Is Putting a 'Hit' out on One's Committee Members Wrong?

[Minnesotan]

I never took Ethics when studying philosophy, but I know there are rare cases when murder is justified. Can anyone clear this one up for me? If one particular committee member is making life far more difficult than it needs to be, what's wrong with a little homocide? You know - not a lot. Just one committee member.

lol

[rising_star]

I dunno but I totally feel ya. One of my committee members may be out to sabotage my entire career.

[Minnesotan]

I realize I'm not a professor yet, but what's up with that. So many of my buds are running into the same deal - there's always one committee member that is trying to be a complete a-hole, for seemingly no reason!

I don't mind the lazy committee members; it's the busybodies who scare me.

[hannah]

Every department is different, but does your department allow you to change committee members? If so, DO IT. I had such a villain on my committee, and (with the support of my dissertation advisor) changed the committee membership. I reconfigured the committee to introduce a more cooperative professor and get rid of the ego-maniac. The fellow being got rid of knew right away why he was being got rid of, and did not like it one bit, and was confrontive and unpleasant, but I just kept smiling and said my interests had changed and I was now very interested in pursuing this other area (which just happened to be the specialty of the cooperative professor) and wanted to work with him. Dr. Obstacle said: Maybe people will say that you were just trying to avoid me, or taking a prelim from me! I said: Why would anyone say that? I told you why I wanted to make that change, and my dissertation advisor thought it was a good plan. It worked, too. The unpleasant interview was VERY unpleasant, but well worth it and MUCH MUCH less expensive than putting out a hit on him. Besides, don't you watch Law & Order? Crime doesn't pay (well not unless you have way more money than an assistantship). On the minor downside, I did have to take a prelim exam in the new area which was frankly totally out of my interest area, or anyone else's, but this new fellow had the happy reputation of never failing anyone, so I learned what it took. In order to get this done, you need a great dissertation advisor. I hope you have one.