Abuse of Procedures at My University

I have not named my university and I will leave you to decide to find out or not.

On April 21, an administrator at my school sat in on my first draft meeting for my doctoral document and disagreed with some of the theoretical statements I made. Upon further research, those statements I made were incorrect and too general. I found further information to back up my new observations and made necessary corrections to my document. This prof did an analysis (still incomplete), made observations and formed conclusions, and wants me to insert his material into my document. I refused to use everything because that would constitute plagiarism. I cannot defend something I did not do. I have other reasons why I am not using his material but it's besides the point to list them here.

This fiasco delayed a possible defense before the end of May. My dissertation chair had to move to WA so he wasn't physically around. On June 1, my musicology professor had to leave the country. On May 25, this administrator attempted to replace my dissertation chair, musicology professor and theory professor (3 out of 6 people). He put himself in my committee in place of the theory professor, and changed the musicology person. I managed to keep my dissertation chair, thankfully. This change was signed off by my department chair before I could fully raise my objections. He has threatened to refuse to sign off my document unless I acquiesce to his demands. Why would someone put themselves in a committee less than a month before the submission deadline of June 26? The form which my university uses doesn't require a student's signature. The actions of this administrator is like a coup e'tat.

My final draft has been ready since May 15 and I am still waiting for a defense to be scheduled. Last I heard, it is pending for June 15. My dept chair, major professor and dissertation chair are all involved now. His actions leave me no room other than to stage a mutiny. If I have a dissenting vote on my document, it won't really matter in the long run. I need to prepare the gist of document for publication and not let his actions weight me down.

Do check procedures at your own university to ensure they cannot be abused against you at the last possible moment. If graduate school forms do not need the student's signature, lobby your SGA senator to change this. You need to know at every step of the way and be given a chance to discuss changes to your program. Be forewarned.