Proper Protocols.

[izzardwizzard]

I once read somewhere that football combines the worst 2 aspects of United States culture:  violence and committee meetings

Comments

[cheez_ball]

At my university you just get the committee member you want removed to sign a paper that says they're no longer your committee member. If there's some serious issue between the student and committee member, the committee chair or department chair can request this instead of the student.

Faculty sympathies depend on the situation. When I had to remove a committee member from my MS committee I had the full support of the Department Head and many of the rest of the faculty, because they knew the situation. I won't give specifics here but will say it was an ugly situation and requesting the committee member to step down was the least messy way to handle things for everyone involved.

[cheez_ball]

Oh, and you have to submit a new degree plan with the new committee member's name and signature, as well as the rest of the committee's signatures on it.

[childthursday]

At my university, you bypass the department altogether and go to the chair of the graduate school. He/she will make the decision and inform the committee and the department. At that point, you just get the remaining members and any replacement members to sign a new committee form.

It depends on the reason for removal whether or not you'd have to propose your project again. If the person is being removed for personal conflicts or because they've become an ass (most common reason) and the project remains pretty much the same, there's no reason to go through the hoops again. If the reason is because the project is taking off in a new direction, then you do.

It's actually been pretty common in my department that people replace members lately, mostly due to faculty who seem to have decided that fucking around with students is a blood sport.

[paperkingdoms]

There was a little bit of paperwork involved -- I think just a single form, and I don't think the committee member's signature was required. (I didn't need to do it, but we considered it briefly when we were trying to schedule my defense.) That said, in my discipline/department, most committee members weren't particularly involved until it came time to defend, so that made sense.

[astro_babe]

At our school, we just have a form that lists the committee members which is signed by the director of graduate studies (DGS) in your program.

When I replaced a member before my prelim because she was being a sexist pill she was absolutely pissed. . . .and it was made even better as her husband signed the form without even looking as he was our DGS.

[knut_hamson]

Whoever wrote that doesn't understand football.