Does anyone have any experience using SMART to advocate for PhD students to graduate in a timely fashion? I've completed all the requirements signed off by my committee during my prelim/qual exams, but am being held hostage by my lab PI. He repeatedly threatens me by telling me he won't let me graduate or publish my work until I perform additional bonus research for him because he thinks he owns all the intellectual property on work done in his lab. This is a pattern of his with students who are trying to graduate.
It is very true for normal PhD students that the university owns all their work- a friend of mine learned the hard way when her PI quit the university and refused to let her publish her work even as a dissertation. But is it true for us? I'm not paid by the university, I'm paid by the DoD. I've never received a check from the university. Has anyone been through this process and had to get SMART involved?
Who owns our research?
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AlsoPhDStudent
Re: Who owns our research?
This is common at my college as well, even for those funded outside of the school/lab. I believe the school still owns the intellectual property since you have likely used any form of resources they offer (computational resources, etc.). Easiest thing is to just deal with it. Most people at my school do even though several research advisors are essentially slave drivers. I doubt SMART or even any DoD agency would help, but there's no harm in calling them to see. I will say our school has a limit on how long a student can extend a PhD and there are professors/lab advisors who take full advantage of this by not letting them leave or graduate until that last semester. This happens to students funded outside of the lab/school all the time (I actually don't think I have heard of an instance where the student was able to get out of it without reaching the end of their time for a PhD or by completing what their lab advisor requests).veriste wrote:Does anyone have any experience using SMART to advocate for PhD students to graduate in a timely fashion? I've completed all the requirements signed off by my committee during my prelim/qual exams, but am being held hostage by my lab PI. He repeatedly threatens me by telling me he won't let me graduate or publish my work until I perform additional bonus research for him because he thinks he owns all the intellectual property on work done in his lab. This is a pattern of his with students who are trying to graduate.
It is very true for normal PhD students that the university owns all their work- a friend of mine learned the hard way when her PI quit the university and refused to let her publish her work even as a dissertation. But is it true for us? I'm not paid by the university, I'm paid by the DoD. I've never received a check from the university. Has anyone been through this process and had to get SMART involved?
Also, at least in my experience, this is something that students ask about before going somewhere for a PhD so they know if it may happen to them. Many of the PhD students at my school are very open and there is a student made list of those professors who are "slave drivers," and milk what they can out of any grad students.
Your best bet is to just call SMART and see what they say.
Re: Who owns our research?
Unfortunately the time limit in my department is 10 years. It was difficult to track down information for my professor because he is somewhat new to the school, having only started work there two years before I applied. I am hoping to be the first person to graduate from the lab while taking less than 8.5 years to do so (some students transferred with him from his old job to finish up).
While I appreciate that you are generally trying to be supportive, I do not think I am in the kind of situation that happens "all the time." Three members of our lab have had complete psychiatric breakdowns and quit within the last year, and my PI is under investigation by the school but they do not seem inclined to risk the PR disaster of upsetting him.
Just one example: One time my PI called me and a few others in to work at about 10 am on a sunday because he was worried about a looming project deadline. A deadline for a project which, by the way, was not actually helping any of the students in the lab progress towards their degrees but rather was just a grant he thought sounded interesting. We worked continuously until he finally released us on Monday at 6 pm. None of us were allowed to sleep or had access to any food during this time (30 hours total). At one point some non-university DoD personnel were present and offered to bring us lunch. His response, and this is a direct quote because I wrote it down, was "Don't treat my people like they're human. They'll start to expect it in the future." This is not the only example, just one that lends itself to a summary in an internet chat forum.
So yeah, it's a bit trickier than the normal PhD student drudgery, especially since much of the lab equipment I've been using was bought with DoD funds. I've survived several years but have now fulfilled all my agree-upon graduation requirements and am ready for it to be over. My SF is very concerned and is consulting their legal department. I've sent a few emails to SMART and have not yet received a response. I was just hoping someone else on this board had some insight that might give me some hope.
While I appreciate that you are generally trying to be supportive, I do not think I am in the kind of situation that happens "all the time." Three members of our lab have had complete psychiatric breakdowns and quit within the last year, and my PI is under investigation by the school but they do not seem inclined to risk the PR disaster of upsetting him.
Just one example: One time my PI called me and a few others in to work at about 10 am on a sunday because he was worried about a looming project deadline. A deadline for a project which, by the way, was not actually helping any of the students in the lab progress towards their degrees but rather was just a grant he thought sounded interesting. We worked continuously until he finally released us on Monday at 6 pm. None of us were allowed to sleep or had access to any food during this time (30 hours total). At one point some non-university DoD personnel were present and offered to bring us lunch. His response, and this is a direct quote because I wrote it down, was "Don't treat my people like they're human. They'll start to expect it in the future." This is not the only example, just one that lends itself to a summary in an internet chat forum.
So yeah, it's a bit trickier than the normal PhD student drudgery, especially since much of the lab equipment I've been using was bought with DoD funds. I've survived several years but have now fulfilled all my agree-upon graduation requirements and am ready for it to be over. My SF is very concerned and is consulting their legal department. I've sent a few emails to SMART and have not yet received a response. I was just hoping someone else on this board had some insight that might give me some hope.
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guestagain
Re: Who owns our research?
Does this PI know that if your funding runs out, that he will then have to fund you to keep you? There's quite a bit of overhead in funding a grad student, and if he needs grant money (as I see he forced you to apply for) then he might not want to sign those checks and it's best that you just graduate.
Re: Who owns our research?
Update:
Our lab has had so many issues with student abuse, the department is mad. They have stated that they need to re-evaluate my advisor's continued employment here, but have promised to wait until after I defend to protect me. My SF is delaying dealing with the issue of pay and has not responded to my recent emails on the subject, hoping the problem goes away on its own. My advisor called the department head and informed them he was declining to fund me, then threatened to draw my graduation out for yet another semester during my next meeting with him. I asked the department if they would fund me, and they are temporarily, but that cuts off in another two months. So if my advisor succeeds in delaying me, who knows? I could get the privilege of being verbally abused and mocked on a daily basis for FREE. Fun!
I wish I could somehow convince every undergrad simultaneously that graduate school is seriously not worth it.
Our lab has had so many issues with student abuse, the department is mad. They have stated that they need to re-evaluate my advisor's continued employment here, but have promised to wait until after I defend to protect me. My SF is delaying dealing with the issue of pay and has not responded to my recent emails on the subject, hoping the problem goes away on its own. My advisor called the department head and informed them he was declining to fund me, then threatened to draw my graduation out for yet another semester during my next meeting with him. I asked the department if they would fund me, and they are temporarily, but that cuts off in another two months. So if my advisor succeeds in delaying me, who knows? I could get the privilege of being verbally abused and mocked on a daily basis for FREE. Fun!
I wish I could somehow convince every undergrad simultaneously that graduate school is seriously not worth it.