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Jul. 9th, 2007 11:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rivkaMy Assistant Professor appointment officially began on July 1st.
Well, sort of. Remember when I mentioned the weird way that I found out? Turns out that I haven't really been promoted yet. The Chair of the Department of Medicine has recommended me for the appointment, but a committee still needs to approve his recommendation, and it doesn't meet over the summer. While I'm waiting for them to meet, I have been given a temporary appointment as a Visiting Assistant Professor, at the new pay level, which suggests that there is not a great deal of suspense about whether committee will go along with the Chair's recommendations.
At any rate: on July 1st, I started being, and being paid as, a Visiting Assistant Professor. Sum total of the changes in my life brought about so far by this promotion: I bought an iPod on Saturday to reward myself.[1]
This morning I got a call from our assistant Steve. He's doing the same thing that I did - working full-time in our lab while he tries to finish his dissertation in the evenings. It's been a rocky road for him, with extra bureaucracy and uncooperative committee members, but he thought he'd be all done by this morning. On Friday, he warned me that he'd be late this morning because he had to go by the university as soon as the Psychology Department office opened, to put copies of his dissertation in his committee's mailboxes.
He called me a little after nine to say that he'd just found out about some extra forms he was supposed to have filed... including one that was due six months ago. And also? He had just learned that he was supposed to have an outside member on his committee - a professor from outside of his department. (I remember asking him about this months ago, because I thought it was standard for dissertation committees, and he told me that apparently it wasn't a requirement at his university.) His advisor forgot about the rule. (What the hell?!) The Graduate College didn't notice. No one realized that it was a problem until today.
His defense is scheduled for July 31st. He needs to deposit by August 6th to graduate this summer.
"Do you know anyone outside?" I asked.
"No, there isn't anyone I can think of. I'm going to e-mail my advisor, and hope that she gets back to me soon and tells me what to do," he told me, sounding stunned.
"Steve? For something like this, call her at home."
"Oh. You think I should? Yeah. That's probably a good idea."
An hour later, he called back and announced, "I'm going to throw up." No one could explain how the outside-reader requirement had been overlooked, but everyone agreed that he couldn't defend without an outside reader.
Then he said: "I hate to even ask you to do this, but would you read the damn thing and come to my defense?"
"...Can I? Would I qualify?"
I would, as it turns out. I am technically a faculty member, of nine days' duration. I am not in his department. Apparently I don't need to be at his university, as long as he can provide my CV to the Graduate College to prove my bona fide academic qualifications.
Serving on a dissertation committee! Okay, now this makes me feel like a faculty member. In a way that I never expected, given that I'm not teaching faculty, and UMB doesn't have a graduate program in psychology. How funny.
[1] OMG iPod!!! It's so nice!!!!!
Well, sort of. Remember when I mentioned the weird way that I found out? Turns out that I haven't really been promoted yet. The Chair of the Department of Medicine has recommended me for the appointment, but a committee still needs to approve his recommendation, and it doesn't meet over the summer. While I'm waiting for them to meet, I have been given a temporary appointment as a Visiting Assistant Professor, at the new pay level, which suggests that there is not a great deal of suspense about whether committee will go along with the Chair's recommendations.
At any rate: on July 1st, I started being, and being paid as, a Visiting Assistant Professor. Sum total of the changes in my life brought about so far by this promotion: I bought an iPod on Saturday to reward myself.[1]
This morning I got a call from our assistant Steve. He's doing the same thing that I did - working full-time in our lab while he tries to finish his dissertation in the evenings. It's been a rocky road for him, with extra bureaucracy and uncooperative committee members, but he thought he'd be all done by this morning. On Friday, he warned me that he'd be late this morning because he had to go by the university as soon as the Psychology Department office opened, to put copies of his dissertation in his committee's mailboxes.
He called me a little after nine to say that he'd just found out about some extra forms he was supposed to have filed... including one that was due six months ago. And also? He had just learned that he was supposed to have an outside member on his committee - a professor from outside of his department. (I remember asking him about this months ago, because I thought it was standard for dissertation committees, and he told me that apparently it wasn't a requirement at his university.) His advisor forgot about the rule. (What the hell?!) The Graduate College didn't notice. No one realized that it was a problem until today.
His defense is scheduled for July 31st. He needs to deposit by August 6th to graduate this summer.
"Do you know anyone outside?" I asked.
"No, there isn't anyone I can think of. I'm going to e-mail my advisor, and hope that she gets back to me soon and tells me what to do," he told me, sounding stunned.
"Steve? For something like this, call her at home."
"Oh. You think I should? Yeah. That's probably a good idea."
An hour later, he called back and announced, "I'm going to throw up." No one could explain how the outside-reader requirement had been overlooked, but everyone agreed that he couldn't defend without an outside reader.
Then he said: "I hate to even ask you to do this, but would you read the damn thing and come to my defense?"
"...Can I? Would I qualify?"
I would, as it turns out. I am technically a faculty member, of nine days' duration. I am not in his department. Apparently I don't need to be at his university, as long as he can provide my CV to the Graduate College to prove my bona fide academic qualifications.
Serving on a dissertation committee! Okay, now this makes me feel like a faculty member. In a way that I never expected, given that I'm not teaching faculty, and UMB doesn't have a graduate program in psychology. How funny.
[1] OMG iPod!!! It's so nice!!!!!
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Date: 2007-07-09 08:10 pm (UTC)And thank you especially for posting this today. Today, while I am frantically running around in a boat very much like Steve's, though for slightly different reasons. (And our stuff is complicated by the fact that the outside committee member absolutely has to be from the same university.) It's very reassuring to hear of such a case being worked out.
So, on behalf of panicked graduate students everywhere, thank you for saving the day for Steve. :)