ejl

I go to a school ranked top ten in my particular department and my advisor is completely worthless. I've heard through the grape vine he was hired to scratch his PI's back (a rather famous PI in this field) which is the only logical explanation he is here. He has been a PI for three years (I'm a second year..I know, my first mistake was choosing a new professor). At first, he would overwhelm me with big words and fast talking and it wasn't until about six months in that I realized how completely clueless this guy is. In my 2 years not a single useful piece of advice has come out of his mouth and I even feel like our meetings are only a further waste of my time. So that's a little background, here's the problem: Of a new group of 7 students, two have already been fired and two are now on the chopping block. Most of the grad students are funded by the department (he only has start-up funds because companies, the government, and national labs are smart enough to see through this mans BS). We believe one of the firings was due to the fact that our PI's project idea was seriously flawed, failed miserably, and he could no longer afford to fund it and the second firing was because of a personal grudge. We keep wondering how long the department will let this continue but no one seems to care. Three separate grad students have been to our departments graduate student coordinator and one has been to the vice provost and nothing has happened. The remaining grad students are now considering going as a group to the coordinator so that maybe someone will actually address our concerns about our PI's inability to do his job and our fear of loosing our jobs. They can't ignore all of us, right? I know this is a risky move but I'm not sure I can continue like this. I am not getting pHD training being advised by this man and I don't want to waste another two years and then be suddenly fired. Any advice/input appreciated.