We have an urgent situation and have used every option that we know about and could use help from seasoned parents and administrators, please.
My child has completed the requirements to fulfil an incomplete, the grade for which is necessary to graduate. The deadline is August 8. My child has repeatedly emailed the professor throughout the spring semester and the summer with no response. Deans of all sorts have been involved - the engineering school, undergraduate school, office of student success, etc, who have also emailed the professor, with no response. My child’s academic advisor also will not respond (this is an ongoing problem). We have called the dean’s office and the registrar. What else can we do?
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Maybe someone in the Dean of Student’s office could help? At my school, I usually think of that office as the go-to place when student’s need advocacy.
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Yes, all the deans have been on the email chains - the dean of the engineering school, dean of students, the dean of academic advising and undergraduate studies, and more.
Can you show up at school tomorrow and try to meet with a Dean, Provost or Advisor in person? I realize it’s probably highly inconvenient and not a guaranteed solution…but if you’re talking about not being able to graduate if you don’t get this resolved by Friday…can you make the trip to press your case in person?
I wish! School is in Boston and we are in Oregon.
Be sure you have copies of all the emails and correspondences with the dates!
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Just spitballing some thoughts here:
Has it been your son reaching out to the advisor? It would be SOP for an advisor to not respond to a parent.
Have you seen the correspondence between your son and the faculty member regarding the incomplete? When I have a student that needs an incomplete, I leave a message in the master advising site that explicitly states what needs to be done, and what the timeline should/needs to be.
Do you know if the faculty is actively ignoring your son, or are they truely unavailable? (Are they alive?) The Engineering Dean should know this, or at least have a feel. Is the Dean surprised by this behavior? Is the faculty member under contract now? If the faculty member is not responding because they are on a 10 month contract, they should bave made that clear when communicating the timeline requirements.
If there are research-based grad students in the department, they might have a feel for what is going on. Is there a TA from a different course your son can reach out to so you can figure out what is happening.
I am sorry.
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I’ll try to respond to each of your questions, because they are all really good points-
My child has done all of the corresponding.
All of the assignments for the incomplete are complete and are submitted.
I have access to and regularly check in on the grades and emails.
There has been a chronic problem of professors not responding to emails. The problem with my child’s academic advisor, who is also chair of the department, goes all the way back to 2022. This lack of communication is what lead to my child having to take incompletes because no one would respond or approve course selections.
The professor in question is alive and has a full time job in the engineering industry - this is part of the problem because he is a part time lecturer (for many years though). He may be in a cave in Africa, but I don’t think so because google tells me he’s leading a social program right now.
There has been no response from the Engineering dean, though we did talk to his admin.
Even if I were a yeller, I don’t even know who I’d call and yell at tomorrow.
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Oooh good idea! I just told my kid to gather together everything and at the least forward school emails to an independent account. I wish I could use it as “evidence” to get some tuition refunded 
does the eng school have the equivalent of a Dept Chair?
Print out hardcopies of everything, or at least save as pdf’s to a personal account.
Call the Chancellor’s office - like going to a CEO, sometimes a call from them to see a status may spur an action.
Does the college have an ombudsman?
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As far as I can tell, the ombudsman is just for faculty grievances.
Good idea - if there isn’t any movement tomorrow I’ll do that. This seems like a situation where it would be ok for a parent to do that.
Yes, the chair of the Eng Dept is also my child’s advisor and is not great at responding either.
Does the university have a process for grade grievances? Your son could start that process.
I would check with the registrar to see what the consequences/possibilities are if the deadline is missed. I have seen the registrar provide a letter stating that as of a certain date, all of the requirements had been completed even if the degree wouldnt be conferred for a few months.
It does seem like you are at the point where you need to elevate and name names. Let the Dean know you are this point.
Check and see. Some colleges have an ombudsman that helps solve problems for students…and this would certainly qualify.
The Dean of Students (as suggested) would be another.
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My son’s college has a 24-hour emergency dean who could be a first point of contact and help find the correct resources if he/she couldn’t solve the problem. Maybe your kid’s college has something similar?
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Have you considered outing the school in Boston ? Might help.
There has finally been some movement - of course it was an admin who finally said, yes this isn’t ok and I’ll try to do something about it - on the day of the deadline. Only because she was able to do something did we finally get an email back from a dean.
the next question is - for Incompletes - are assignments usually penalized for being “late” or not.
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