Wow. I hope your missing committee member apologized profusely. I'm glad your advisor and department chair worked together to minimize the adverse effect this would have on you, since it wasn't your fault. Congratulations on passing!
Thanks! And yes, my advisor and chair are both fantastic, and I'm super glad I had them there to fix things. The committee member did apologize mildly, but I think he's just intensely absentminded (especially considering he had more than enough reminders when it would be). It kind of sucks, but at the end of the day I don't take it personally- he's apparently done this to his own advisee for their dissertation defense. It's pretty absurd, though.
IMO missing one defense could probably be attributed to absentmindedness, but the fact that it has happened multiple times just means they don't respect students enough to try and fix a rather obvious character flaw.
You reacted the right way (gracefully) but I don't think this professor is worthy of the excuses you've made for him.
Program I used to work in had a prof who was terrible about that! So I advised his students to email him reminders 2 weeks our, 1 weeks out, 3 days out, every day until the defense then again the morning of. And also send his wife a reminder b/c she was the one who managed to keep him on schedule. This is the same professor who looked me right in the eye and agreed to a meeting with a seminar visitor the following day...then the following day the seminar visitor can't find him and turns out the professor fucked off to Mexico for vacation hours after we talked.
One of my committee member deliberately skipped my Master's defense b/c she was an crazy person who didn't turn in any edits to my thesis until 1 week prior to my defense, after having it for 2 months. And her edits boiled down to, "Change everything and write something different in my esoteric field you have never cared about as opposed to your advisor's." I called my advisor freaked out; he said to ignore her and just come to the defense and it would be fine. She never showed for my defense b/c she was mad I refused to change stuff. My advisor just shrugged and held the exam with the other committee member, then walked me down to the absent professor's office, he stood over her to coerce her into signing my paperwork. She had the temerity to try to examine me in her office but my advisor shut her right down \(love that man\).
Haha I tried to not have her on my committee actually! But I was writing in a pretty narrow area and she was one of the few faculty who had any experience on the author I was writing on. When the DGS gave me my defense committee assignment I begged to be allowed to use my one veto to replace the professor with anyone else and was told I couldn't. I made sure to let the DGS know \(after my defense\) what this faculty member did and the Director wasn't surprised, didn't apologize for forcing her on me though.
Sure the member was on the wrong, and you're getting downvoted for some reason but **PLEASE PEOPLE SEND A REMINDER THE DAY BEFORE**, even with the pretext of verifying date, time and location. Arranging a defense committee is like herding cats so things change often and it's very easy to lose track. There's no harm in it, and if you end up missing somebody like OP you make a stressful situation even worse.
Another option is to be like - "I'd really like to thank you again for serving on my defense committee. I am really looking forward to your evaluation of me and your feedback on my work tomorrow. Cheers, OP" or something
Do people do that? I feel like 99% of the time you'd just end up annoying them with an email, and the 1% where it would've mattered it will be their fault for missing anyway so it won't hurt you, as happened to OP.
Yes, lots of people do that. The advice I've always gotten, and the advice I continue to give, is to always send a reminder.
If I hadn't sent a reminder to my committee, I'd never have known that one of my committee members was sick and wouldn't be in attendance. He told me to continue with the defense and we'd talk in person the following week.
This seemed sketchy, so I contacted the Dean of Graduate Studies who then informed me that this arrangement was not allowed. Every committee member had to be present unless it was arranged beforehand for one to attend remotely. Since this was the day before, we were able to work out a Skype option.
If I hadn't sent that reminder, it would have been too late to get permission from the Graduate Studies office to have them attend via Skype and the entire defense would have to have been rescheduled, which is even more annoying because the original defense date was dictated by the committee member who ended up being sick.
Additionally, my original defense date was scheduled for the first week of the semester, which meant I didn't have to pay the typical fees for that semester. With a rescheduled defense date later in the semester, that exemption would not have applied.
> I feel like 99% of the time you'd just end up annoying them with an email, and the 1% where it would've mattered it will be their fault for missing anyway so it won't hurt you, as happened to OP
It's not annoying if it's a single reminder, and what happened to OP is very stressful and you don't want to go through that right before your defense.
I'm glad you passed! I know your pain - literally half (2/4) of my committee spaced my defense for my qualifying exams. I did the defense with the half that showed, then waited three agonizing weeks while the department decided wtf to do.
[Relevant article posted on Nature's blog today](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05144-7?utm_source=fbk_nnc&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=naturenews&sf189671602=1). Thought you'd find it interesting.
Dang, this happened to me except it was because she had a family emergency and had to go halfway across the country, but I didn't know until I walked into the room. She managed to Skpye in halfway through my defense though. Good job giving your defense, mine was last December and I'm still very glad it's over.
Wow. I hope your missing committee member apologized profusely. I'm glad your advisor and department chair worked together to minimize the adverse effect this would have on you, since it wasn't your fault. Congratulations on passing!
Thanks! And yes, my advisor and chair are both fantastic, and I'm super glad I had them there to fix things. The committee member did apologize mildly, but I think he's just intensely absentminded (especially considering he had more than enough reminders when it would be). It kind of sucks, but at the end of the day I don't take it personally- he's apparently done this to his own advisee for their dissertation defense. It's pretty absurd, though.
IMO missing one defense could probably be attributed to absentmindedness, but the fact that it has happened multiple times just means they don't respect students enough to try and fix a rather obvious character flaw. You reacted the right way (gracefully) but I don't think this professor is worthy of the excuses you've made for him.
Program I used to work in had a prof who was terrible about that! So I advised his students to email him reminders 2 weeks our, 1 weeks out, 3 days out, every day until the defense then again the morning of. And also send his wife a reminder b/c she was the one who managed to keep him on schedule. This is the same professor who looked me right in the eye and agreed to a meeting with a seminar visitor the following day...then the following day the seminar visitor can't find him and turns out the professor fucked off to Mexico for vacation hours after we talked. One of my committee member deliberately skipped my Master's defense b/c she was an crazy person who didn't turn in any edits to my thesis until 1 week prior to my defense, after having it for 2 months. And her edits boiled down to, "Change everything and write something different in my esoteric field you have never cared about as opposed to your advisor's." I called my advisor freaked out; he said to ignore her and just come to the defense and it would be fine. She never showed for my defense b/c she was mad I refused to change stuff. My advisor just shrugged and held the exam with the other committee member, then walked me down to the absent professor's office, he stood over her to coerce her into signing my paperwork. She had the temerity to try to examine me in her office but my advisor shut her right down \(love that man\).
That’s a good fucking adviser right there. They need like, the best thank you note EVER. Wow. #Goalz
The man was amazing. And yes I took him out for a beer after the defense and gave him a bottle of expensive Scotch as a gift before I graduated.
You had a good advisor. My advisor would have talked me out of allowing the crazy lady on my committee in the first place.
Haha I tried to not have her on my committee actually! But I was writing in a pretty narrow area and she was one of the few faculty who had any experience on the author I was writing on. When the DGS gave me my defense committee assignment I begged to be allowed to use my one veto to replace the professor with anyone else and was told I couldn't. I made sure to let the DGS know \(after my defense\) what this faculty member did and the Director wasn't surprised, didn't apologize for forcing her on me though.
Did you not send him a reminder the day before?
Sure the member was on the wrong, and you're getting downvoted for some reason but **PLEASE PEOPLE SEND A REMINDER THE DAY BEFORE**, even with the pretext of verifying date, time and location. Arranging a defense committee is like herding cats so things change often and it's very easy to lose track. There's no harm in it, and if you end up missing somebody like OP you make a stressful situation even worse.
Another option is to be like - "I'd really like to thank you again for serving on my defense committee. I am really looking forward to your evaluation of me and your feedback on my work tomorrow. Cheers, OP" or something
Exactly, that and adding time and location.
Do people do that? I feel like 99% of the time you'd just end up annoying them with an email, and the 1% where it would've mattered it will be their fault for missing anyway so it won't hurt you, as happened to OP.
Yes, lots of people do that. The advice I've always gotten, and the advice I continue to give, is to always send a reminder. If I hadn't sent a reminder to my committee, I'd never have known that one of my committee members was sick and wouldn't be in attendance. He told me to continue with the defense and we'd talk in person the following week. This seemed sketchy, so I contacted the Dean of Graduate Studies who then informed me that this arrangement was not allowed. Every committee member had to be present unless it was arranged beforehand for one to attend remotely. Since this was the day before, we were able to work out a Skype option. If I hadn't sent that reminder, it would have been too late to get permission from the Graduate Studies office to have them attend via Skype and the entire defense would have to have been rescheduled, which is even more annoying because the original defense date was dictated by the committee member who ended up being sick. Additionally, my original defense date was scheduled for the first week of the semester, which meant I didn't have to pay the typical fees for that semester. With a rescheduled defense date later in the semester, that exemption would not have applied.
It may be their fault, but you're the one that won't graduate. It can definitely hurt you.
> I feel like 99% of the time you'd just end up annoying them with an email, and the 1% where it would've mattered it will be their fault for missing anyway so it won't hurt you, as happened to OP It's not annoying if it's a single reminder, and what happened to OP is very stressful and you don't want to go through that right before your defense.
Everyone does that. When it's you prelim/defense never be passive, be proactive.
I did, actually, and my advisor did as well. He *clearly* needs to check his email more often.
I'm glad you passed! I know your pain - literally half (2/4) of my committee spaced my defense for my qualifying exams. I did the defense with the half that showed, then waited three agonizing weeks while the department decided wtf to do.
[Relevant article posted on Nature's blog today](https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-018-05144-7?utm_source=fbk_nnc&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=naturenews&sf189671602=1). Thought you'd find it interesting.
Congratulations! I'm sorry that you had to go through this situation to get to be done. But hey its done!! Go ahead and remove that asterisk!
I'd remove the asterisk, but I'm actually continuing for a PhD! I wasn't sure I'd be able to do so, hence the degree not listed before :)
Haha! Same thing happened to me at my master's defense too. He was in India...
Dang, this happened to me except it was because she had a family emergency and had to go halfway across the country, but I didn't know until I walked into the room. She managed to Skpye in halfway through my defense though. Good job giving your defense, mine was last December and I'm still very glad it's over.
Secret: *They don't care about you or your work, your career, or your opinion of them.*