal of the chair to schedule a defense ought to be enough. If there is not a formal appeal process in place (and some places actually don't have one)--or even if there is--the Dean may well be the first place to go since the committee chair is also the department chair.

The other thing I want to say here, Punch, is that there is literally no downside for this student in pursuing the appeal: the worst has already happened.

I mostly agree with MsP.  In small enough places, a formal appeal process may not exist and if it does, then the dean's office can say, "Here's the formal process.  Follow it and notice that we're step N."

Having the approval of a couple committee members sounds like grounds for scheduling an oral defense.  The chair in that case should be the one who has to produce documentation for "doesn't meet X qualifications" or "missed the deadline to defend this semester" (I've been in departments where nothing could be scheduled for the last month of a term during the last month of the term) or something reasonable like "can't do it this term and reason exists for not being able to schedule now a date for after the hustle-bustle".

As for people being told not to have more children, I've been told that (apparently one is bad enough and I really shouldn't have had that one) and I've comforted people who were told that children derail a career.  I know nothing about the racial aspects, but the refusal to accommodate someone who has kids even at the minor level of not scheduling a one-time event on a date that is already full isn't as rare as one might think.