My opinion of my department has just been shot to hell.
Right. So my Mother applied to the doctoral program in my department, Humanities, and quite reasonably expected to be accepted. She is nearly a straight A student. Her *lowest* mark at York is a B+, and the rest are all As and A+s. And her marks from her prior graduate and higher undergraduate work at U. of T. are all As and A+s. Her masters proposal at U. of T. was award-winning. Indeed, the *only* reason why she didn't complete her doctorate at U. of T. was because she took time off to help me get through highschool with my sanity in tact (I had made the mistake of leaving the school for the Blind where I'd been before to go to a regular highschool, and was finding it much more difficult than I expected both academically and socially). However, that gave her the chance to rethink her work, and to decide that what she wanted to do would be better done in Religious Studies than in Anthropology, hence her coming to York to do second undergraduate work in that field. She then applied here to the graduate program in Humanities (of which Religious Studies is a subprogram) to finally complete her doctorate with the steller grades described above, obtained while still helping me a lot to live as independantly as I have and while also caring for my Grandmother who has Alzheimers, and has been summarily rejected by the department.
And why? Well, their stated reason was that no one came forward to supervise her project, because no one felt that it was sufficiently within their field for them to feel comfortable doing so. This in spite of the fact that Mother had gone onto the faculty website and put together a list of several people whose fields were related to her project, who would easily have made suitable supervisors. Not only that, it is not uncommon for people to be admitted to the program under one supervisor, and then to switch to a different supervisor after the first year or so if the initial one is not a good fit. So there were ways around that excuse if the department had wanted to admit her.
It gets worse though. When my Mother went in to speak to the Graduate Program Director about it, the afore mentioned Director implied that the reason why no one had come forward to supervise Mother's project was because her work wasn't really of high enough quality. The director told Mother that her grade-point average was only an A- (I don't quite follow how such an average is obtained from the course-grades described above), that her proposal was unfocussed (I've heard it and it is not), and that her references were average (two out of three of her referees said that they would come out of retirement to supervise her if they were allowed to). Basically, the GPD tried to defend the department's decision by attacking my Mother's quality as a scholar. And when that didn't work, when Mother still didn't agree with their decision, the Director told her that "well, not everyone who wants a doctorate can get one). In other words, she implied that Mother simply didn't have what it takes.
All this from a university which prides itself on its progressiveness, and on putting the needs of students first. All this from a department which prides itself on its Leftist, anti-opression, Feminist and anti-descriminatory politics and epistemologies.
Oh. But it gets even worse still. Mother's social worker, whom she had taken along as an advocate just in case the department played rough, took the side of the department, nodding to everything the Director said, and agreeing that their reasons for rejecting Mother were absolutely reasonable. And then, after the meeting, the said social worker implied that Mother's failure to understand why she was being rejected and to accept that juddgement was because of her possible Asperger's syndrom. This from a woman whose job it is to help poor and marginalized people.
So because of this decision, Mother will not be able to do without her alemony from my Father this year as she had hoped to, and will be up shit creek if he decides that the downturn in the economy justifies his cutting her off. Now he would have to go to court to prove that he can't pay, but my Mother could starve while that's being bureaucratized. She could go on welfare in the meantime, and thankfully it would kick in fairly quickly if Father cuts her income, but it would be even less than she's living on now, which is only $650 a month as it is. So the department's decision to reject her has not only been a rank insult to her as a scholar, but it has condemned her to another year of abject poverty.
Needless to say, my respect for my department, and for our Program Director, has gone out the window.
And why? Well, their stated reason was that no one came forward to supervise her project, because no one felt that it was sufficiently within their field for them to feel comfortable doing so. This in spite of the fact that Mother had gone onto the faculty website and put together a list of several people whose fields were related to her project, who would easily have made suitable supervisors. Not only that, it is not uncommon for people to be admitted to the program under one supervisor, and then to switch to a different supervisor after the first year or so if the initial one is not a good fit. So there were ways around that excuse if the department had wanted to admit her.
It gets worse though. When my Mother went in to speak to the Graduate Program Director about it, the afore mentioned Director implied that the reason why no one had come forward to supervise Mother's project was because her work wasn't really of high enough quality. The director told Mother that her grade-point average was only an A- (I don't quite follow how such an average is obtained from the course-grades described above), that her proposal was unfocussed (I've heard it and it is not), and that her references were average (two out of three of her referees said that they would come out of retirement to supervise her if they were allowed to). Basically, the GPD tried to defend the department's decision by attacking my Mother's quality as a scholar. And when that didn't work, when Mother still didn't agree with their decision, the Director told her that "well, not everyone who wants a doctorate can get one). In other words, she implied that Mother simply didn't have what it takes.
All this from a university which prides itself on its progressiveness, and on putting the needs of students first. All this from a department which prides itself on its Leftist, anti-opression, Feminist and anti-descriminatory politics and epistemologies.
Oh. But it gets even worse still. Mother's social worker, whom she had taken along as an advocate just in case the department played rough, took the side of the department, nodding to everything the Director said, and agreeing that their reasons for rejecting Mother were absolutely reasonable. And then, after the meeting, the said social worker implied that Mother's failure to understand why she was being rejected and to accept that juddgement was because of her possible Asperger's syndrom. This from a woman whose job it is to help poor and marginalized people.
So because of this decision, Mother will not be able to do without her alemony from my Father this year as she had hoped to, and will be up shit creek if he decides that the downturn in the economy justifies his cutting her off. Now he would have to go to court to prove that he can't pay, but my Mother could starve while that's being bureaucratized. She could go on welfare in the meantime, and thankfully it would kick in fairly quickly if Father cuts her income, but it would be even less than she's living on now, which is only $650 a month as it is. So the department's decision to reject her has not only been a rank insult to her as a scholar, but it has condemned her to another year of abject poverty.
Needless to say, my respect for my department, and for our Program Director, has gone out the window.