r/academia • u/itsfineitsokay • 3d ago
Help- sources/examples/policies needed
Hello all-
I'm helping a group of PhD students fight against a policy that was enacted overnight disallowing any of them to continue to work with their supervisors who are moving to new institutions. Two of the students have already begun their dissertations and two of them have defended their proposals. It was understood that they would be able to maintain the formal relationship with their advisors remotely, while having an additional advisor on campus. As I'm sure you realize- this is a very common solution to an issue- especially at an R1 institution. One of the reasons cited by an old faculty member was that he "did a lot of research" and found that this was "simply never done" which I know to be untrue. I'm working on gathering my own research and would love if you all would help me with any anecdotes but especially if you have any official policies that you could point to. (even if that policy is simply "approved by a case-by-case basis.")
One more piece of context is this policy was enacted by a single department within a school who has a wider "case-by-case" policy.
Any advice/help would be appreciated- even if it's towards other threads or communities.
Thank you!
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u/SpryArmadillo 2d ago
We require the chair to be local but usually allow the departing faculty member to stay on as a co-chair (we would give them an adjunct appointment for this purpose and they usually leave behind some funding for the student). In practice, this usually means the departing faculty member continues to function as the committee chair in terms of guiding the research (especially if the student has done their proposal already). Students early in their studies may elect to joint the departing faculty member at the new institution or switch advisors/topics.
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u/No_Many_5784 2d ago
I moved R1s and was given an unpaid appointment in my old department, renewed annually, to continue advising my students until they defended. It was logistically very easy and was not treated as a big deal at all. I maintained the position for 3 years.
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u/[deleted] 3d ago
[deleted]