I wish to welcome the Dean's acknowledgment of improved funding for graduate students as a priority in his Letter to the Faculty. However, I wish to take this opportunity to address two distinct but related issues which are of perhaps even greater importance to the happiness of graduate students at Harvard. These are, first, the expectations placed on graduate students and, second, the quality of graduate student advising by the faculty.

Unfortunately, it has taken the apparent suicides of three graduate students in the past two years to really bring home to me the gravity of these issues. I don't mean to suggest that faculty advising played a role in these particular deaths. However, responses from graduate students in the wake of these tragedies have too frequently turned to unrealistic expectations placed on students and instances of poor faculty advising - one can only conclude that these things make graduate students unhappy and depressed. And depressed they certainly become; between 10 and 12% of GSAS students use UHS Mental Health Services each year.

Last autumn, students discussed the death of Hailei Ge at a meeting of the Graduate Student Council. The following are some of the comments made:

"I know almost no grad student who hasn't frequently considered dropping out of Harvard or experienced periods of extreme depression ... "

"The tendency to invest an unusual amount of time and energy worrying about academics and the lack of much inclination to get involved in arenas other than academics, combined with the culture of pressure and addiction to success which I think are endemic to Harvard, is a dangerous situation which can and has had tragic consequences."

"There is no recourse for a grad student in these circumstances. In the cases about which I know, it was impossible for the students to do more than grumble to their peers. Quite reasonably, they told me that if they made a complaint, it could impair the ability to get a good recommendation from their advisor, making them academically unemployable."

"Most departments deal with grad students in a fairly ad-hoc manner, with little regulation in terms of advising, etc., by the graduate school; rarely are issues of student well-being addressed within departments."

First, let me turn to the issue of unfair expectations on graduate students. I could go into many cases of specific departments which have unrealistic workloads, but I think these are indications of a more fundamental problem. As a TF, I have been interested in undergraduate physics education, and one major problem which has been identified by researchers is the tendency of teachers to teach as if the class were all physics majors. This tendency to believe that one's students should want to follow in one's own footsteps is even more acute in graduate training. For anecdotal evidence, we need go no further than the Dean's Letter to the Faculty. In it he states:

"The quality of our graduate students is critical: for the training of the scholars and professors of the next generation, for their contribution to the undergraduate experience, and for the support of the research of the faculty."

When I read this I was frightened. I have no other word for it. Expectations such as these are precisely what depress graduate students, even when the expectations are only perceived or are self-imposed. Listen to what this statement says to graduate students: We are here to train to become professors - like you, even though only a few Harvard grad students will ever be a Harvard professor - not to learn for ourselves and to choose our own career paths. We are here to "contribute to the undergraduate experience", yet we rarely ever hear of a "graduate experience" let alone an experience which integrates the student community or the entire Harvard community. We are here to "support the research of the faculty", not as individuals creating our own new ideas and doing research with the faculty as legitimate colleagues. The issue to be addressed is to improve the quality of graduate students entering the university; instead it must be to improve the quality of life of graduate students in the university and to help them realise their talents together with the faculty and undergraduates in an intellectual community.

I can only hope that I have misinterpreted the Dean's words or that the opinions which I read from them are not held by the faculty in general. If you do not share these opinions, it is important to communicate this to graduate students, many of whom believe that they should follow in the footsteps of their advisors, and that they will fail if they cannot or do not want to follow the academic route to a major research university.

I now come to the second issue: faculty advising. Most students feel that their advisors do an adequate job. Many such as myself receive wonderful support and help from the faculty. We are grateful for that. Even more grateful because we know others who have lousy advisors - advisors who expect students to live for their work alone, who repeatedly criticise students, who hang on to grad students for longer than necessary to complete the Ph.D., or those who neglect their students, even to the point of not meeting a student or refusing to read their dissertation. And from my conversations, I know that faculty members across the university also know whose advising does not reach an acceptable standard, which of their colleagues persistently fail in their duties to their students, fellow members of our university community.

I am bringing these issues to the attention of the Faculty because only you have the power to make things better. The GSAS student services and other support structures are by and large wonderful resources, but they can only go so far. The Graduate Student Council and other student organisations have made several proposals concerning graduate student progress and time to degree, student advising and student and advisor rights and responsibilities to the Committee on Graduate Education, the President and various Deans. But the usual refrain is that faculty members will not stand for it. So you must decide that the concerns of graduate students are a concern for you also, and address them. You must say to your colleagues what are acceptable variations advising style, and tell them when their approach is unacceptable.

The Dean of the Graduate School has proposed a plan for faculty-student discussions about graduate advising, which are very helpful. In addition, I propose that the Faculty formally acknowledge the validity of the concerns I have expressed on behalf of graduate students, and invite a special committee of faculty and graduate students to consider urgently these issues and propose concrete measures which can be taken to make Harvard a happier and more productive experience for all graduate students. Only such an action will let graduate students know that they are truly valued as fellow members of the academic community, together with the faculty and with undergraduate students.

I sincerely believe that in the absence of such real change in attitudes and in practices, many graduate students will continue to see their Harvard experience as a miserable one, and sadly some may even take their own lives as a result. I hope that we will not allow that to happen.

Paul Callan
495-9616 / 493-3032 / 495-7512
jpcallan@fas