anotherapplicantanotherapp

Guys, I am not going back through and looking at the posts and just writing from memory. Again, pardon my factual error regarding the chronology of events. It was Fuzzy Logician's early post that really make me feel stupid and made me decide to take my post down, if it's so important for me to specify exactly what I found to be so disrespectful on this thread. It seems like everyone is looking for small mistakes in my language and my retelling of events as a means to ignore the real points I'm trying to make. Thanks for nothing, and bye.

This is the last thing I was say on this thread, but when I posted, I expected that I would be treated with some respect. I do not believe I was treated with respect by the site monitors when my post was available. Sometimes people are disrespectful and short-sighted without realizing it--particularly when talking across lines and gender and power--and I believe that's what happened here. That does not mean that I cannot tell people that I find their comments on helpful, though, or that I cannot make efforts to stop disrespectful comments aimed at my post. So I took down my post, I am not putting it back up--no matter who tries to act like I owe my post to Grad Cafe. I have not used Grad Cafe in months and was not aware of the edit policies when I made my post. Now that I know the site policies and have had the experience of posting here, I won't be using the site anymore. Problem solved.

Thanks for your response, bsharp269. I was obviously a little shocked that so many people were acting like what happened was no big deal, too--but I guess that's what comes with posting in an open forum, as has been explained to me now! Anyway, yes, the whole incident did start because of the professor having a history of problems with other students and her department chair leading me to believe that the problems were not going up the chain of comment to the dean/university level. My guess is that the whole reason my email incited such an disproportionally severe response was because the professor knew she was on thin ice already--which I also sort of knew--and was really scared about the possibility of more complaints. Of course, the sad thing is, I would not have complained had the incident with the boyfriend not happened, but now I probably will. Oh well....

Yes, fuzzy logician, this is an open forum, and I have been down voting your posts because I find them particularly unhelpful. If you were not the one to mention Northwestern, I apologize. It must have been someone else. However, you did tell me that I seemed like I was probably someone who often misinterprets my professors actions, which I think was an unreasonable assumption to make. It did make it sound like you were trying to use my past experience with a harassment complaint to undermine my credibly, which sounded to me like victim-blaming. Also, I was annoyed by the assumption that "experience" with a harassment complaint automatically indicated to you that I was the one who had filed the complaint, that the complaint was deemed unfounded, and that I lodged the complaint against a professor. (In actuality, I assisted in the investigation of a complaint made by several classmates against another graduate student, and the result of the investigation was that the student was expelled.) Thank you to all who have offered helpful comments, though.

Takeru, Eigen explicitly stated that my situation sounded like a Northwestern case brewing, and fuzzy logician suggested that I have a history of over/mis-interpreting my professors actions, both of which suggest I am at fault her and am about to mis-use the Title IX office. I realize that, technically, I am not allowed to stop this thread from continuing. However, as this is an open discussion forum, I believe I do have the right to ask people on this thread to stop referring to me. They do not have to obey, but I have as much right to ask as you have to explain why this is against your policies. So I ask again. Please leave me out of the conversation. Additionally, if no one owns a thread, it seems like it should be at the discretion of individual users to take their posts down. When users can't do that, then GradCafe owns the thread. I don't know anything about this site or what kind of benefits administrators receive--whether those benefits are monetary or not or why it is that the administrators who have responded to this post at such length feel that it is so important for their words to remain up on the site. If this site were really intended for the benefit of users, though, I think a user who posted about a sensitive issue and then wanted to take the post down would certainly be allowed to do that.

Fuzzy logician, you are really, really unhelpful. I discussed a completely unrelated issue with the harassment office at my university once before. I was mistaken in thinking that that office also served as the Title IX Office. I also did not know what you meant when you said it sounded like a Northwestern case brewing. I have not been following the Northwestern case recently, and I only knew about Northwestern's policy update and Kipnis's response. I was assuming that was what you were talking about at first, and I only found out about the Title IX retaliation complaints brought against Kipnis later on, after this thread had been going on for a while. I do not think it is in any way disrespectful of me to delete a post when people are jumping to unreasonable conclusions about me and my character, based on the limited information I provided. I thought there used to be a way to delete a post shortly after posting, if the poster decided that he or she had provided too much personal information, but I guess I was mistaken. I do not appreciate the responses I have received, though, regardless of the precious time that the posters devoted, and I do wish there was a way to delete this thread or at least my account. Maybe there is a way to delete my account, and I am just not seeing it? In the meantime, continue the discussion about terrible students who abuse Title IX if you must, but stop referring to me. That problem has absolutely nothing to do with me, and I find these accusations abusive. Also, please remember that it was not my idea to use the term "Title IX Office," and that in saying that's where I would go, I was just echoing rising_star's advice and trying to sound agreeable. It was my intention to do my own research and figure out the appropriate reporting venue at my university, not to actually, blindly march into the Title IX Office and tell them my story.

Well, I am disgusted by Laura Kipnis, and I think she used her position of privilege as a professor to published some very short-sighted and poorly reasoned arguments. Unfortunately, the students who are harmed when Title IX is not properly enforced do not have that privileged access to widely-read journals to argue against her. Also, when I said I thought Northwestern was acting justly, I meant that their policies to protect students under Title IX made a lot of sense to me. I was not referring to the Title IX retaliation case filed against Kipnis for her article. I was just referring to the fact that her article was the most ignorant, privileged piece of bs I have read in a long time, but thanks for making sure I am not completely clueless. I guess my Title IX office does not run properly, though, and like I said, it wouldn't be my first point of contact anyway. I get that based on the information I provided in the email that I ashamedly deleted, you all do not think I have grounds to complain. Thank you for the advice, and please desist from further commentary on my ignorance and further warnings about how ineffectual my complaint will be.

Yes, and I thought justice was served in the Northwestern case. I am truly disgusted by all the backlash from professors that followed in its wake and by Northwestern's decision not to make a statement against Laura Kipnis. Moreover, I have a fair amount of experience with my university's Title IX office and know that submitting a complaint absolutely does not initiate legal proceedings and that they would certainly refer me to the correct office if I went there with a complaint that was not relevant to Title IX. I said "Title IX" because another poster suggested it might end up there, but the first step, at my school, is to contact the dean's office, which is what I plan to do. I assume the dean's office will refer me to the correct place to report, even if, as you suggest, Eigen, it is not actually the Title IX office. Also, I wish we could end this discussion here. I deleted my post because my dispute with my professor was really traumatic, and I was looking for guidance for how to properly report the issue--because I thought what happened was something a university would probably want to prevent. If it's not, though, it's not. That's the only answer I need.

Thanks, all. I guess there is a lot of background to this case that I did not give--and do not want to give on here. And, in light of the responses I've gotten, I deleted my original post. I do not think there is anything wrong with filing a complaint with the Title IX office for the threatening and humiliating situation I experienced as a result of an email I sent to a professor. I believe I have a right to express myself and my concerned to my professors, as a student at my institution, and that I should not have to endure verbal abuse or physical intimidation as a result. I believe that the Title IX office is capable of figuring out if and how to deal with the situation and that there is no harm or shame at all in my decision to report them incident.

rising_star Thanks for the advice. I assumed the professor hates me and got her boyfriend to do all the yelling/water throwing for her, so she wouldn't get in trouble, and I made that assumption largely because she was there when it happened and didn't do anything to stop it and didn't apologize. I could, of course, be mistaken, to some extent. Maybe "hate" is not the right word. Hm, maybe I will talk it over with the Title IX office, though.

deleted

FeministCorgi, I second that the rejection letter from Ohio State is a pretty decent one, as far as rejections go, and that it sounds like you're more than qualified. Haha and your letter sounds much nicer than the one I got from Maryland, copied in its entirety here: "Dear Student: Thank you for your interest in the University of Maryland’s Graduate School. Based on our requirements for graduate admission, we are unable to offer you admission to the Ph.D. program for Women's Studies (WMST) at this time. We wish you well in your career endeavors. If we can be of further assistance to you, please let us know." (sic) I was seriously DISTRAUGHT for like a week, because of the harsh wording and kept wondering if I'd inadvertently done something weird to get myself disqualified. (I did single-space my writing sample to get it down to ten pages, so I suppose I COULD have been disqualified for that???) Anyway, I wouldn't worry too much about the wording of these letters, I guess.

Eesh, yeah, I have a possible issue alone these lines, too, that has me mildly freaked out. It's scary when you think about how much damage one powerful person whom you've annoyed can actually do, it they choose too....

Hey y'all. I thought I'd try to revive this thread, since we don't have an active thread for women's studies this year. I'm applying to a ton of PhD programs and was really disheartened when I found out that my first was was rejected ten days after the deadline and received a letter saying that I had not "met the requirements for admission to the Graduate School." So, I'm started to freak out a little bit about my chances at all my other programs now and thinking about throwing some MA applications into the mix for this year, too. I mean, I'm wondering, though, if I have a chance at PhD programs at all, after such a fast and confusing rejection. I have an undergrad degree in English from a top 50 university--overall GPA 3.75, major GPA 3.7 (not too impressive, I guess.) My GRE's are pretty good, though: V168, Q162, AWA 4.5. Also, I have an MFA from program with a really heavy teaching and academic coursework requirement. So I've taken three graduate-level classes in women's studies plus some graduate literature and history classes--and I have a 4.0 in all of that. So, I'm a bit surprised that I didn't meet the Graduate School's minimum requirements for graduate study at my first program and that my app was thrown out so early--and just wondering if there's any hope for my app this year.... :-/

My flaws are as follows: 1. My undergrad GPA - 3.75, not great for an English major 2. It took me a long time to find the areas of study that really interest me, and so my background is a little all over the map. 3. It took me a long time to find a job after college graduation, so my resume is all over the map. 4. I am just generally unhappy and pessimistic right now, so when I'm trying to write my SOP's, I just get depressed about all the brilliant faculty I won't get to work with, in the college towns and cool cities where I'll never get to live. And then I get so nervous that I submit my SOP's with typos in the tailored part at the end. (Like, INVARIABLY there is at least one glaring typo in my last paragraph, and invariably, I don't see it until it's too late.) #3 on the list is clearly the most problematic and the thing I *should* be able to fix, I guess. It's just, you know, I come from the recession generation and have experienced lots of failure over the past several years. I'm still plowing through these, though, and clicking those submit buttons. So, that's something, I guess.