W. Appendix 6: Change Advisor Request – Initiated by Advisor

Request to change advisor(s) initiated by the student’s advisor(s)

Approved by HSRP Faculty, March 10, 2024

1. Documentation of reasons for change

The faculty advisor would need to provide a brief written request for change that includes the reason(s) for requesting a student find a new advisor such as lack of fit between student and advisor, a change in research focus, a concern, or other reasons. If it is based on a concern, please include a summary of any resolution efforts that were taken.

If an advisor is considering initiating a request that a student find a new advisor based on a concern, the advisor should discuss with the student their view of the student’s performance as outlined in their annual progress report and based on whether they are in good standing in the program. If it is based on a concern, the advisor and student should consider asking someone deemed by the student to be neutral to be present at this conversation (e.g., student advocate, the Director of Graduate Studies [DGS], or a SAS faculty member of the student’s thesis, preliminary exam, or final dissertation committee). The student should present their perspective and discuss any factors which influenced their well-being or progress the prior year. Following the conversation, the student may decide to seek a new advisor (see Section 5) or may decide to seek to remain with the original advisor (see below).

1. In a unique circumstance where the student wishes to remain with the original advisor, this conversation (and subsequent ones, if necessary) should be followed up by an email from the advisor to the student summarizing the substance of the conversation and including a clear description of any specific, identified concern(s) as well as suggested solution(s) and timeline(s) for addressing the concern(s). If the advisor does not believe that the situation is remediable, they should explain clearly to the student why that is the case. The Director of Graduate Studies should be cc’d on these email communications.
2. If the efforts described in 1.A fail to achieve resolution, then the student’s advisor should issue a formal warning to the student at a meeting with the student and the SAS faculty on the thesis, preliminary exam, or dissertation committee. If a student does not have either of these committees, the DGS would be the contact. When issuing a formal warning, the advisor should again clearly articulate the concerns that form the basis of the warning. A remediation plan should then be developed to provide a clear road map for the student to address the concerns. This plan should provide specific benchmarks for assessing satisfactory progress on achievable goals in an appropriate time frame and outline all conditions of the remediation plan. The advisor must send the meeting minutes and the proposed remediation plan via email to the student, the SAS faculty on the thesis, preliminary exam or dissertation committee, and the DGS. All parties must approve the remediation plan, after which time the student must send the approved minutes to the Graduate Program Manager.
   1. Four weeks after receiving a formal warning, the student should meet with the SAS faculty on their thesis, preliminary exam, or dissertation committee to assess progress on resolution of the concern. The advisor must send the meeting minutes that include a clear statement regarding progress on resolving the problem via email to the student, the thesis, preliminary exam or dissertation committee, and the DGS. If the concern has been resolved satisfactorily at this time, this should be stated in the minutes. If the concern has not been resolved, but progress toward addressing it has been made, then the committee can meet again in another two weeks to determine if the concern has been fully resolved.
      1. The time interval between these meetings and the number of meetings can be extended by the thesis, preliminary exam, or dissertation committee to fit the specific situation. Decisions by the committee regarding extending the number and timing of future meetings in which resolution of the concern will be assessed must also be documented in the meeting minutes.
      2. The advisor must send via email the minutes of the second and any additional meetings to the student, the thesis, preliminary exam or dissertation committee, and the DGS. The minutes should include a statement that the concern has (or has not) been resolved or that progress is (or is not) being made toward resolving the concern. The approved meeting minutes should be sent to the Graduate Program Manager.

2. Request to change advisor

1. If the above steps fail to address the concern (s) satisfactorily, then the advisor can formally request that the student find a new advisor. To initiate the process, the advisor should provide a written request for change via email that includes a) documentation of the concern(s)/reason(s) for initiating the request that the student change advisor, b) a summary of efforts made to address the concern (including above meeting minutes), and c) a timetable of key events and communications related to this decision. The written request should be submitted to the DGS and the thesis, preliminary exam, or dissertation committee. The written request should be cc’d to the Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Education. When there is a change of advisor, the advisor is responsible for informing the current thesis/prelim/dissertation committees of the student for the change and reason for the change.
   1. If the student’s advisor is the DGS (an obvious conflict of interest), then another SAS faculty member of the thesis, preliminary exam or dissertation committee will be responsible for overseeing review of the request for change.
2. The SAS faculty on the thesis, preliminary exam or dissertation committee is responsible for reviewing the written request to change advisor and ensure that the process outlined above for documenting the concern and attempting to resolve the concern has been followed. However, as noted in the introductory paragraph of this document, some degree of judgment may be needed for optimal management of these situations. Consequently, with documented permission from the student involved, the Director of Graduate Studies can deviate from this detailed process if an alternative approach seems to be the best course of action for that student.
   1. Multiple factors may impact a student’s ability to adequately address the concerns outlined in a formal warning and successfully complete the remediation plan. As such, failure to fully address the concerns of a first warning and/or successfully complete the associated remediation plan are not considered sufficient justification for student termination from the program. Rather, failure to fully address the concerns and/or successfully complete the remediation plan should normally result in the student being given the opportunity to identify a new advisor. However, alternative outcomes may result in the following situations:
      1. If the same problem recurs with a new advisor and results in a second formal warning that is similar in nature to the first warning, this may be considered grounds for recommending student withdrawal from the program.
      2. Recommendations for withdrawal would also be considered for a student who successfully completes a remediation plan developed following a formal warning but then fails to sustain the improvements required by the remediation plan, resulting in a second formal warning from the original advisor or thesis, preliminary exam, or dissertation committee.
3. It is the advisor’s responsibility to inform the student that they are requesting that the student find a new advisor.

3. Before making the change

Have someone to turn to – this can be a very challenging and stressful situation, so you need to find support around you before initiating the process. Get advice from the Director of Graduate Studies or Graduate Program Manager (GPM) about how to navigate the situation. Don’t hesitate to reach out to other faculty members who are expected to hold these discussions confidentially. It’s important to let the student know if any current funding commitments would change with this potential decision. Gather as much information and support as possible before breaking the news to the student.

4. Breaking the news to your current advisor

While having a face-to-face discussion with the student would be the best option, it’s not always feasible. No matter which way the advisor decides to pursue to communicate with the student, always explain the decision to not advise them anymore. If the student is actively writing papers with the advisor or was tasked with data collection, data analysis for a project, etc. the advisor needs to discuss the process of finalizing these deliverables during the transition.

5. Finding a new advisor (process is the same for a student-initiated advisor change)

If you wish to remain in the HSRP graduate program at UW–Madison, then you need to identify a new PhD advisor. You can find a new advisor informally through having initial discussions with other HSRP faculty members and getting the approval of one faculty member to serve as your advisor. Otherwise, the following process will take place.

• Director of Graduate Studies or their designee, will serve as your temporary advisor during the transition period.
• Schedule meetings with each faculty member to discuss research topics and academic progress/timeline.
• To assist with identifying a new advisor, the DGS can provide you with a list of faculty members who have indicated their willingness to take on new students.
• If you wish to identify a new advisor in a different graduate program at UW–Madison, then you may explore this option with permission from the Dean of Graduate Studies and the targeted graduate program.
• Once you have identified a new advisor, you are responsible for requesting an official change in your advisor, thesis, or dissertation committee chair. This is accomplished by sending an email with the updated information to the Graduate Program Manager and updating the dissertation committee form (if applicable). The original advisor, and the new advisor as well as the DGS should be cc’d on the email request. If you are not yet a dissertator, you need to email the requested advisor changes to the Graduate Program Manager including the same recipients above. A change in advisor will then be completed.

6. Failure to find a new advisor (process is the same for a student-initiated advisor change)

• If you were not able to secure a new advisor, then you can voluntarily withdraw from the program.
• In the case where you couldn’t find a new advisor and didn’t voluntarily withdraw from the program, then the process to withdraw from the graduate program will be initiated by the DGS of the HSRP graduate program. In this scenario, withdrawal from the graduate program will be sought on the basis of failure to identify an advisor, as outlined by the Graduate School Policy: Advisor.

7. Funding for the student while in the graduate program (same as included in the student-initiated advisor change)

If the student changes advisors, the HSRP program will honor funding commitments (primarily length of funding) made to the student as outlined in the letter of acceptance to the HSRP program, and as long as the student meets the satisfactory progress criteria and is in good standing in the HSRP program. The criteria for being in good standing is based on their annual progress report.