Advice Please! -to handle situation w/ Professor/Mentor

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AnonforQ

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I am in a very sticky situation that I would like some advice for without getting anyone in trouble. I am a 2nd year veterinary student and I received a grant to do research this summer. My PI is my mentor in general as well due to common career interests. Only 1 other professor, at my school, has similar interests and that person is my PI's boss. There is another person (we will call her Fifi) also doing a project with this professor this summer.

The Issue: our professor has been untruthful with us about submitting the paperwork necessary to conduct our projects. She told us in April that she submitted this paperwork. We were supposed to begin our projects in late May. There was then no progress on either project even though Fifi and I have been constantly e-mailing our PI and even going into her office. She told Fifi and I that we were waiting for letters of approval from organizations that we would be working with and that once we got those we could proceed.

Long story shorter Fifi just found out that our PI has not submitted ANY paperwork for approval for our projects. There is not even an incomplete rough draft (meaning it's not like she just didn't hit submit). To make it worse the committee that approves this paperwork met YESTERDAY and will not meet again for another MONTH! This means that our grant money that we were counting on for the summer will probably be pulled and we won't be able to conduct our projects. We are both feeling hurt, betrayed, and lied to. We will both be encountering this person next year in clinics and she was my mentor!

I feel really stuck in this situation. I don't want to burn bridges with her but at the same time she has not met her obligations as a PI. I would really appreciate advice on this especially in contacting her superiors.

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That is a really difficult position to be in and I don't envy you. How do you know for a fact that PI hasn't submitted or even started paperwork? Does Fifi have firsthand knowledge? If so what evidence do you have. Think about that. It cannot be that she heard from someone else involved. It needs to be documented proof. I certainly would not make any accusations without having actual hard evidence. Unfortunately, it is a very delicate situation and you must tread very carefully. Is it possible for both you and Fifi to have a sit down meeting with the PI to discuss the status of your project/application/grant and perhaps review the paperwork she is supposed to be working on as a team?? It may be harder for her to explain away inconsistencies in her story if both of you are present in a face-to-face meeting. Beyond that, I'm really not sure what recourse you have without solid proof of her dishonesty.

I would be really careful about contacting her supervisors unless you have very solid evidence to support your claim.
 
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