The petition
Petition to President Brodhead, Provost Lange and Dean Wright:
MR. LI SHOULD BE GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY TO FIND A NEW ADVISOR AND RETAKE PRELIM EXAM
In May, 2007, Mr. Li, a fourth year Ph.D. student, took the prelim exam as guided by his advisor. The committee failed him and deprived him of his right to retake the prelim exam. This pronouncement resulted in the dismissal decision by the department and the Graduate School after his three and a half years of hard work at Duke, without awarding any degrees. This is an astonishing decision, as it had never happened before in the history of the department.
Mr. Li is a capable student. While doing research at his former school, he submitted and got admitted a paper to the most important conference in his study area within one year's research work. Also, his GPA at Duke exceeds the requirements of the Graduate School.The too frequent changing of research project and the insomina in the eve affected Mr. Li's performance in the prelim exam.
Mr. Li was over punished by the committee decision. Since his advisor had said that she would not be his advisor any more if he failed in the prelim exam, he should be given the opportunity to find a new advisor and retake the prelim exam as other students in a similar situation were granted to do in the past.
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