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Apr 30, 2021 at 7:22 history edited Jyrki Lahtonen CC BY-SA 4.0
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Apr 30, 2021 at 7:17 comment added Jyrki Lahtonen (cont'd) At least here they have no tools to take actions against an individual teacher. But they will advice. FWIW my own experiences with our counterpart of the Disability Services has been mostly very pleasant. They have given good suggestions about how to best help students with impaired vision, dyslexia, etc.
Apr 30, 2021 at 7:13 comment added Jyrki Lahtonen @ElizabethHenning You may be right about it being a university matter. I simply don't know the rules in the US. But my lifetime of experience with organizations is that the standard procedure is that you take your complaint up the ladder one rung at a time. If you cannot resolve a matter 1-on-1 with the teacher, you consult the department. If that does not work, then ask at the appropriate subdivision (School of sciences likely) and only then go to the admin building. A bit military style, true. Offices like Disability services are largely in a consulting role.
Apr 18, 2021 at 20:45 comment added Elizabeth Henning @JyrkiLahtonen If this is an illegal discrimination issue--as the OP's story seems to indicate--then it's a university matter, not a department matter. Disability services or EEO/DEI offices are much better equipped to handle it properly. And no, I personally wouldn't trust the DGS.
Apr 18, 2021 at 20:40 comment added Jyrki Lahtonen Fine, @ElizabethHenning. My advice to Joe is not to burn his boats by pressing the matter extensively. You seem too eager to assume that a DGS would fail to handle this impartially. Joe can also consult someone from Graduate Student Union or whatnot.
Apr 18, 2021 at 20:38 comment added Jyrki Lahtonen Mind you, Dr X may be an ass, but we only have Joe's story that the health problem was the key to the rejection.
Apr 18, 2021 at 20:37 comment added Elizabeth Henning @JyrkiLahtonen Your snark is misplaced, as is your sympathy for Dr. X. It is both plausible and likely that the situation happened exactly as the OP described, and it doesn't matter even if it didn't. This is an internet advice forum, not a court of law, and I gave advice based on what the OP said, rather than by "divining" a more charitable backstory for Dr. X. You're someone else who seems to be taking this post a little too personally.
Apr 18, 2021 at 20:33 comment added Jyrki Lahtonen @ElizabethHenning I admire your ability to divine, without hearing Dr X's part of the story, that they are guilty of all forms of discrimination. Have you, personally, ever had a grad student wannabe who says they love all the research you, comes to your office daily, asking whether you are already willing to accept them as a protegé? In spite of the fact that at a seminar the same eager beaver totally failed to show any kind of initiative, and didn't seem to grasp the material that was offered to them. One who failed to follow simple instructions?
Apr 18, 2021 at 19:47 comment added Elizabeth Henning Joe's confidentiality has a better chance of being preserved if he goes to an administrative office within the university rather than the department DGS. Reporting it within the department turns it into a more political issue involving whether the DGS likes Dr. X, whether the DGS "agrees" with antidiscrimination laws, etc. Professors also have a regrettable track record of closing ranks against a student whom they decide is a "problem," as another answer points out.
Apr 18, 2021 at 13:57 comment added Captain Emacs Excellent points made. The supervisor was not smart in giving illness as a reason (which makes it sound explicitly like a discriminatory decision), other reasons may well be in the background.
Apr 18, 2021 at 12:22 history answered Jyrki Lahtonen CC BY-SA 4.0