By Michelle Hines, University Relations
Rebecca Withrow.
For a while she wasn’t certain which would come first, the baby or the doctorate.
Rebecca Withrow, a UNCG doctoral candidate, successfully defended her dissertation via videoconferencing equipment on Friday. Withrow, who lives in Asheville and expects her first child by the end of April, got special permission for a remote defense from UNCG’s Graduate School when her midwives asked her to stop commuting.
Not defending her dissertation on schedule would have meant re-enrolling at UNCG in the fall, and spending more time away from her newborn son.
“It would have been a little frustrating because I’ve gotten so far,” Withrow said.
Withrow presented her dissertation and answered questions from a videoconferencing center at UNC Asheville. Her four-person dissertation committee was connected to her through a video feed at UNCG’s TeleLearning Center.
Withrow had heard of web cameras being used to supervise counselor education interns at N.C. State University, but she was pleasantly surprised at the level of technology available to her in the TeleLearning Center.
The TeleLearning Center, located in the Stone Building, provides administrative teleconferencing services as well as distance instruction.
“This is much more than a web cam,” said Lane Ridenhour, program coordinator for the center. Without it, he said, Withrow might have had to re-register for dissertation hours in the fall, spending extra time and extra money.
Withrow is completing a PhD in counseling and counselor education. Her dissertation explores how divorce impacts relationships between mothers and daughters and the daughters’ attitudes toward marriage.
Dr. DiAnne Borders, chairperson of UNCG’s counselor education department and head of Withrow’s dissertation committee, said a remote defense is unusual but made sense under the circumstances and was approved by the Graduate School. A defense, a formal and regulated process, generally runs about two hours, including a 20-minute formal presentation from the candidate and a 45-minute questioning period before the committee adjourns for private deliberations.
Withrow will receive her PhD in August and plans to attend the December graduation ceremony. She isn’t certain yet whether she will choose to teach or go into private practice.
Borders said Withrow will come away with a videotape of the defense. “I’ve been teasing her that, 20 years from now, she can show it to her son, and tell him that he was present at her defense.”
