I was talking to a friend of mine about an issue at school and she suggested talking to a Dean. Which made both of us realize that we've never spoken to a Dean before.
Have you spoken to a Dean about an issue? What was it, and was it resolved?
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I have spoken with a dean to clarify my university's parental leave policies for funded graduate students, but that wasn't about an issue with an individual or really a grievance as much as they deliberately word the policy vaguely...
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@nana87: I hope you were able to take parental leave!
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@MrsLilybugg: I was, thanks! But officially only 8 weeks. Luckily my LO was born in April and I didn't have any summer responsibilities anyway (just my own dissertation and my advisors are supportive of me taking longer to finish) so effectively I got about 6 months
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I did! I had my laptop stolen, and it had all the info on it for one of my classes. (It was a human skeletal analysis class for anthropology, where we were each assigned a skeleton and had to deduce possible age, sex, ethnicity, means of death, etc. based on bone measurements and things like that.) The entire grade for the class depended on the final report, and all of my measurements for the first 2 months of class were gone with my laptop, but my university had a policy of not allowing classes to be dropped after a certain point, even after I showed the professor the police report. He was apologetic, but firm that it was policy, and I'd just fail the class and could retake it the next time it was offered.
Long story short, I appealed to the dean, and she decided that it was an unusual circumstance and I could have the class stricken from my record so it wouldn't drag my GPA down. Whew!
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I did once in undergrad. I missed class because of my grandfather's funeral and we had a strict attendance policy. My professor refused to excuse the absence. I went to the dean of students, and they worked through the dean of the school and professor to keep me from losing a letter grade.
I work in academia now and I can tell you, students go to the dean for all sorts of trivial problems. If her issue is significant, I'd encourage it. But if it's something about a professor, she should try correcting it with that professor first.
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I second @marym. I never did for myself but I work in academia and students petition the deans all the time. If it's a significant problem then it's worth doing but follow the chain of command as much as possible. (If it's a particular instructor, talk to them first if you haven't already.)
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I did. I was unfairly discharged from a job so she gave me a tuition waiver. I guess I could have sued but was grateful I didn't have to go that far.
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I did. I tried to air my grievance with the professor, but he actually threatened to unjustifiably lower my grade! So I went to the dean, who said the professor couldn't do that, but besides that he didn't do a damn thing about my original grievance.
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Wow these are very interesting stories - thanks for sharing! I had no idea that all of these things could be brought to a Dean's attention! @raspberries: that was really really really great that the Dean allowed it stricken. What a bummer tho that you had to retake the class!
@MaryM: @caitlanc: great advice thank you! @808love: wow!!! Tuition waiver ?! Amazing! @mrscobee: what an awful situation! -
@MrsLilybugg: Yes, I totally admire and respect her because she was the only one in the whole process who listened and helped. I just looked her up...she won a Top 100 award so I found her easily... her official title is Vice President of Student Affairs. Sorry- I think that might not be a 'dean'.
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Also, if it's SUPER serious and the dean doesn't listen, the next step would be going to the Provost.
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I did. I had a grievance with my first grad school PI. I was the only girl and he expected me to always provide lunch for our weekly meetings, and after I had a family emergency and was gone a week he told me that my priorities were wrong and I needed to get serious about school. I found a better PI and filed a grievance!
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@808love: ah ok . Her Top 100 awRd was definitely deserved
@MaryM: oh great to know!! Thank you! @Mrs. Microscope: my jaw hit the floor with that one!! I hope he was spoken to!!! :
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