text:
Should I intervene when a colleague in a different department makes students run laps as part of their grade?
Basic Premise
Can a microbiology professor require students to run laps on the track during class for a grade, even if the class usually has no physical component to it?
Background
As part of my role as a university professor, my college requires that I advise a number of undergraduate students on the progress on their degrees in the college. These meetings are short, usually no more than 10 minutes, and act as a quick waypoint to ensure that students are on track and having success with their studies. I ask if the student has any concerns generally and sometimes advise on career options or basic life advice, etc.
This past week, I had a student inform me that he is worried about his grade in an upper division [microbiology] (not the actual subject, but represenative of the type of subject) class. This student is a pre-med student who is on track to begin applying to medical school shortly. I have spoken with this student two times prior and he is an excellent student and has done very well in all of his classes up to this point. As such, I inquired as to why he was worried about his microbiology grade. He then proceeded to tell me that his microbiology professor bases part of their grade off of what he calls "Physical Involvement." (Or something like that).
Now, what is this "Physical Involvement" portion of the grade you might ask? Running. As in, let's go down to the fieldhouse and run a mile before class dismisses. (More on that in a moment).
However, the student in question is a huskier fellow for whom exercising and "physical involvement" is no easy task. Simply put, he is someone that the Centers for Disease Control in the United States would classify as obese.
Although only very loosely connected to microbiology, the professor in question has decided that since most of his class consists of students who will become physicians,* he wants to encourage holistic health practices in his students. Part of this, in his opinion, is maintaining a healthy body weight. He supposes that a heavyset physician cannot give advice on a patient's health without coming across as a hypocrite. Thus, this professor has made physical exercise part of the grade for the class.
Because the class is being taught on a 7-week instead of a 14-week schedule (summer class), each class period goes for 120 minutes instead of the usual 50 minutes.  The professor has decided that for the last 30 minutes of the class, the class will walk over to the fieldhouse and run a mile. For credit. There are 20 class periods in the semester and each class period a student is given one point for running a mile at the end of class. The professor and TAs count the laps for the students. A student who completes a mile in each of the 20 class periods is given 20/20 for the "physical involvement" portion of the grade. A student who runs 9/10ths of a mile each class, but never completes the mile receives 0/20. It is all or nothing. This accounts for 20% of the grade. Hence, a student who never runs the full mile is pretty much guaranteed a B- or worse in the class. For someone who is trying to get into medical school, getting a B- in a core class is not ideal.
There supposedly (as per the student) is no way to make these runs up. In theory, there is no time limit (e.g. "You must do this in 6 minutes or better"), but the students are realistically only given about 10-15 minutes to complete the run before the professor needs to leave. The student in question here is the only runner too slow to complete a mile in that time.
Field Work
With all of this being told to me, I decided I needed to see this for myself. At the appointed time, I casually appeared at the fieldhouse in my running clothes and pretended to exercise. And sure enough, here came the microbiology class to run their laps. It was exactly as described by the student. (This had to be one of the oddest things I have ever seen at a university track. Some of these students ran their laps in semi-formal pants with leather shoes). Every student completed the run (some just barely), except for the student I am advising.
The Question
How do I proceed? Do I talk to the dean? Do I talk to the head of the microbiology department? The professor of the class is a long time professor at the university. He is known for being a bit zany. His class requirements seem completely irrelevant, but I'm not sure how (or if) I should intervene.
How much leeway should a professor be given to determine what "counts" in his or her class?

*The class is usually taught in the Spring Semester (January-May), but the college is running a special section this summer in order to accommodate about 20 or so pre-med students who had a conflicting class last semester. Normally the class would be a mix of pre-med students, microbiology majors, pre-pharmacy students, etc.

Update as of 3 April 2020
I spoke with the head of the microbiology department last semester about this issue. The professor in question here normally does not teach this certain microbiology course, nor does he usually teach any classes in the summer. (Part of the issue was that summer classes are twice as long, which gave enough time for the running component). To be brief, the department was aware of the running requirement. Because they had not had complaints, they allowed it to ride. (Good or bad, that's how it was). This professor is actually extremely highly regarded by the university faculty as a whole and it was a sticky situation.
In the end, the husky student I was advising got an A anyway. He worked out some deal with the professor where he (the student) would show up at 6 a.m. and run/walk laps with the professor for four weeks. The professor is a real softie at heart and he does care personally about his students. He's just very quirky. And he loves running. (He ran across America, Forrest Gump style. He still has the huge hair and beard, it's just white).

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat.

When Academics meets full metal jacket

Not only is he on track to begin applying to medical school, but he's also on track to getting a B-, because he's on the track running poorly. Anyway, this story is pretty hilarious.

Perhaps the other professor misunderstood what it means to make sure his students were on track? ;)

This question reminds me of government-mandated anti-fat programs, such as this: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-11/the-fat-camps-where-obese-children-are-shamed-into-losing-weight/9640946 You might be interested.

This would be a great course to audit -- 100% of the content in 75% of the allotted time. Not that it's an option for the student, who needs a grade, but the professor must think everyone else is wasting a lot of time in their lectures.

" the students are realistically only given about 10-15 minutes to complete the run before the professor needs to leave" - that strikes me as a rather poor preparation by the professor. The stated course requirement was to travel 1 mile in an unlimited time, so he needed to make unlimited time available to assess it. So I suppose in some "zany" sense it's good that he recognised this and moved the assessment at a more suitable time, for all that it's still petty bullying.

If the class is about microbiology, the students’ grade should depend on their knowledge of microbiology, and only on that.
(Edit: to clarify, “knowledge” covers things like lab skills and other things that have a connection to microbiology but aren’t strictly theoretical in nature. But not running. Definitely not running.)
I’ll assume based on OP’s description that this is taking place in the US. Even though I’m not a lawyer I would bet money that for the professor to tie grades in an academic class to athletic performance would constitute an obvious and blatant violation of one or more US laws. It very likely would also violate various policies of your university. For example, at my university the faculty code of conduct has a concept of “failure to meet the responsibilities of instruction”, which I know for a fact would cover the case of a professor spending a large amount of the class’s time on activities that are unrelated to the topic of the course.

Should I intervene when a colleague in a different department makes students run laps as part of their grade?

Obviously yes. You are the student’s undergraduate adviser. That makes you precisely the person positioned to help him when he is being treated in an abusive and probably illegal way by one of his professors.

How do I proceed? Do I talk to the dean? Do I talk to the head of the microbiology department?

Either of those persons sound like appropriate people to talk to. The chair would be the most appropriate, being the person directly above the misbehaving professor in the institutional hierarchy, so I suggest going to them, unless you have some specific reason to fear retaliation or other adverse consequences if you proceed in this way.

The professor of the class is a long time professor at the university. He is known for being a bit zany.

This is irrelevant. If the professor graded his students based on their looks, how much money they have, the number of hot dogs they can wolf down in 10 minutes, or any other similar criterion unrelated to their knowledge of microbiology, we would not be talking about the professor’s zaniness. Neither should we be talking about it in the current equally absurd scenario.

How much leeway should a professor be given to determine what "counts" in his or her class?

Any leeway a microbiology professor should or should not be given would be appropriate to discuss in the context of how they teach microbiology, and how they evaluate students’ knowledge of microbiology. What the professor is doing here is entirely unrelated to such activities, and as such, no leeway applies. As with the mention of zaniness, “leeway” is not even a relevant factor to discuss.

+1. In my opinion the abusive component amounts to a form of bullying and probably discrimination: nobody should get a lower grade in a theoretical course for being overweight. This professor is a liability to their institution.

"graded based on ... how much money they have". I mean, if they have a million in unmarked bills, the university hasn't given us a COLA in four years.... (Kidding, of course. Sadly not about the lack of COLA)

Grades almost always depend on more than the pure academic content of the course topic. Such as public speaking skills, language skills, research skills. And beyond that, things like making students tell about themselves and other ice-breaking activities are thought to be helpful to learning. This instructor could easily make an argument about how this activity is valuable and falls under academic freedom, making a big fight out of it at least. The school of course has the ability to exempt students and adjust grades meanwhile.

@ASimpleAlgorithm I disagree that “the instructor could easily make an argument”. They could try, but they couldn’t make the argument because such an argument has no merit; athletic performance has no connection whatsoever to microbiology. The behavior described in this question does not fall under the scope of academic freedom.

For a subject such as microbiology that involves bench science, it seems inappropriate to grade only on knowledge; the grade should also account for their technical competence at bench science. Nothing to do with running, but also untrue to say "the students’ grade should depend on their knowledge of microbiology, and only on that"

@EnergyNumbers I would consider “bench competence” to be an aspect of “knowledge of microbiology”, so I stand by what I said. The bottom line is the grades should only consider things that are relevant to the topic of the course, and it sounds like we’re in agreement that lab skills meet that definition and running doesn’t.

@EnergyNumbers agreed, I think that ANY statement of a course goal must include not only knowledge but ability to APPLY that knowledge.  Unlike Dan Romik, I do NOT agree that the ability to apply is implicit in the word “knowledge”: on the contrary, there are many glib students who can pass written examinations looking like a genius who have no faintest ability to use the information whatsoever, since it’s just meaningless words to them.  So assuming that knowledge implies ability to apply is a dangerous short circuit that opens the door to failure.

@Wildcard I think you’re misinterpreting what I said. I’m fine with testing practical lab skills - that is certainly a kind of “knowledge” and is fair game to teach and to test in a microbiology class. You can test practical things, they just have to be related to microbiology. I did not say or imply that only written or theoretical knowledge is acceptable to test.

@DanRomik I understand the point you’re making and I agree that material covered must be pertinent to the course topic.  It’s dangerous to leave practical application on automatic (i.e. leave it unstated or implicit) as in actual practice it often DOES get dropped out of education, leaving theoretical coverage only.  This is a separate point than the one you’re making.

@DanRomik fine they could easily try to make an argument. Even the OP describes the task as "loosely connected" as opposed to "no connection whatsoever". If it were a calculus class things would be much more different for example, but human health is a popular application to engage students of biology with. A problem is the rather significant challenge here, but it isn't a pure grade of athletic performance. A 15 minute mile can be achieved with a brisk walk.10 minutes is a slow jog and a common cutoff to worry about someone's health.

@ASimpleAlgorithm thanks for your thoughts.

@ASimpleAlgorithm I am not a lawyer, but what I have seen of US caselaw gives astonishing "discretion" to university faculty about content, structure, and evaluation of courses. It's likely the only recourse a student would have would be to demonstrate that he was being harassed or discriminated against as a member of a protected group. There are examples of unsuccessful cases by medical students who were similarly penalized for being fat.

As an outsider this seems ridiculous. I think a quick email to the chair of the department saying that you have an advisee who is worried about BIO302 (or whatever the number is) and the running component. It seems reasonable to ask if that is actually a requirement (which it clearly is, but the department chair may not know it) and if it is, what course would be better suited for a student who is not interested in running. That should get the ball moving.

what course would be better suited for a student who is not interested in running. You can’t be serious. If you heard about a woman being discriminated against, would you ask what course was better suited for women? That’s a strange way of expressing concern about behavior that’s so very clearly unacceptable.

I think Strong's point is that OP can bring this to the chair's attention by asking some very innocuous questions. If the chair's response is not sufficiently forceful, OP may then need to state their concerns more clearly.

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat. I left two comments standing reflecting the man sides of the discussion. Please do not post any new comments unless they clearly aim to improve the answer. Also read this FAQ before posting another comment.

Please add a warning that is - very ethical - approach could have severe drawbacks for OP's career.

@trognanders: if yoour collegues are not perfect humans, then it really can be that hazardous.

@user111388 If a student fails or gets a poor grade because of the running activity and the department/administration didn't know about it because the advisor failed to notify them and it comes out that they knew couldn't that be even worse for their career?

@JonW: In my experience, no. In most departments I know pissing off senior professors is the worse thing you can do (careerwise), doing bad things to students is irrelevant (unless they have parents with good ties to politics, university etc.). Unfortunately.

@DanRomik: personally I think "this course appears to discriminate against women: what course would be better suited for a woman?" would work as a rather pointed rhetorical device. Of course the department chair could not answer it, since they know they cannot say "I dunno, cooking or something?", and would not want to. It highlights the absurdity of running being a requirement in this course. But the recipient would have to be in the mood for sarcastic rhetorical questions, which is by no means a given. So sarcasm is not a good first step.

Unless you're Bill Nighy. A Bill Nighy character would absolutely say exactly that, and it would 100% work every time.

The student's health status or physique is not of consideration here.  If the situation is as the student described, the prof's behavior is simply untenable -- if for no other reason than 25% of contact hours being spent on nonsense.  Every student in the class should be incensed.  The TAs should be upset that they're spending their time this way.
The chair of the relevant department is the appropriate point of contact.  When communicating with the Chair, include that you're passing the student's story along without verification, but you felt the story odd enough that you felt compelled to bring it to the Chair's attention.

While I might agree in general, there is more to an education than "lecture time".

@Buffy absolutely - it's the "nonsense" part that gets to me.   Perhaps "contact time" is a better phrase here.

Actually, I think the professor's opinions and goals should be explored before making judgements about "nonsense". Even "contact  time". My philosophy is that the only thing that really matters is what the students do. There are a lot of ways for me to arrange that appropriately.

I'd love to see which of his course outcomes he is using this as an assessment for.

I think the profs goals will be amply explored, likely in the form of a question of the form "what were you thinking?"

Why say that "you're passing the student's story along without verification"? The OP did verify the student's account, by witnessing the situation personally.

He has no idea what constitutes the course grade beyond the students claim.

@The_Sympathizer, and others, I'm simply uncomfortable making extremely judgmental statements without more information. I don't have an answer for this question beyond, start with that professor and learn what motivates this. Then (and only then) make a decision. He may be entirely in the wrong as most here have suggested, but I can't say that. It is a hypothetical as far as I'm concerned without more information. Note that there has been a sort of (unfortunate) herd reaction to this question. It doesn't reflect well on academics to act like that.

That said, I don't see any reason not to explore this through the dean or other officials, but decisions should be made after understanding, not before. Isn't that what academics are supposed to do?

@Buffy -- I just disagree with that. It's not this profs job to try to debug this other guy's class.  A student brought the  poster a potential problem that might be major, and the responsibility is to bring it to the attention of those who can do something about it.  It's an unpleasant situation, not very likely to make the OP any friends.  The less involved the prof gets, the happier he'll be.

Game this out.  What sort of response would you expect from professor B here that would turn this into a non-issue?  I can see, if you're trying to demonstrate something like the physiology of exercise, making a student run a few laps -- until the exercise sequelae the prof is trying to demonstrate are observed.  ONCE. It should be graded as a lab, and not to some goal of completing a mile.  Perhaps the prof is trying to demonstrate how repeated exercise can impact the use of O2.  If this is the case, the prof needs to find some other way to demonstrate this if a student objects.

Approaching someone who's responsibility it is to look into the situation is not judgemental.  It's passing the need for judgment to where it belongs.

At the very best, the prof has chosen a valid pedagogical approach that is causing one of his students undue distress.

The fact that the other students/TAs did not complain may been that this is an "the prof is allmight" kind of department.

I observed a similar situation.  Oddly, the (male) professor was in biology.  The course was some sort of nutrition course for nurses (so the class was mostly female.)  Part of their grade was based on how much weight they lost during the course, so there were weekly weigh-ins.
Some of the students complained and some faculty intervened.  Unfortunately, the prof was a buddy of the provost, so things happened quietly. In the end, he was not dismissed for this and even became dean but was eventually dismissed for sexual assault (he assaulted a secretary).
Anyway, yes, just tell the dean.  This is absurd.

Moderator’s notice: If anybody wants to debate the edit history of this post or substantially have it edited again, please take it here.

-1 it seems like your answer is you can complain but don't expect them to do anything, but don't worry about that because at some point they will do something even worse.

I agree with the other answers that you should e-mail the department chair.  Additionally, I would suggest that you advise the student that he has options to solve this himself even without your intervention. You are his advisor, so advise him, don't just try to solve it for him. E.g. your university may have an Ombudsman, suggest that he talk to them. The department/college/university may have a formal process that he could use to lodge a complaint or appeal the grade. Explain to him how this process works and send him the relevant information. Your university may have a student government or student association that lobbies/advocates for students' interests that may be able to take up his cause.  And if all else fails, there is always "name and shame": a well placed headline in the student newspaper or local TV news station like "Prof flunks students for being fat" would gather a lot of interest (note: definitely use this option only if all others have failed)

My first thought was how is this professor doing on RateMyProfessor..? How about his end-of-term evaluations? Is this the first term he's tried this? I guess this student is a typical "good student" and doesn't have the normal bad student awareness the last date to drop/transfer?

I would disagree with having the student try to fix this as this is an issue that likely impacts every single student that the professor is currently teaching and that he has taught in the past. In fact they will likely have to review every single grade that has been given out in the past to check for cases where a student passed or failed solely due to the physical requirements.

You are his adviser.
Don't cover this up, or let it go.
Advise your student to go get a doctor's note which states s/he needs a reasonable accommodation under the American Disabilities Act allowing the student any number of attempts to complete each mile, two hours to perform each mile (not the ~15 minutes provided), that s/he is not required to do it during the day (the professor or a grad student must be available in the evening or early morning when it is cooler).
You don't mention a location for this, but I see you have ties to the Eastern US... if the class is taught elsewhere let me know and I'll delete (though other countries may have similar laws).
If the instructor doesn't cave... that may be for the best, because the student has a pretty straightforward lawsuit that could fund his first four years of med school.
NOTE: I am not a lawyer (IANAL)

A comment stated this:  (I've reordered the sentences)

The administration needs to be the one to stop this, not the students.

Yes, it would be better for the administration to fix it.
But remember that this is the same administration that put him in charge of the class (remember he's known to be quirky... which means they are already putting up with some amount of idiocy).

Making it more inconvenient for the professor to enforce his physical fitness requirement seems like an awfully roundabout way to end this nonsensical and inappropriate practice.

I see your point, however my suggestion has several benefits.
First, the OP doesn't interfere with another department.
In my opinion that may have long term negative consequences, even if OP has tenure.
Second, an ADA note means the professor has to let the student make up all past attempts.  If the administration tell him to stop, he could just stop it from then on and give the student a grade he doesn't deserve based on uncompleted runs earlier in the course.
I know that sounds silly, but remember that the joker doing this is the same one that established a PE requirement for a microbiology class.  I wouldn't put anything past him.
Third, this is a seven week course!
The student needs to stop the clock to prevent getting a B- (or whatever) assigned and then having to fight over a grade change (to where it should have been).
If I had a choice between waiting on an administration to do the right thing, or having that administration's lawyers make them do the right thing... I'd bet on the lawyers.

Making it more inconvenient for the professor to enforce his physical fitness requirement seems like an awfully roundabout way to end this nonsensical and inappropriate practice. The administration needs to be the one to stop this, not the students.

@NuclearWang Why not attack on multiple fronts?

As some answers have suggested, check the syllabus, if running or "minimum physical requirement" is not in there, your student wins.
On the moral side I can see some "intention" in there, although, don't get me wrong, this is completely denigrating, discriminative and can even be considered as bullying someone. If the professor has this "idea" of making sure that med students have some "decent health condition", he could make his "running exercises" as an extra, just to achieve some extra points by the end of lecture. This can NEVER be part of the program and being in bad shape cannot harm your marks, as he is not a physical exercise student, his job will have "nothing" to do with him being obese. And even if this last sentence can rise up some criticism, what is clear is that, al least, is has nothing to do with his knowledge on the subject or with his ability with it.
On the hypocrysy side, the professos itself is being one, as one answer suggested making EVERYONE run a mile without prior knowledge of their health condition is clearly faulty for someone that teaches future physicians. And, even with that, as you stated he has more than just medicine students on his class, what's the justification for those bio, pharma students also running? Funny enough I imagine he is too busy "counting" his students laps as to run himself... Which is, again, contradictory. Arbitraty rules can never determine the ability of someone to do something (is this professor able to keep concentration 2+ hours? Then is he capable of teaching that many students? As an example of another arbitrary rule)
Also, what if obesity (or any other health condition) is not because of bad habits and is related to some disorder?
Well, I think that morally there's a lot of "holes" in there. Legally also, but mainly the syllabus thing.
I would first speak to him, as after all, he is teaching at the same college as you, so as a form of "education" you should first go see him. After that, and after your conversation where you present your points, maybe a visit to the chair or dean is probably the right thing to do.
Good luck!!

"your student wins": ethically, yes. But in many universities, the professor is allmighty whatevery the syllabus says (if it exists).

Well, I disagree. If the syllabus says something and you report that to the chair of department, most of the time they will have to admit you were right. After all syllabus (or any "grade program") is what sets up the "rules" for the evaluation and the rating system. Of course we have to be aware that there's a lot of unfair situations on college and other alike systems (I agree with you on that), but that's something the OP can't control. I'm not a lawyer but I'm pretty sure a syllabus saying X can be "proof" for some process if the student chooses the legal path.

Proof that the prof isn't doing what they said they'd do in the syllabus is meaningless, since that is not illegal.  And a syllabus is not a signed contract.  I've never had the good fortune to attend any school where the administration would care at all what the syllabus said when it came to the choices of a tenured professor.

Well, I guess it might depend. I don't think "good" (high rep probably would be a most accurate expression) universities would ignore a flagrant syllabus/evaluation doc violation. In fact, when I was at college I saw a professor being warned by the dean because of an argument over the syllabus. He wouldn't let us bring a formulae cheat sheet (chemical engineering subject) when it was explicitly written on the syllabus it was allowed. Part of my class went to see someone (I did not take part on that, so...) and 3 weeks later by the exam date the prof himself had prepared formulas for everyone.

Also there's a bit of difference between "not doing what they said they'd do" and "forcing someone to do something that was not pre-specified at enrollment time"

Please consult someone in your university you can trust (e.g. other professors you are friends with, worker's union, ombudsman).
From another question of you, I remember that you are not so high in the career ladder and other shady things happen in your department. Unfortunately, this could mean that "pissing off a more senior professor" could be very bad for your career.
Now, I do not say that you should not help the student because of your career. But please talk to competent people before who can tell you maybe about similar situations that happend before. Hopefully they can tell you how those situations turned out and what happened to the people in question. Then, you can make a more informed decision what to do. Maybe they tell you about some anonymous processes avaiable in your university.

@GeorgeM: Would you mind explaining ADA? Google's result do notseem to make much sense for me.

It would presumably be against the university's academic policies to award grades for non-academic activities. A professor cannot, on a whim, decide to award grades for components of a degree for activities such as finger-painting, beer pong, or karaoke performances. It brings the reputation of the department, not to mention the entire university, into disrepute. To make matters worse, this is a core subject, and worth 20% of the grade for this subject.
Even if a superior, for some highly dubious moralistic reasons, decided to approve this professor's conduct, presumably the administrators of the university would take a dim view of this behavior. If they don't, then there's something more serious wrong with the institution than the information than has been provided tells.

You are talking about what is right but not really giving advice.

@user111388 Not really. You have to know what the rules are in order to object to their execution (or breach). Just saying to a department head "I do not approve of this" has no particular weight. Even making an ethical argument is subject to... subjectivity. Pointing to the academic regulations governing such elements of a course is I think the way to go. As I said, I'd be surprised if such an nonacademic grade bearing component would not at the very least be in breach of the spirit of the academic charter, which presumably makes reference to study, examination, & fairness in these respects.

Having thought about this for a few days let me give an answer that is different from most of what is here.
My bottom line is that a professor can, carefully and thoughtfully, deviate from standard pedagogical practice. However, such deviations need to be justifiable in order to be acceptable. Even then, they may not be accepted. Moreover, the justification needs to exist, but doesn't need to be obvious to everyone.
From the information given by the OP, I don't know whether the professor's actions are justifiable. I think that the topline question of the OP can be answered "yes", you should intervene in some way. But the proper way is not to make accusations that the actions are positively unjustifiable until you or some authority knows more and explores whatever reasons the professor has for the actions. A TA isn't the person to make accusations against a professor, of course, just out of self-preservation. But bringing it to the attention of 'higher authority' is certainly fine.
But let me note a couple of examples, one personal and the other not.
There is a method of teaching mathematics, the Moore Method, in which the professor studiously avoids teaching mathematics and forbids the students from reading about it in books and such. Nearly everything the student knows about math, beyond a few definitions, was developed by that student through a series of exercises, that I assume the student gets feedback on, but no prior instruction. The prof might give a sparse definition of the derivative, but no examples, and a lot of exercises. Robert Moore turned out a number of very fine mathematicians, and others, long after his death, still use this or a modification of it. It was, and remains, controversial. But it differs radically from standard pedagogy in mathematics.
My personal anecdote is that I once announced to my class, fairly early in the semester, that I was willing to fail everyone and stop holding lectures and they wouldn't need to come anymore and could just do other things. I could "get away" with this because I was tenured, respected, and a bit "zany". It caused quite a stir in the hallways after class. My department head asked about the reasoning, as was entirely appropriate. The issue was that the students had gotten to their current stage without any particular effort and had developed no good study habits. They would likely fail in the future if they didn't "learn how to learn" more effectively. I felt they needed shock therapy to get them to see the consequences. I actually spent a bit of time in future lectures guiding them to better study habits and actually forced note taking on them, with later reinforcement. But the pedagogy, while justifiable, certainly wasn't standard, and I don't recommend it to anyone without deep thought first.
In the current situation, I think the proper approach, probably from a dean or such, is to ask that professor "Why do this?". What is the reason/justification. If that reason is inadequate, then it is certainly time for condemnation and an intervention. In the current case, it is also probably necessary to examine the actual de facto implementation, including accommodation for those unable to participate. But, it should start with questions, not condemnation.
The rather strange (to say the least) pedagogy needs justification. But start with that.

So what do you recommend the OP? While you are correct, going to the dean could have severe consequences to the OP's career.

One can bring a question to the dean, without making a direct complaint, @user111388. In fact "A student has complained to me about the following situation..." would be a way to bring it out but without compromising yourself.

Do you mean anonymously? Everything else seems quite risky (if not knowing the dean and their relationsship to the prof very well).

@user111388, that might be fine, if a complete background is included, but the OP is actually a professor so I think there is less risk. But he would have to judge that, of course.

From their other question, OP is new to the department, an adjunct and has no tenure. Their department seems to have shady things going on.

https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/131523/teaching-a-class-likely-meant-to-inflate-the-gpa-of-student-athletes

So, please be careful, Vladhagen!

The professors job is not to judge the student based on his ability to run a mile, but to instead judge him based on his performance in the class. To me, this seems completely inappropriate. I Think you should voice your concerns with the department in question and to make them cease these activities. I Believe it is unethical.

This seems like a bizarre requirement, and if I was the student in question I would treat as any other course in which I had catastrophically poor performance for whatever unexpected reason: I would drop or withdraw, and then aim to retake it later in more favorable circumstances. This is the easiest solution for your student and has the highest odds of success. The only drawback is that he might have to delay his graduation by a year. Even that wouldn't be a complete loss: If he ends up having an extra year solely to take that course, he can use his free time to study for MCAT, get a medical-related job, work in a lab, or do some sort of internship that helps his med-school application.
The second possibility here is to negotiate with the instructor. For the record, I see his logic but I think the requirement is ridiculous and has nothing to do with microbiology (wouldn't the university lose accreditation of their microbiology course over stunts like this?). The med school requires microbiology because they want applicants to know microbiology. Imagine what they would think if they found out an applicant got a good grade not due to their knowledge of the subject matter, but because they could run a mile! Anyways, with that out of the way:
The instructor wants to promote healthy life habits in future doctors. Fair enough - but if the student is currently obese, it should be evident that he cannot become perfectly fit in a matter of 6 weeks. Even if he could lose weight that quickly, it would be a very unhealthy thing and maybe even grounds for hospitalization. Running when you are very overweight is also inadvisable, it creates excessive strain on the ankles and knees and heightened risk of injury. These points can be made to the instructor as part of plea to find an alternative "physical" activity for the student, such as swimming, with reasonable expectations given his weight. Perhaps the student could even volunteer to see a dietitian, start a diet, and show evidence of that (maybe a food diary) to the instructor as a way of getting the credit. The instructor gets to promote healthy habits in future physicians, the student gets his grade and maybe even improves his health, and everybody wins... Except that an inconsiderate instructor gets away with making inane requirements, which is the main drawback. The other drawback is that the instructor might demand evidence of weight loss, which isn't realistic in the first few weeks of any diet, but perhaps a note from the dietitian would be helpful there.
The third option would be to leverage existing legal protections of disabilities. Obesity is not always considered a disability, but sometimes is. In this case it clearly precludes the student from running. Surely there is a separate unit in the university that handles cases of discrimination. The student can appeal there directly and ask for accommodations to be made in the course. Just as how, say, a vision-impaired student would be provided alternate ways of reading materials, the obese student should be provided with alternate ways of showing "physical involvement". Perhaps they might even require him to be exempted from the running entirely, or demand that the running be abolished altogether. If for some reason they decide to be unsympathetic, the student can see an outside doctor to get himself officially declared a disabled person. In that event the university would have no choice but to accommodate him, and if they fail, he has a slam dunk ADA lawsuit* ahead of him, after which he would almost certainly receive a hefty payout and it would also look good on his medical application (he would be fighting for the rights of all disabled people, not just his own).
I doubt that approaching the chair or other academic superior will work. Of course it's worth a try. But it sounds like this guy is very confident and it's probably because he is well connected with the university leadership. Because this is not the first time you have complained about outrageous special treatment for athletes in your university, I suspect that the leadership is aware of this bizarre "physical microbiology", and endorses it.
*: I am assuming here that this is a US university, because your profile says United States, and also because in most other countries med-school is post-secondary, not post-bac. I think most countries have made discriminating against disabled persons a crime, though.

I may add that it's important that you better warn your student that to be a physician you better be fit, even if putting sports in an evaluation for microbiolgy seems foolish. For example, in France, you're required to do internship in emergency services while studying medecine and your student would do better in a similar with extra-mobility and better fit condition

I strongly disagree.  Asking the student to delay their graduation by a year because a required course is being taught with an absurd unrelated requirement replacing some of the course material is a significant burden and expense.

Besides the risk to accreditation, there is the risk of a journalist learning of it and writing an article which overflows into a public flame war on social media.

I now larned ADa, but what is MCAT?

It's eccentric but I don't think it's appropriate for you to stir up trouble based on your differing opinion.  This professor thinks it is important, and university teaching is degraded every time political busybodies assert power to themselves to tell other professors how to teach.  The result would be bland, boring classes where the instructor merely reads from the slide decks provided by the textbook publisher.  Incompetence in the instructor, tardiness, unexplained absences, etc, are reasons for administration to step in, but eccentric opinions about the formation of graduates is not a valid reason.
I object to the answer that says "If the class is about microbiology, the students’ grade should depend on their knowledge of microbiology, and only on that."  Students who want to learn only the facts can do so by buying a book or downloading an online course.  You pay lots of money to go to a university to get something more than the facts.  Some part of that is to engage with the opinions and experience of the professors, and some part of it is being made to go through a difficult set of tasks to obtain a degree that proves you've made the effort and demonstrated the necessary perseverance to earn it.  In short, the students have signed up for this!

+1.  I would add that OP does not have the biology professor's account of the course requirement, which could very well include something reasonable like an opt-out clause for students that can't or won't do this.  I would encourage OP to make the bio professor aware of his advisee's concerns, and if there is an unreasonable response to take the top answer's suggestion to escalate.

Are you answering as an attorney?  As an educated layman, I doubt that it's illegal.  Your definition of the issue is perhaps in error: it sounds like the requirement is not about measuring students' physical ability, but rather about requiring a task to be performed, so I don't see it as unethical.  Unorthodox, certainly, but if you ask the authorities to stomp on any other professor with an unorthodox teaching idea, don't be afraid if your colleagues (or students themselves) use the same administrators as a weapon against your own teaching or grading methods in the future.

I actually agree with this. You shouldn't work in a health field if you can't be a good representative of good health. If he can't do it, out with him.

Downvoted. It's not the place of this professor to suddenly and arbitrarily enforce this idea, and may break all kinds of academic regulations.  It's one thing to enroll in a program that requires a certain level of physical fitness, (it's not unheard of to find degrees that require PE classes) and quite another thing to show up for a standard classroom subject and unexpectedly find a bizarre physical component.

It's not clear to me what work in a health field even has to do with the requirements of a microbiology course.  If being a good representative of health is a requirement for working in the field, let the relevant portions of the education and hiring deal with that.  It's not clear to me why you think it's appropriate that a students grade in microbiology is tied into physical fitness.

@JMac is spot-on. If physical fitness is truly a required outcome of the pre-med curriculum, then it should be reflected in the course requirements (i.e. a gym class requirement), not shoehorned into an unrelated class at an individual professor's whim.

If I had to choose between a fat skilled neurologist, and a gym instructor, for brain surgery, I know I would not hesitate. Immediately go for the gym Instructor - I don't want to be on this planet anymore.

I upvoted because it's true. For example people are going to be much more willing to learn tennis from a former Olympic champion than a no-name player who's heavily booked up on tennis techniques, coaching techniques, etc. That applies even if the latter is objectively a better coach. In the same way nobody approaches a financial consultant who's broke, and doctors who are unhealthy are going to be less popular. Getting into shape is a good thing on both a professional and a personal level. Forcing someone to get into shape, even if it's for their own good ... that's a contentious question.

Classifying microbiology as a health-related field is like classifying metallurgy as an auto-repair-related field.

@Allure Is a fit microbiologist more likely to know and understand microbiology than an unfit microbiologist?  Are you more likely to trust a fit microbiologist, and if so, what is your rationale?  The issue here isn't about unfit doctors; it's that it's a microbiology (type) course that just so happens to be being taken by pre-med students.  That shouldn't change how the course is graded; because the topic is still microbiology, not personal fitness.

@JMac First, it's given in the question that most of the students will become doctors. Second, there are reasons to prefer someone who isn't obese: e.g. a microbiologist should be well aware of the dangers of obesity; remaining obese could be a sign that they lack discipline, and undisciplined students are more likely to be poor students. Third, and more importantly, an unconscious bias is present in most of society (Google for "Anti-fat bias"). Like I said, it's definitely preferable to be in shape; the question is whether it's ethical to force someone (even if it's for their own good).

@Allure The first point is essentially irrelevant to the specific course; which is what the course should be teaching them and evaluating their knowledge/understanding of.  Second point seems totally irrelevant.  Students should be judged on their performance in the topic; not on your personal interpretations on what obesity signals.  Third point - also irrelevant for essentially the exact same reason.  The question isn't just if it's ethical to force someone; it's if it's relevant to evaluate someone based on that for this particular course.

@JMac maybe, but it's for their own good, and some people (cultures?) will indeed say that makes it acceptable. You might be interested in the link I posted as a comment to the question: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-04-11/the-fat-camps-where-obese-children-are-shamed-into-losing-weight/9640946

@allure would you also agree if the professor declared that all smokers or users of nicotine products would have their grade lowered a step ?

@arp I don't support this, I just don't oppose it. And yes, I wouldn't object to the professor announcing that for smokers either (although someone else might, and I wouldn't object to them objecting). By the way I talked to a doctor about this, and he raised this point: if the doctor is obese, how can he reasonably give his patient instructions to lose weight?


text:
What do you call research that has no hypothesis?
Background:
I'm just wondering - I'm writing my bachelor's "thesis" in information-systems management, which should in theory be a paper about a hypothesis I make, an experiment and an evaluation.
I have an "experiment" which is comparing reality of information-systems management to various theories of information-systems management.
I have my evaluation.
But my "thesis"... is basically my assumption based on experience that says: "theory is based on assumptions that practice do not always exist". And my "experiment" neither proves nor disproves this triviality, but is supposed to show how you can tailor the management theory for it to be useful under economic constraints to a real specific problem.
Question:
What should I call this thing, since it isn't a thesis?

"thesis" (a dissertation / requirement for a degree) != "thesis" (a proposition stated or put forward for consideration, especially one to be discussed and proved or to be maintained against objections).

It is a thesis. From what you've written, your hypothesis is that

you can tailor the [information-systems] management theory for it to be useful under economic constraints to a real specific problem

You might also be doing exploratory research, or blue-skies research, where you don't start with a research question, you start with a direction, subject or area, and go wandering off looking for interesting problems.

Before creating a hypothesis, it may be necessary to make experiments and discover the laws (Ohms law, Newtons laws and the like). Laws are not hypothesis. They do not suppose anything, just describe discovered regularities (correlation, regression, sometimes more complex curve fitting) in a way more compact than raw experimental data. If you have good experimental data without hypothesis, you may simply be in this stage of exploration.
Discovering the laws may be required before any hypothesis can be formulated. Try to propose and test your hypothesis now, maybe it is time.

It almost sounds like a literature review or critique, where you have a particular lens or perspective from which to observe and interpret other ideas.

source: Stack Exchange

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

sort: votes


text:
Is there evidence that open source research software produces more uptake of methods?
In recent years there has been a drive to make science more open. This includes making the software used to perform research open source. The main argument in favour of this idea is that research should be reproducible, which has been addressed in other questions on this site.
I am more interested in the 'impact' that this produces. In particular, is there evidence that by publishing software alongside research papers means that more people use the methods described in the paper?
I am especially concerned with papers in applied mathematics but also more generally.

It may be worth pointing out that the impact you seem to describe (people using a presented method for whatever they do, i.e. application of research results) is not the impact aimed at based on your description in the preceding paragraph (people re-running an experiment to verify statements made in a paper, i.e. verification of research results).

You ask "In particular, is there evidence that by publishing software alongside research papers means that more people use the methods described in the paper?"
I am not aware of any large scale empirical studies that have assessed this for software at present [1] however there is anecdotal evidence and related studies looking at the impact of open data.
One piece of related anecdotal evidence came from short survey I carried out in 2013 looking for people who had been "scooped" as a result of publishing their code openly (i.e. someone else had published a paper using that software to get to the same scientific results before the author of the software). Whilst there were very few examples of people getting scooped, there were many more examples of researchers who had gotten new collaborations, new citations, and new funding as a result of publishing their code openly. Many said that this was because others were more able to try out the methods because code was available.
More convincingly, there have been several good studies looking at the effects on citations (a proxy for the sort of impact you mention) from making data openly accessible [2-6]. Many of the reasons for the data citation benefit discussed in [7] appear qualitatively to be true for software as well [8-9].
Finally, in the area of Applied Mathematics, you might like to look at some of the outputs of the ICERM workshop on Reproducibility on Computational and Experimental Mathematics [10], as well as some of the publications of the participants.

[1] One of the reasons for this is that up until very recently, it was difficult to conduct such a study - it was difficult to link software to a publication, few authors were publishing code, and it was difficult to data mine journals to assess impact. This is changing, an I expect studies to start emerging based on tools like ContentMine and ScienceToolbox.
[2] Piwowar, Day, Fridsma (2007). Sharing Detailed Research Data Is Associated with Increased Citation Rate. PLoS ONE.
[3] Gleditsch NP, Metelits C, Strand H. 2003. Posting your data: will you be scooped or will you be famous? International Studies Perspectives 4(1):89-97
[4] Pienta AM, Alter GC, Lyle JA. 2010. The enduring value of social science research: the use and reuse of primary research data. The Organisation, Economics and Policy of Scientific Research Workshop
[5] Henneken EA, Accomazzi A. 2011. Linking to data - effect on citation rates in astronomy.
[6] Dorch B. 2012. On the Citation Advantage of linking to data. hprints.
[7] Piwowar H, Vision T. 2013. Data reuse and the open data citation advantage. PeerJ. PubMed 24109559
[8] Howison J, Herbsleb, J. 2013. Incentives and Integration In Scientific Software Production. CSCW 2013.
[9] Howison J, Bullard J. How is software visible in the scientific literature? Preprint available from https://github.com/jameshowison/softcite/blob/master/paper/HowisonBullard-SoftwareCitation-WorkingPaper.pdf?raw=true
[10] "Setting the Default to Reproducible: Reproducibility in Computational and Experimental Mathematics," ICERM Workshop report, with D. Bailey, J. Borwein, R. LeVeque, W. Rider, and W. Stein.

Thanks for the detailed answer, Neil.  I might add Donoho's "How to be a highly cited author in the mathematical sciences" to your references: http://www.in-cites.com/scientists/DrDavidDonoho.html  He makes a fairly specific reference to publishing open source software as a means of improving impact.

" Whilst there were very few examples of people getting scooped".... I can't help wondering what examples those might be.

Thanks Aron - I recall him having said something on that in one of his talks but did not know of that specific reference.
And Faheem, there were two examples that I could corroborate - one was in the area of optimising communications in distributed computing, the other was instrument control in neuroscience (in this case the use of the software was acknowledged by the other group, but the author was beaten to a major research paper)

Nice answer and interesting references (+1).

Your question can be interpreted in several different ways, and I'll try to address all of them.

Is there evidence that by publishing software alongside research papers means that more people use the methods described in the paper?

This is incredibly apparent in bioinformatics software. My google scholar skills are not helping me at the moment, so I can't find a full academic paper on this, but based on personal experience and networking in both my narrow (RNA-seq) and broad (genomics) field, if a study describes an algorithm it will be cited and used only by people who are developing algorithms to solve the same/similar problem. If a study provides usable software: standalone, python package, jar, R library - something, it is much, much more likely to be cited and used (especially if it (a) works and (b) doesn't have any ridiculous dependencies (phyloCSF, I'm looking at you)).
I don't have time at the moment to do this analysis myself, but an easy pubmed scraping + text mining across several issues of the journal "Bioinformatics" should enable quantitative validation of this statement.

The main argument in favour of this idea is that research should be reproducible, which has been addressed in other questions on this site

For many applied bioinformatics papers, including my own, we use other people's tools to do analyses, and write up the results. The code we usually use is "hacky" and not really "software", but is instead a script we ran that got us our results using our particular data and filesystem/server configuration. This code is - unfortunately - usually not published, and at the moment you are expected to write the detailed summary of what you did in the methods section of your paper. Unfortunately, all too frequently the people who are writing the paper (i.e. 1st author) is not the bioinformatician, and if the analyses were a small part of the work, the (usually biologist) 1st author tries to write up/summarize what the bioinformatician did based on his/her limited understanding (and the bioinformatician is not vested enough in the paper to care because he/she is 10th author) -- and if you don't get a bioinformatics-savvy reviewer the paper is published with the goobledygook in the methods, and no way to reproduce the analysis. I'd like to have a dollar for every time I've tried to understand/reproduce someone's methods, and not been able to because they were in a "Biology" journal and hence not described properly.
Going forward, I think more and more journals will start asking for code - but with the caveat that it won't be code that you can download and run  - on their data or on yours (the data is too big, and writing code that would work on all possible clusters is too much effort) - so it will be more as a supplementary thing from which I can elucidate your exact methods as opposed to rerun your complete analysis.
3. This includes making the software used to perform research open source.
Some of the best aligners for sequencing data are non open-source. A pubmed search for novoalign (proprietary) results in 15 hits, 1200 google scholar records. BWA (open source) 142 pubmed, 9960 google scholar. These results speak for themselves.

Detailed summaries are usually useless, even if written by people who understand what is going on, because they can't possibly include all the details required to reimplement the code. Plus having to reimplement someone's elses code for the purposes of reproduction falls into the category of cruel and unusual punishment.

If a sample size of 1 counts as evidence, then yes, having open source software certainly has the potential for significant impact.
However, there are some important points to note before that potential for impact becomes real impact. Firstly proper software is not typical academic code thrown together with few comments to solve a specific problem. Software should have a user interface, user manual, be reliable and provide significant functionality. In my case I included several simulation methods within a single piece of software and wrote a review article detailing their implementation with examples. Since being open sourced last year many researchers have started using the software which will likely lead to citations of the paper. If you can develop a widely used software package then any methods you implement are (slightly) more likely to be used over ones which you do not. However if someone develops a significantly better method then not implementing that feature in your software may lead to people using competing packages if they exist.
I would say that if you want your method to be used or implemented, then including a sample code provides a much lower barrier to entry, for example popular random number generators always included source code. However, any code you write should be clearly licensed, and ideally as permissible as possible, eg BSD, so that it can be freely used in commercial and non-commercial software.

all_licenses: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/


text:
Can I get a PhD online?
I know one can get a Bachelors degree online. Can one do the same with a PhD (I refer to fields which don't need specialized equipment like Math or CS, for example).
At first glance, it should be easier since your doing almost independent work (you don't really need tests).
Are there such programs?

You mean a respectable PhD or a bogus vanity title?

Yes.  Wire me $7900.

I know of a remote student in my program but it is still not a considered an online program. It was a temporary exception.

There should be a law, for instance, that MD that acquired its Phd on-line, will only be allowed to perform surgeries online.

Most PhD programs that I am aware of have "residency requirements"—that is, you must be registered at the university and in general physically present in the department for some period of time. However, most PhD advisors that I am aware of in disciplines in which people can "work remotely" do allow their students to "telecommute" if necessary. For instance, if a spouse gets a job far away from campus, and daily commutes are no longer a realistic option.
That said, the idea of a purely online PhD strikes me as highly unlikely to work out—because the nature of a PhD is fundamentally different from a bachelor's, in that it is a research degree, not a coursework degree. You are learning to become an independent researcher, and I don't think the online format translates well to that goal. There's too little direct interaction with other researchers. You'd definitely be independent, but there's no guarantee that you'd learn how to do research.

Why won't skype work?

Skype is a great communications medium for oral conversations. However, if you want to sketch things out, develop ideas, and work collaboratively in real-time, it's not so efficient.

Part of being a researcher is being part of the community. You have to go to seminars to meet people and give seminar talks. You have to go to other people's lab to find new collaborations and even in Math/CS many times you have "lab meetings" where all of the people that are being advised by the same professor come together to explain their current progress. You can't expect someone to walk around with you on their laptop via skype every other day. When people are telecommuting for a PhD they have already done this, have postdocs lined up, and are finishing their thesis.

I did my PhD as a part-time external student from a reputable university.
I am unsure if this is any different from an online mode because I did not have to be physically present on the campus. Additionally, I mostly communicated with my supervisor via email.
This arrangement worked well for me because I did not want to resign from my job and also the university was at least three hours drive from my place of work. (I did go there occasionally to get a 'feel' of being a PhD student!)
There were however some requirements like two seminars that I had to present and a few face-to-face meetings with my supervisor. They could all be negotiated, depending on my circumstances as a full-time employee (e.g. video conferencing etc).
The drawbacks were that it took double the time to complete the PhD (which is expected for a part-time external student) and there was no network of fellow students etc.
So, if you want to do a PhD online, chose a university which has a solid reputation as a distance education provider. The university I chose was the leader in this field.

I have no problem with the general thrust of this answer, but I'm curious about how one might determine which universiteis have "solid reputations" in distance education, and which universites are considered "leaders in this field."

@J.R. - how do you determine reputation of anything else?

@Davor - DL is still new enough that it's hard to get reliable data on reputations. There are the famous U.S. News & World Report rankings, but I know of at least one school that had a meteoric rise in the ranking of their DL program – not because their program improved, but because their institutional research office was able to fill out the survey questions more completely that it had been able to do in the previous year. You can figure out reputation with surveys, rankings, and data, but it'll be hard to find all those when so many DL programs are barely a decade old, and still evolving.

YES! If you google "phd by published work" or "PhD by publications", you will find many universities offering such a way of graduating.
Basically, you do your research with no time pressure, with or without colleagues, with or without a mentor (it is better to have a mentor though and colleagues are fun!). You publish your work in scientific journals or books. When you are ready, i.e. an amount of published work equivalent to a regular PhD student, you submit an application to your university. A committee will decide wether or not the body of researches is sufficient or not. And that's it!
A more complete answer can be find here
http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/416988.article
and here
http://www.psy.gla.ac.uk/~steve/resources/phd.html

This seems akin to an honorary degree which, while it definitely commands the respect of peers and asserts your ability to accomplish research goals, is still not equivalent to a traditional PhD.  You're missing the entire experience of academia, and what university would hire a professor with no graduate level experience?  How could you hope to advise and mentor others, or deal with teaching assistants, without the experience?

This is just an observation of mine but, "the entire experience of academia" is a phrase I see employed when people seem to have few other means of defending academia on the whole. Or really any institutional behemoth. It is a close cousin of religion's "you just have to have faith" when certain hard questions arise. It is indicative, I think, of systemic momentum for the sake of momentum: "We do this, because this is what we do."

@L0j1k, I'd upvote your comment more times, if I could.

Yes, you can get a PhD online from a reputable university. I think that most universities would waive nearly all "residency" type requirements when presented with a body of completed research that well surpasses the minimum requirements for a PhD and a sum of money. I would guess that proving the Riemann hypothesis and donating a building would get you a PhD from your choice of university.
More realistically, the question then becomes how does one complete a body of research that well surpasses the minimum requirements for a PhD in the absence of ever attending the university. This actually happens quite frequently with industry based PhDs. Similarly, it is also possible, but difficult, to complete PhD level research without any supervision.
Finding someone at a university who is willing to mentor you online while you do your research will be much harder. While a purely online student can provide all the tangible benefits mentors receive (publications and grant applications), the best mentors enjoy mentoring and they will receive very little of the intangible benefits.
I would consider mentoring an online PhD student. I would even consider funding such a student. That student would have to demonstrate to me that they can provide me access to research that I would otherwise be unable to do. For example, access to unique and proprietary industry data or a rare subject population. They would also have to convince me that they can do the work purely online.

I would guess that proving the Riemann hypothesis and donating a building would get you a PhD from your choice of university. — [citation needed] ...but if you had a proof of the Riemann hypothesis, why would you want a PhD?

There are many schools that offer a PhD (or other Doctorate degree) online.
please note I am speaking only of US schools.
While many are considered degree mills, others rise above this and offer quality education. Still further, many traditional universities have online PhD programs.
The question one should be asking is 'will a PhD completed online be of value, or of as much value of a traditional on campus brick and mortar PhD?'
The answer is highly situational. First, the 'quality education' part. This is determined by accreditation.
Degree mills (where you just pay money and get a degree) are not respectable in the slightest. They are generally not accredited or accredited by a dubious agency.  It is a vanity purchase and means nothing of value to anyone of discerning character. They should be avoided at all costs.
Second up is Nationally Accredited. These are actual accredited schools and recognized by the US Dept of Education and are held to some standards. You will have to do the work. You will buy textbooks and it will take you several years to get done. These degrees are often sought by working professionals that do not have time or the ability to go to a campus and compete a residency requirement. In many cases, they are just as rigorous (hard) as a traditional PhD, and in others, much easier.
Third is Regionally Accredited. These are usually state schools that are offering a PhD online. Many are very good schools, others are not. It will depend on the program itself. generally, most people regard regional accreditation a bit higher than national.
Accreditation is the first thing you should look at and find out who the accrediting agency is and if they are legitimate.
The other part of this question is residency. Can the degree be completed 100% online. Some schools will have no residency requirement at all. Every course may be completed online and any exams may be taken at a testing center near you (often a library or local school) with a proctor. Others may require a short residency of a few weeks or a single semester. In between them is a 'weekend residency' where you travel to the university for a few days, at one or more times through out the program. These often take the form of workshops or seminars.
There are various combinations of these traits in hundreds of schools.
To provide an example, the University of Missouri offers several Online Only PhD programs, here is one of them:
http://online.missouri.edu/degreeprograms/architecturalstudies/phd.aspx
Many universities recognize that online education is an effective medium for learning and that not everyone can travel or dedicate time to living on campus. With some research, you are likely to find a PhD program available online that suits your needs. Pay careful attention to accreditation and any residency requirements and you may find a path forward that suits your needs in higher education.

According to Mizzou Online, the only doctorate program they offer 100% online is a Ph.D. in Architectural Studies. The program you listed is not actually offered online according to the same site.

One point you might add: It's highly field dependent. In some fields, online doctorates are "normal" and nobody will think twice about them. This typically occurs when there is a high density of people who work full time in a field where a doctoral degree would open certain doors. Education is a good example: there are many reputable EdD (or similar) programs. Nursing is another (many online DNPs). In some other fields, there are essentially no reputable online doctoral programs, or only a handful (e.g. try finding a reputable online PhD in theoretical physics!)

@tonysdg link corrected, they have a program finder on their website with checkboxes, that came up when the 100% online option was selected. I actually looked into the architectural studies program and had thought they added new offerings, thanks for the catch.
to: ff524 :: agreed!