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[stickball]

The daughter (let’s call her Nadine…) of a very dear family friend is ABD at a prestigious R-1 in one of the STEM fields.  She completed all her classwork as agreed with her advisor and is well into the research, publication, and writing phase of the dissertation.  Then one day last semester, her advisor was struck and killed by someone who was texting while driving.  Everyone was devastated.  Nadine was assured, encouraged, and counseled by the Department Chair and other members of the faculty that her program will be accepted as is, that a new advisor would be assigned, and that the university would do everything it could to ensure continuity and success.  They want her to finish and get her degree.

This weekend Nadine learned that there would be arbitrary changes made to her program by her new advisor; classes were added that Nadine will be forced to take, and the new advisor is not sure that Nadine’s research is relevant and that perhaps she needs to take a different direction.  Nadine has already published several articles, loves her current research and feels that she is being unfairly targeted by her new advisor.  She’s distraught and doesn’t know what to do about these new circumstances.  She’s also very disappointed that the other faculty in her department are being silent about this.  She’s gathering her documentation and will be speaking to the Department Chair and the Dean sometime this week.

She's also wondering if her research and data could travel with her to a new university and be used to complete her degree at the new university.

Any thoughts or strategies on how she should proceed would be appreciated.

[antiphon1]

Did the former adviser sign off on a degree plan and/or the acceptance of her dissertation drafts?  Nadine's dilemma sounds like a case of the chair not knowing what the new adviser is doing.  I'd encourage her to talk to the chair first then run the case on up the chain to the dean or whomever can best determine what the procedure is at her institution for completing her degree. 

[offthemarket]

If she truly was ABD, then there should be a paper trail of people signing off on her comps and the committee recommending coursework for her. That should be enough.

If this is like all of the the R1 STEM departments with shich I'm familiar, she just needs to find a new advisor that will support her.

[brixton]

This is extremely unusual.  You might be missing some vital pieces, as you presumably are hearing it outside the context of the university, perhaps though the friend, perhaps through the daughter.  There is usually an appeals process for this sort of thing.  Program requirements are usually based on requirements in a handbook when you entered the program, not when your advisor was killed.  It's not advisable to charge the new advisor with a heavy-hitting appeals process, until she's sure she understands what the advisor is recommending-- Are they just recommendations? Do they have any merit?  What's the reasoning behind the additional classes? Will they make her more marketable in the long run?  Are they necessary to participate in new advisor's lab?  As a stem field, it might be that the grant she was working under no longer exists with the death of the professor.  I don't know what the implications are for a lab, if this is the case; my science friends on fora can help you out.  But bottom line is you probably can't help the daughter out here.  If she's a strong grad student, she should draw on her wisdom and strengths and start talking in a non-confrontational  way to people in the department.  If she feels wronged and unheard, then she can turn to the appeals process.

I agree with otm that if she is truly ABD, there should be a paper trail, so she should be able to just turn to a new advisor, maybe one on her comps and find the support she needs,

[msparticularity]

I'm wondering about documentation also. I have never heard of a doctoral program in the U.S. where advancement to candidacy (or ABD status) was not accompanied by paperwork. Typically this consists not only of an approved program of study and notice of successful completion of prelims and/or comps, but a certification that the prospectus has been defended successfully.

Supposing for a moment that funding is not an issue, the problem may be that no one remains in the department who is competent to supervise her current project. I did know of one case several years ago (also in a STEM field) where an outside member of a committee was added to actually direct the dissertation of a student whose advisor had died suddenly. The outside advisor was a dear friend and colleague of the original advisor, and did related work. The committee members inside the program all agreed to continue, and to defer to his expertise, and in the end it worked out. It only worked, though, because basically all that was left was the analysis and write-up; the prospectus has been defended and the data had already been gathered. Also, of course, everyone involved was committed to working together to find a solution.

[stickball]

Thanks, responders.  I'll alert her to your questions, suggestions, and thoughts.  If I hear anything else related to this, I'll post here to update.

[seniorscholar]

Supposing for a moment that funding is not an issue, the problem may be that no one remains in the department who is competent to supervise her current project. I did know of one case several years ago (also in a STEM field) where an outside member of a committee was added to actually direct the dissertation of a student whose advisor had died suddenly.

In a humanities field -- not a STEM field -- I (from a different department) once became the actual director of a  dissertation under similar circumstances, though the paperwork after the defense was signed by someone from the candidate's department (the person signing off on the paperwork needed to have a PhD in the same discipline as the candidate). This was approved by the director of graduate studies (not even the department chair) in the candidate's department, after the candidate had asked me if I'd do it and took that suggestion to the DGS (I had met the candidate while working in a local archive, since our research sources overlapped despite the "difference" in our fields).

In answer to the other question in the original post, it is almost certainly not possible to move to a different university at this point, since the regulations for coursework and credit hours in residence and preliminary exams and so forth are individual to each university and department.

[imawakenow]

I'll chime with others and say that when I was in graduate school there was paperwork on file before I was allowed to begin my thesis and my dissertation and that's how it is at the university where I work currently. We had to file a degree plan, then there was a signed form indicating that I had successfully completed qualifying exams (at which point I was considered ABD) and finally signed forms indicating that I had successfully defended the dissertation.

So, if Nadine is truly ABD, then she should be able to produce copies of documents with her adviser's signature (and possibly other signatures such as the DGS, exam committee) indicating that she is ABD.

I would also note that it is possible that she actually is not ABD. That is, it is possible that her adviser let her unofficially begin her dissertation while she was finishing up a few remaining items in her degree plan.

Anyway, I agree with the earlier advice and suggest that she not attribute to malice what can be attributed to simple lack of communication and/or incompetence. It's possible that the new adviser doesn't actually understand where Nadine is in her program.

Thus, I suggest that Nadine follow through with a cordial meeting with the department chair and/or the DGS complete with any documents that show where she is in the program.

She might also think about what type of support she needs to finish her dissertation. If it's fairly limited perhaps a senior faculty such as the department chair or DGS would be willing to oversee the process.

[macaroon]

I agree with others that she should be held to the rules of the program when she entered, and not have to deal with any new changes.  But, she should just take the classes and be done with it.  Not worth it to die on that hill, IMO.

But I have to say, program requirements vary drastically in STEM fields, and coursework tends to be a much smaller portion than in the humanities.  Then, there's really no industry standard in terms of "Qualifiers", "Comprehensives", "Advancement to Candidacy", or frequency of committee meetings or even the members of the thesis committee.  It's hard to say what goes on in someone else's program, and some programs are run so laissez faire that the students and advisors are confused as to what hoops a student must jump through to get out.  

She might also think about what type of support she needs to finish her dissertation. If it's fairly limited perhaps a senior faculty such as the department chair or DGS would be willing to oversee the process.

As far as a research advisor, it may be possible to have a colleague from outside the university evaluate her work and provide her with mentorship.  I've seen this happen when a faculty member died - his collaborator took his grad students under her wing, and helped them get their theses written.  It worked out well for her, because she got to put her name on all the papers.