Get around, get around, you don't get around

Today's bit of random advice to new and old students, of both the undergrad and grad varieties.

Here's a sample chain of command:

Random Professor ==> (Program Director, possibly) ==> Department Chair ==> One of Various Assorted Deans

Students do not always seem aware that faculty and administrators have a bad habit of talking to each other.  If you attempt to do an end-run around your Program Director by bypassing him and approaching the Chair (or the Dean), or an end-run around your Random Professor by bypassing her and approaching the Program Director (or the Chair), your Program Director or Random Professor will find out about it.  Very quickly.   With luck, everyone involved will be amused; without luck, everyone involved will be irritated.  Neither amusement nor irritation, however, bodes well for your cause. 

(This was your PSA for today.) 

Comments

[John Thomas McGuire]

As some older, wiser head years ago told me, "You have to learn when to pick a fight." In other words, you have to learn when fighting the system is good. Unfortunately some of our students never wish to learn, and to be fair, some adults never learn either.