FLASHNEWS about my PhD defense

[papie]

So I posted last thursday that two evaluators missed the deadline, so I left a message to my advisor friday morning.  He just called me back and HE IS ONE OF THE TWO.  He didn't realize the deadline was March 6th, and he had completely forgotten that I am due in april.  KILL.  He promises he will submit it by wednesday and he then asked "so does this defense thing have to happen before you give birth? Are you in a state to defend?"

YES YES IT DOES.  AND YES I CAN DEFEND. 

I told him my joke about how if it gets too hard I'll simulate labour and he loved it.  BUT DAMN. 

[papie]

Mar 10, 2014 15:15:11 GMT -5 @astrid said:

Once this is all done, can you report him for misconduct and/or not doing his job? This is so goddamn ridiculous. I would have been seeing red long before now.

There is already a file against him from multiple student complaints.  I am staying out of it for now, will see after. 

[iamali]

Ugh. What a fuckface. I'm sorry.

[smock]

Arg! Did you find out the identity of the second evaluator who missed the deadline? Can you lean on your advisor to contact that person and point out the necessity of moving quickly here?

Is there any way you can schedule the defense sooner than two weeks after the evaluators submit their report? Would they be willing to hold the defense sooner but "officially" list it at two weeks after the deadline? I know someone who defended informally a semester before she actually applied for the degree as a way to maintain a dissertation completion fellowship.

[smock]

And not to defend these bad advisors, because really they should be more on top of the deadlines, but I had a master's student send me a thesis for comments back at the beginning of February, and it completely fell through the cracks and slipped my mind until he sent a reminder email in early March. So maybe I should join the list of terrible advisors?

I'm just saying you might need to send out weekly (or DAILY) email reminders until they submit their comments.

[papie]

Mar 10, 2014 15:16:50 GMT -5 smock said:

Arg! Did you find out the identity of the second evaluator who missed the deadline? Can you lean on your advisor to contact that person and point out the necessity of moving quickly here?

Is there any way you can schedule the defense sooner than two weeks after the evaluators submit their report? Would they be willing to hold the defense sooner but "officially" list it at two weeks after the deadline? I know someone who defended informally a semester before she actually applied for the degree as a way to maintain a dissertation completion fellowship.

I just emailed the admin to let her know that my advisor will submit his by wednesday and asking if she heard anything from the other person.  I will definitely get pushier if she hasn't to find out who it is and see if an email or phonecall from my advisor can help.

and I will ask the head of the program about your second question, it seems ridiculously unfair to make me wait when I deposited in december. 

[katfco]

I don't know what your school's regulations are, but mine had specific requirements regarding timelines. You might want to check with your graduate school, let them know what's going on and make sure it's not going to mess anything up on your end.

[valetgirl]

What a drag. Unfortunately this is not the first time I've heard of such blunders with PhD committees.

[dragonfly08]

Mar 10, 2014 15:19:02 GMT -5 papie said:

Mar 10, 2014 15:16:50 GMT -5 smock said:

Is there any way you can schedule the defense sooner than two weeks after the evaluators submit their report? Would they be willing to hold the defense sooner but "officially" list it at two weeks after the deadline? I know someone who defended informally a semester before she actually applied for the degree as a way to maintain a dissertation completion fellowship.

and I will ask the head of the program about your second question, it seems ridiculously unfair to make me wait when I deposited in december. 

So sorry you're dealing with this!  Don't know about in your program, but in mine there were rules, and there were realities.  Final drafts were supposed to be circulated at least two weeks prior to a defense; often the major adviser didn't get things rolling until much closer to the date.  If s/he approved the defense happening even despite not meeting published deadlines, that was fine.  There was a lot of leeway.  Even at the university level, if the adviser got involved, and/or the department chair, things were more flexible than they'd lead you to believe.

Hopefully it'll all get worked out soon!

[celeste]

I hate him so much for you! Ugh!