Dismissed PhD Student seeking legal advice.

[vk314159]

I am writing to seek your legal advice regarding a recent development in my academic journey. I have been dismissed from the PhD program at a public university due to three C's I received during my first semester of study. I was put on probation, and I retook one of the courses and got an A. Given 3C's, I am not eligible for graduation. I was never informed about this, and I continued to take courses for the next 5 years, completed all coursework, passed qualifying exams, completed research proposal. When I applied for graduation during oral defense, I was told I cannot graduate due to the impact of first semester grades. Keeping the first semester aside, I am quite accomplished in my career and contributed to the program substantially. Given these circumstances, I am seeking your legal advice on the appropriate course of action to address this matter and potentially appeal my dismissal from the program.

 

[Zigner]

What US state?

 

[vk314159]

What US state?

Mississippi

 

[adjusterjack]

For legal advice you talk to a lawyer. Here you get helpful comments.

My guess is that, when you enrolled, your enrollment was based on university documents (catalogue, syllabi, etc) that you agreed to be bound by.

You need to find all that stuff and study it to see if the PHD program and/or graduation limitations were in them.

If those limitations were extant, then you may have to retake those two remaining courses to get back into the program. That question can be answered by the person who dismissed you from the program.

 

[vk314159]

For legal advice you talk to a lawyer. Here you get helpful comments.

My guess is that, when you enrolled, your enrollment was based on university documents (catalogue, syllabi, etc) that you agreed to be bound by.

You need to find all that stuff and study it to see if the PHD program and/or graduation limitations were in them.

If those limitations were extant, then you may have to retake those two remaining courses to get back into the program. That question can be answered by the person who dismissed you from the program.

Thanks for the response. I already requested the graduate school dean for another opportunity to retake and complete my PhD, but my appeal was rejected.

 

[quincy]

… I was put on probation, and I retook one of the courses and got an A. Given 3C's, I am not eligible for graduation. I was never informed about this, and I continued to take courses for the next 5 years, completed all coursework, passed qualifying exams, completed research proposal. When I applied for graduation during oral defense, I was told I cannot graduate due to the impact of first semester grades. Keeping the first semester aside, I am quite accomplished in my career and contributed to the program substantially. Given these circumstances, I am seeking your legal advice on the appropriate course of action to address this matter and potentially appeal my dismissal from the program.

Both your undergraduate and your graduate catalogs detail what is required for graduation and what happens when a student is placed on academic probation so you were informed of the requirements and the consequences of not meeting these requirements.

You apparently just didn’t read the catalogs carefully enough.

You can submit an appeal of your dismissal from the program to the Office of the Provost but you might have a difficult time showing the University that an exception to the program’s requirements should be made in your case.

 

[not2cleverRed]

Could you please clarify? You say that you were put on probation after your first semester. At that time, you should have been informed of what you needed to do in order to remove this status.

It has been my experience that departments are usually very straightforward about their expectations. It has also been my experience that they will make exceptions if they feel like it. It has also been my observation that if you piss off the wrong person, they will do everything within their power to apply every rule possible to ensure your dismissal, and you being adversarial will alienate even more people.

What you can do is see if there is another program that will take you.

 

[quincy]

Mississippi

Is the school you were attending Mississippi State University?

 

[vk314159]

Could you please clarify? You say that you were put on probation after your first semester. At that time, you should have been informed of what you needed to do in order to remove this status.

It has been my experience that departments are usually very straightforward about their expectations. It has also been my experience that they will make exceptions if they feel like it. It has also been my observation that if you piss off the wrong person, they will do everything within their power to apply every rule possible to ensure your dismissal, and you being adversarial will alienate even more people.

What you can do is see if there is another program that will take you.

Thanks for the response. Yes, I was put on probation, and I cleared it up. But this first-semester 3C's are being used against me for not graduating it. According to them, I cannot graduate. After the first-year, I was allowed to enroll for 5 years without the mention of this. It was never informed to me that I cannot graduate when I passed my qualifying exams, formed the dissertation committee, successfully defended my research proposal. The problem is no one in the department currently knows about my work as it has gone through an overhaul and new faculty members joined. My PhD advisor (who is also department chair) retired and apparently not liked by the current department chair.

 

[quincy]

Thanks for the response. Yes, I was put on probation, and I cleared it up. But this first-semester 3C's are being used against me for not graduating it. According to them, I cannot graduate. After the first-year, I was allowed to enroll for 5 years without the mention of this. It was never informed to me that I cannot graduate when I passed my qualifying exams, formed the dissertation committee, successfully defended my research proposal. The problem is no one in the department currently knows about my work as it has gone through an overhaul and new faculty members joined. My PhD advisor (who is also department chair) retired and apparently not liked by the current department chair.

Read your catalog. It should state clearly what the requirements are/were (and if you attend(ed) Mississippi State University, it tells you specifically how to dispute a dismissal).

 

[Taxing Matters]

Given these circumstances, I am seeking your legal advice on the appropriate course of action to address this matter and potentially appeal my dismissal from the program.

Legal advice may not be given in a forum like this one. The laws that govern the practice of law allow only attorneys licensed in the state where the legal action will be taken or the state where the client's issue arises. Thus you'd need to consult an attorney in MS to get actual legal advice. All anyone here may do is provide you some general legal information. What follows is some general information to get you started in understanding some of the basics when it comes to these kinds academic disputes.

It is essentially a fundamental rule in the U.S. that before you may sue a government agency/entity (and MSU is a state government institution) you must first exhaust all administrative remedies that the agency/entity provides for resolving your problem. As quincy noted, MSU has written procedures for doing that, and I found a variety of information about appeals at various MSU programs online. There may not be much time to start the appeal process, so you'd want to find out the appeal process for the department/program you were in ASAP.

A very common thing that lawyers do when tackling issues like this is not just look at the immediate administrative with the agency but also what further appeals to the courts may be made if the agency's administrative process ends up ruling against you. That's important for framing the issues that you raise at the administrative appeal because your appeal to the court is very likely to be based only on the record of the administrative appeal. Among other things that means that any issues you didn't raise in the appeal with the university typically can't be heard by a court reviewing the administrative decision. Also, because the court is reviewing the decision of the administrative appeal process, you typically may not present any new evidence to the court that was not provided to the person or committee that made the administrative appeal decision. You therefore want to ensure that you include all the evidence that favors you at the administrative review and also raise all the issues you have in the administrative review.

Courts generally will not decide grade decisions or review whether the standards for graduation are appropriate. Those are matters outside the expertise of the court. So you'll likely need to include some argument for why you should be given the degree that doesn't require the court to actually decide grading matters.

Suing the school in a separate action for money damages raises a whole new set of issues you'd have to consider.

In short, there is more to this kind of dispute than most students realize and because of that students who try to tackle this on their own tend not to do very well. You might want to seek out an attorney now to find out if you may have a good case for the appeal and what it will cost you to have the lawyer advise and represent you. Look an attorney in Mississippi who is familiar with appeals of state agency decisions.

 

[quincy]

… (and MSU is a state government institution) you must first exhaust all administrative remedies that the agency/entity provides for resolving your problem. As quincy noted, MSU has written procedures for doing that, and I found a variety of information about appeals at various MSU programs online. There may not be much time to start the appeal process, so you'd want to find out the appeal process for the department/program you were in ASAP. …

For clarification, vk314159 has never said that Mississippi State University is the university s/he attended. I used MSU as an example.

 

[vk314159]

For clarification, vk314159 has never said that Mississippi State University is the university s/he attended. I used MSU as an example.

Thank you. Yes, I am not from MSU.

 

[vk314159]

Legal advice may not be given in a forum like this one. The laws that govern the practice of law allow only attorneys licensed in the state where the legal action will be taken or the state where the client's issue arises. Thus you'd need to consult an attorney in MS to get actual legal advice. All anyone here may do is provide you some general legal information. What follows is some general information to get you started in understanding some of the basics when it comes to these kinds academic disputes.

It is essentially a fundamental rule in the U.S. that before you may sue a government agency/entity (and MSU is a state government institution) you must first exhaust all administrative remedies that the agency/entity provides for resolving your problem. As quincy noted, MSU has written procedures for doing that, and I found a variety of information about appeals at various MSU programs online. There may not be much time to start the appeal process, so you'd want to find out the appeal process for the department/program you were in ASAP.

A very common thing that lawyers do when tackling issues like this is not just look at the immediate administrative with the agency but also what further appeals to the courts may be made if the agency's administrative process ends up ruling against you. That's important for framing the issues that you raise at the administrative appeal because your appeal to the court is very likely to be based only on the record of the administrative appeal. Among other things that means that any issues you didn't raise in the appeal with the university typically can't be heard by a court reviewing the administrative decision. Also, because the court is reviewing the decision of the administrative appeal process, you typically may not present any new evidence to the court that was not provided to the person or committee that made the administrative appeal decision. You therefore want to ensure that you include all the evidence that favors you at the administrative review and also raise all the issues you have in the administrative review.

Courts generally will not decide grade decisions or review whether the standards for graduation are appropriate. Those are matters outside the expertise of the court. So you'll likely need to include some argument for why you should be given the degree that doesn't require the court to actually decide grading matters.

Suing the school in a separate action for money damages raises a whole new set of issues you'd have to consider.

In short, there is more to this kind of dispute than most students realize and because of that students who try to tackle this on their own tend not to do very well. You might want to seek out an attorney now to find out if you may have a good case for the appeal and what it will cost you to have the lawyer advise and represent you. Look an attorney in Mississippi who is familiar with appeals of state agency decisions.

Thank you. Yes, I submitted my appeal to the dean, but it was rejected as well. The issue is that had I known I am not eligible for graduating, I would have stopped working towards a PhD in 2017. I cleared up qualifying exams and it was realized that the course auditor overlooked it. The reason I got 3C's is completely out of my control and my PhD advisor supported me during that phase (I was an international student acclimating to the US at the time and had to go through a crisis). Moreover, during Covid lockdown, I had to take a break due to financial reasons- I lost my job as I was stuck in my home country due to visa issues. When I came back and tried to continue, they are using the first-semester 3C's and dismissed me. The problem is none of the faculty members in the current department knows my contributions and unsupportive.

 

[not2cleverRed]

The problem is none of the faculty members in the current department knows my contributions and unsupportive.

What you can do is explore applying to a related department and see if they will accept you as a student + give you some credit.

For example, I knew someone who had something similar happen to them in a CS PhD program. They went on the legal offensive to try and force the issue, and only succeeded in alienating the department chair, who was also a Math faculty member. A disgruntled Physics PhD student shot some people the year before, which might have contributed to the administration's prickliness. There was no was of going forward in any of these departments in the liberal arts college, however, one of the departments in the college of engineering was happy to take him - even had a higher stipend. Yes, the dude had to go to school longer, but eventually earned a PhD.

I've seen people switch from Math to Math Ed for similar reasons.

Another possibility is to just apply to another university. You would likely get some credit for courses already taken, and at least you'd be more appreciated.