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[iomhaigh]

I vote to ignore.

Did you not b*tch about any of your professors when you were a grad student? Of course you did. Now, breathe and let go. This doesn't sound like a big deal to me, but maybe I'm missing something.

But never to another professor. That's just bad form. Ignore it--if he is clueless enough to badmouth faculty to faculty, he'll shoot himself in the foot in some other way soon enough.

Oh, you folks were obviously not in one of my wholly unprofessional departments where the faculty often started these conversations. 



In addition to all of the possibilities raised below, it could also be that the other faculty member is trying to get you pissed off about the student so that this faculty member can get on the committee after you get irritated and step off of the committee.  (Scheming backstabbers?)

Did you mention to the prof who told you about this that it was someone else who actually criticized the work?    I would not recommend doing this now, unless the other faculty member presents an opportunity or you can otherwise spin it as though you have not been fretting about it.  Even if it does go to the higher ups and hits the fan, the evidence will support you, will it not?  I would not expend much energy on it until then. 

[helpful]

Should I leave this student's committee?

[iomhaigh]

Should I leave this student's committee?

Just in case I was misleading:  Certain people with whom I have worked would be quite capable of starting crazy rumors in an attempt to manipulate other faculty members who have tendencies to be sensitive about what students think of them.  These rabblerousers might be the same folks who never get on committees regularly but routinely get in trouble for not getting on committees, or might be the folks who like to undermine other faculty members for reasons that escape on-lookers.     

Perhaps you could talk with the student in vague terms during your next meeting about his/her impressions of your comments about the work and your working relationship?  Something that would be a helpful discussion about working together and taking criticism even without the whole backstory? 

But, I wouldn't leave the committee just yet.  If it continues, then a larger discussion needs to happen with the student. 

[acrimone]

I'd also point out that you're getting DOUBLE hearsay... what someone says someone told someone else.

There's a lot of room for perfectly innocent but extreme miscommunication there.

I agree with your last statement, but what do you mean by "double" hearsay?  The person reporting this to the OP was directly involved in the conversation in question.

You're totally right.  I somehow misread the OP to think that there were two grad students, and that the one grad student told the colleague what the other grad student said, which is not at all what happened.  I was sort of including the thread title as part of the post, so that when I read "the grad student" I was thinking that it referred to title-grad student, not master's student in the first sentence.

[yemaya]

Should I leave this student's committee?

If you feel that you can continue without letting this incident effect your judgement, then there's really no reason to leave the committee at this point.  If you are pissed enough that you fear that it will interfere with your ability to give good, constructive feedback, you might want to consider leaving the committee.  Also, if this behavior continues, you can also opt to discontinue your place on his continue.  Acting like a pratt is generally not the way to advancement in graduate school. If he's obnoxious enough that no one will work with him, he's screwed himself out of a master's degree.

[geonerd]

Given that you are on the student's committee you will have many opportunities to discuss the student's work, and do so face to face.

[junebugs]

Should I leave this student's committee?

If you feel that you can continue without letting this incident effect your judgement, then there's really no reason to leave the committee at this point.  If you are pissed enough that you fear that it will interfere with your ability to give good, constructive feedback, you might want to consider leaving the committee.  Also, if this behavior continues, you can also opt to discontinue your place on his continue.  Acting like a pratt is generally not the way to advancement in graduate school. If he's obnoxious enough that no one will work with him, he's screwed himself out of a master's degree.

As a professor, you already have the upper hand over a grad student. It's overkill to beat the guy up (or even wish him to trip himself up) over a single remark. I'm worried at how hopeful many respondents to this thread get that a grad student will doom himself over such a trifling matter.

[prof_mom]

Remember that a grad student does not have power over you. Students can be very insecure and need our guidance. If a grad student is saying bad things about a faculty member, the student will look bad.

You might consider having a talk with this student. I like letting our students know that I talk to my colleagues and that they tell me what they know. My students are amazed to hear all the things I know about them. Students need to learn that this is a small world and that what they say will get around the department. I might sit down with the student and say I was concerned about hu. You can say that you heard hus feelings were hurt by your criticism of the work.

You should make a point of saying that helping students improve their work is an important part of your job and that you cannot do this without criticism. You may even say that this is how you work and that the student should either accept that or get another committee member. I would make a point of saying that you feel the student's work has the potential to be good and that you are happy to help.

Give the student the benefit of the doubt and approach the situation as if you want to help hu. I have tried this and had students continue to bad mouth me. This does not usually end well for them. When calls for recommendations come.  Whether I am on the list or not, the calls usually come to me. I simply say that I have no comment about the student.

[tamina]

I completly understand where you are coming from! I have experienced this myself and it is not fun. In my case though, I knew it was the grad student bad-mouthing me and not anyone else trying to make trouble.

Assuming your situation is like mine, here's my advice:
Some grad students are very immature. They want to blame everything on someone else and do not want to take any responsibility. For example, I have a couple of doc students who want to say that I am being mean because I won't allow them to defend their dissertation proposals. They claim they have been working hard on them for over a year. This is what they tell others. In reality, they have been talking about their proposal for over a year but have shown me only a single draft. There could be any number of reasons why they are not doing their work, but they choose to tell the public at large that I am a big, unfair meanie. Doing so lets' them save face amongst their peers (who are probably starting to catch on that something isn't adding up).

So I would let it go. I wouldn't call the person on it. Doing so could create more trouble. This could be an example of an immature, frustrated student who doesn't know how to deal with the difficulties he/she is facing and so you get trashed. If you weren't there someone else would probably be getting trashed in your place. I don't think it's about you or a reflection of you at all.

Keep doing your work and do it well. Even when I have a student bad mouth me, I still give that student the same kind of feedback and help I would give anyone else.

[phdbliss]

Grad students are generally very stressed out and often feel unappreciated. Some grad students handle this well, they recognize that their role is not to be the rock star, but the roadie. Other grad students have an inflated sense of importance and overestimate their talent/potential, etc. It is often these grad students that don't take criticism well, and it is often due to a lack of maturity, and it taps into insecurity that they choose not to acknowledge.

It will all blow over. Don't let one snarky grad student's comments make you question your role and validity in what you do. You're the rock star - he's the roadie.   

(And this is coming from a grad student).

[yemaya]

Should I leave this student's committee?

If you feel that you can continue without letting this incident effect your judgement, then there's really no reason to leave the committee at this point.  If you are pissed enough that you fear that it will interfere with your ability to give good, constructive feedback, you might want to consider leaving the committee.  Also, if this behavior continues, you can also opt to discontinue your place on his continue.  Acting like a pratt is generally not the way to advancement in graduate school. If he's obnoxious enough that no one will work with him, he's screwed himself out of a master's degree.

As a professor, you already have the upper hand over a grad student. It's overkill to beat the guy up (or even wish him to trip himself up) over a single remark. I'm worried at how hopeful many respondents to this thread get that a grad student will doom himself over such a trifling matter.

Um, I didn't say that I was hopeful that the grad student will doom himself.  If this is a one time deal, yes, people will get over it.  However, students who behave like this rarely are one-time complainers, but rather apolitic, childish crybabies.  Not only can this particular graduate student not handle criticism of his work, but he also decided to badmouth a committee members who didn't even offer said criticsm in the first place.  The fact that he can't even get his facts straight suggests that he's in the "apolitic, childish crybaby catagory."   Students like that generally don't do too well in grad school - they will never learn from their mistakes or their feedback and so have difficulty producing a good final product on the thesis, etc.