Thursday, June 14, 2012

Professors Behaving Badly

This post has been simmering on my mind for quite a while. Based on many stories that I have heard, and experiences of some people close to me, I have come to the uncomfortable conclusion that there are indeed, thesis and dissertation advisors who ought not be advisors, leave alone professors. While I am grateful that my personal experience was positive and life affirming, I have observed other students bad experiences as to be prompted to write this post.

Take the example of Johari Simiti (all names changed, some might be composite characters, in order to protect the innocent). JS is a grad student at a state university. While he doesn't always meet his deadlines, he does a decent job of being close to the deadlines. Now, take the case of Jaribu Tafadhali, JS's primary adviser. When he initially looked around at graduate programs, he had a talk with her and was excited to enroll because she appeared to be pretty close to ideal - someone whose research interests coincided with his own. However, when it got done to the thesis advising stage, things didn't quite turn out as JS had expected. First, she left for an entire semester to work abroad, in which time she failed to communicate or read his proposal until after her return - even after promising to do so. So he was delayed by more than 4 months. The next semester, things went from bad to worse. She could not seem to find time in her schedule for her thesis advising work. JS eventually completed his thesis first draft, after being told what due dates he needed to meet in order to defend and graduate at the end of the summer (one semester later than he should have). However, the feedback he got was "this is not ready for defense, and I dont have the time to read and review it, so you should plan to graduate in December".  No actual feedback, no details about what is not ready, therefore the student cannot do anything with it until someone tells him exactly what is not ready/needs to be revised.


Or the case of Dada Mwema, whose advisor would take 3+ months to give feedback on drafts, left on sabbatical so she did not hear from him for a whole year, and came back to continue with the same slow pace of feedback. She eventually completed her PhD, 10 years after she started it.

Or Dada Mwepesi, whose two advisors could not see eye to eye, and every meeting, every feedback session turned into a fight between the two. Worse still, since both advisors were also administrators, there was nowhere else for Dada Mwepesi to turn to for help. She did eventually complete her PhD, but not without much angst and unnecessary drama.

I still remember a case of a grad student at an Ivy League institution, who was having such a hard time trying to complete her doctoral dissertation because of a lazy and mean-spirited advisor, that professors from other institutions had to intercede on her behalf.

One more story; a group of students completed their coursework (in the same program/institution), but they all dropped out after successfully passing their comprehensives because they could not get any support on the dissertation phase.  That points to a huge systemic problem right there when you have a 0% graduation rate for an entire cohort!

I could give even more stories about advisors from hell and the poor students who have had to endure these professors antics. In most cases, such professors work well with their graduate research assistants, as far as giving them work to do in order to propel the professors research agenda. But when it comes to being advisors, they seem to be ill-equipped, or maybe they are just not as interested unless the students work will help them advance their own research agenda.

I do remember being in a doctoral consortium in one of the professional associations that I belong to, where they were advising doctoral students that when they became junior professors, they should never forget that their first priority is to do research and get published. Teaching is something you do because you have to...therefore do the bare minimum to get by/have decent evaluations. My colleague and I actually dared to ask the question, why on earth would you give that kind of advise to grad students? Didn't they realize they had just given us an explanation as to why some grad students had such a heard time getting through/meeting their advisers/getting feedback? Thankfully, its a small minority of professors behaving badly who seem to believe that they should prioritize their research above all else - including their teaching, advising and service obligations. Maybe such professors ought to go work with lab rats and leave the teaching profession to those who love to teach/advise/work with students. 

So, if you find yourself under the tyranny of a professor-behaving-badly, what options do you have? 

I must confess, I do not have all the answers and welcome feedback from those of you who have survived such, and those who have good ideas on successful strategies for navigating the minefield.

Since prevention is better than cure, I would first recommend that, before you choose someone as a thesis or dissertation advisor, you find out from previous students what it was like working with him/her. This 4-1-1 could save you tears, frustration and delayed completion.

If you are already in the situation, I'd think the first line of defense is to talk to other committee members or department chair to find out departmental protocols - such as, what is the expected turnaround time for drafts? Are there systems in place for conflict resolution? Are there systems in place for replacing advisers who are unable to meet their obligations?

Finally, do not go through the experience alone. Call in your social support network because it is times like these that you need their emotional support, prayers and comfort. Talk to other students to find out if others are having similar experiences, because if they are, it is easier to then take action by approaching the administration as a group.

I welcome feedback, comments, stories, and even resources that those students who might be going through this kind of experience can know that there is hope. And I hope and pray that if any of my readers are in this situation, they will find hope and help to make it to the end.

Always, Dr Faith

3 comments:

  1. I did an independent study project in the final semester of my second master's degree and had a terrible experience with my advisor. He only showed up for one scheduled meeting during the beginning of the project but I was otherwise left to wait outside of his office for an indefinite amount of time. He tried to pass me off to other professors and their children for advice on my project. He did not provide any feedback whatsoever during the semester. He did return my final paper to me with comments; however, those comments seemed sarcastic and demeaning. I couldn't even read through the entire paper. My enthusiasm for the project, which I hoped to turn into a book, plummeted.

    As difficult as this was, I am grateful for this experience as I start to think about who I will select for my dissertation committee. I agree with you that prevention is the best way to avoid such a catastrophe!

    ReplyDelete
  2. May your dissertation process be the very opposite, and lead to research that you will enjoy doing and publishing! As for that last project, maybe there is a way to recover it, if you were to look at it as part of your doctoral work (if appropriate), it might give you the opportunity to do something with it. Or look for opportunities to publish (with revisions/updates).

    ReplyDelete
  3. Thanks for writing this informative article.

    ReplyDelete

You are welcome to share your own experiences, point readers to other sources on the web, or ask questions that I will be glad to answer either in the comment thread or as new posts. Thank you!