CHAPTER 3

Procedural Matters

Student Guidance and Consequences of Negative Evaluations

At each stage of progress through the program, the student's advisor reports to the Area Faculty on the progress and performance of the student. Students who fail to meet any of the program requirements satisfactorily may, at the option of the faculty, be given a second chance to meet that requirement. Any individual who fails to meet preliminary requirements satisfactorily may be dropped from the program.

Clinical Competence Certification

For a student who fails to meet pre-internship clinical competence level, the following procedure is recommended: the student will select two new supervisors who have differing orientations and will carry out at least one case per supervisor during the following year under their supervision. Upon completion of the casework, the two new supervisors will submit their evaluations and a conference will be held in which the overall progress of the student from the initial point to the end point will be evaluated and another determination of clinical competence will be made.

If a student should fail to be certified on the second evaluation, the student will be dropped from the Clinical Training Program and allowed to pursue the Ph.D. in a non-clinical area, subject to the approval of the Graduate Studies Committee.

If a student fails to complete the internship satisfactorily, a determination will have to be made at that point about whether the internship was failed so severely that continued internship training would appear to be fruitless, or whether an additional internship year might be sufficient to bring the student up to professional skills level. Determination will be made on the basis of the full report from the supervising internship agency and on the basis of previous evaluations. If a student should be considered to have completely failed the internship requirements, he or she will be asked to pursue a non-clinical Ph.D.

Apprenticeships, Fellowships, and Assistantships

The major part of a student's training in our program is the mentorship relationship with a faculty member. Therefore, an essential component of the training program is a required apprenticeship for all students. Incoming students during their first year must establish an apprenticeship relationship with a faculty member. We attempt to select students who have an interest in working with a specified faculty member.

It is also expected that faculty mentors will make the apprenticeship meaningful. The faculty member should involve the student in all phases of the ongoing projects, including conceptualization, design, execution, analysis, and evaluation. It is hoped that the student will thereby experience as broadly as possible the various components of the actual day-to-day experiences of the working faculty member.

After the first year, the student must continue in an apprenticeship relationship with a faculty member of his or her own choosing. Usually, the chair of each preliminary thesis or original research project will be working with the graduate student in an apprentice relationship. The chair of the doctoral dissertation committee frequently has a similar relationship with a student.

It should be clearly understood that the apprenticeship relationship required of students is independent of the financial support that they may receive from the department. All students are expected to serve as apprentices, irrespective of their financial support or lack thereof. Similarly, as indicated in the Department's Graduate Student Manual, service as a teaching assistant or in teaching a course is considered part of a doctoral student’s professional training. All students, whether funded or not, are expected to perform some teaching service during their graduate careers.

Standards about how much time a student should be spending on an apprenticeship are variable, but it is reasonable for a student to spend approximately 20 hours per week (about 1000 hours per year) in apprenticeship training with a faculty member. Students should be aware that when they pursue their careers after the completion of the Ph.D., the quality of performance in apprenticeship activities is likely to carry far more influence than grades and other so called objective criteria. It is generally accepted that the relationship that students establish with faculty members may be a far more significant component of their overall graduate education than some of the other more formally prescribed components.

Advisement

Each student must have an academic advisor who is a member of the clinical faculty. The academic advisor can be the student’s research advisor or it can be another faculty member. That is up to the student to choose. Some students may be more comfortable keeping their academic and research advisors as the same person while others may welcome the opportunity to have formal access to two faculty members. Either option is fine. Whatever option is chosen, it is important that each student be represented by a faculty member at each Student Guidance Meeting.

How do you go about getting an academic advisor? Simply ask – all faculty are open to being approached by students who are not their research advisees. Establishing an advisor-advisee relationship occurs by mutual agreement of student and faculty member. Again, this is not a requirement or a preference – it is simply an option that is open to you should you wish to exercise it.

It is the responsibility of the faculty academic advisor to provide general counsel to the student regarding:

1. departmental and area requirements

2. development of a program of studies

3. the full faculty's view of the student's progress through the program.

It is assumed that the existence of an academic advisor will ensure that at least one faculty member is concerned for the general welfare of each student. Students are encouraged to consult their academic advisor on any matter related to their graduate and professional careers. This is especially important in the first few months in the program. In these critical first few months you will be faced with difficult decisions (regarding courses, faculty committees, etc.) at a time when you may have little understanding of Area regulations, informal administrative practices, and the general "culture" of the Area.

Semi-Annual Student Guidance

Twice each academic year the faculty will meet to review the progress of each student.

Progress report: Before each Guidance Meeting you will be asked to complete a short progress report. You and your academic advisor should review your progress report (and discuss any other relevant matters) before the Guidance Meeting. This is not meant to be a bureaucratic chore but rather something functional – it will ensure that faculty have access to relevant information in considering your progress and that you have someone who can speak for you in the meeting.

Feedback letter: Your academic advisor will write you a feedback letter following each Guidance meeting that is co-signed by the DCT. The letter will become part of the records kept by the department. Students and academic advisors may choose to make additional arrangements for feedback (e.g., a face-to-face meeting) if they so wish.

Meeting that includes DCT: Where a student is encountering serious problems (or where special circumstances warrant), s/he will be asked to meet with her/his academic advisor following the Guidance Meeting. The DCT will also attend this meeting (as an aide memoire).