Dissertation chairs are consistently challenged. The presenter will provide helpful strategies that dissertation chairs can apply when they have been assigned doctoral candidates due to these respective students’ previous chairs abruptly leaving the university or have not made progress with them in the dissertation process.

Enter Extended Abstract:
As more and more doctoral students are pursuing their graduate degrees in the online format, dissertation chairs are consistently challenged when accommodating their doctoral candidates, especially when they have been assigned doctoral candidates whose previous chairs have abruptly left the university or when they have not made significant progress with their students. As a result, this type of transition puts an enormous amount of pressure on the newly assigned chairs and the doctoral candidates. For example, the dissertation chairs quickly need to familiarize himself/herself with the study as well as the doctoral candidates’ working style. On the other hand, doctoral candidates may need to adjust to their new chairs’ teaching styles. For this session, the presenter will share strategies from several dissertation chairs that have experienced this transition, discuss what has helped them to accommodate their respective doctoral candidates and eventually lead to them to completing the dissertation.

Level of Participation:
During this session, the participants will get an overview of challenges the dissertations chairs encountered and how the chairs successfully accommodated the doctoral candidates.
These questions below are some of the questions that will be covered.
What educational strategies did the dissertation chairs apply throughout the transition?
What kinds of support did they receive from their respective university?

Session Goals:
Explore ways that can best support faculty mentoring and their doctoral candidates throughout the dissertation process.

Develop specific strategies in supporting faculty in working with their graduate students.

Identify key roles and systems in their supporting not only the faculty but the doctoral candidates.