Subject: Allow Kyle Williams to defend his thesis on Friday, May 16th, 2014.

I just signed a petition calling on the School of Graduate Studies and Research of Meharry Medical College to immediately allow Kyle Williams to defend his thesis entitled, A County-Level Analysis Comparing Premature Mortality in the Five Healthiest and the Five Unhealthiest States in the U.S., by the end of the day on Friday, May 16th, 2014, and to work with Mr. Williams to be able to participate in the commencement exercises on Saturday, May 17th, 2014 and successfully graduate in June 2014.

As of yesterday, May 14th, 2014, the faculty and decision makers in the Master of Science in Public Health department of the School of Graduate Studies and Research informed Mr. Williams that it will take up to two weeks before he will be offered a date and time to defend his thesis. According to Mr. Williams, he was originally granted an extension to defend his thesis by May 16th, 2014 due to unique and unexpected circumstances pertaining to his thesis committee.

Mr. Williams is a second-year M.S.P.H. student and is a dedicated and hard-working individual. The program deadline to defend thesis proposals for May graduation was March 3rd, 2014 and unfortunately before that date Mr. Williams lost two out of three of his thesis committee members due to an apparent disagreement between the two. This was no fault of Mr. Williams but he was forced to fall behind deadlines because of the unforeseen ordeal. It was very difficult for Mr. Williams at this point in time to find new faculty to agree to be on his thesis committee, with many of them stating that they were “too busy” or were already preoccupied with being members of other students’ theses committees. After various discussions with the Dean, Mr. Williams was granted a slight extension on these deadlines although then being forced to receive his degree in June instead of May. Mr. Williams was well aware of his responsibilities and has been working diligently ever since to complete his thesis and all of the necessary components with integrity and dedication in a timely manner. As of today, some of the faculty have fallen back on their word and are making it very difficult for Mr. Williams to finish this project in time. One of the core values of Meharry Medical College is teamwork, “encouraging, supporting and valuing the collaborative efforts of faculty and students to advance the quality of education and research.” We feel that with this situation this core value is being ignored. I know that Meharry Medical College strives to offer strong educational opportunities to all people from different backgrounds and fosters a culture of unique support and guidance to their students that they are most often not able to receive at any other institution, and we are counting on you all to continue to hold this value true.

We are all frustrated by this event and Mr. Williams’ parents who are also Meharry alum are very saddened and disappointed with the unethical treatment. Mr. Williams is a well-liked and appreciated student of his class and we realize now that it will take all of us, working together, to find a way to get him permission to participate in the commencement exercises with the rest of his class. Let us start by giving future Meharrians and Meharry alum hope and a force to brag about.