From gsc@hcs.harvard.edu Mon Dec 1 07:43:41 1997 Date: Wed, 26 Nov 1997 01:23:59 -0500 (EST) From: Graduate Student Council To: GSC Mailing List Subject: [GSC] GSC December Meeting: Wednesday, December 3rd The December meeting of the Graduate Student Council is coming up on Wednesday, December 3rd, 1997. As always, 5:30 p.m. in the Graduate Student Lounge of Dudley House; a free pizza dinner will be served after the meeting. In addition to major focus of the meeting (see below), we will be electing a GSAS representative to fill a vacancy on the Harvard Graduate Council (made up of reps from all 10 of Harvard's graduate schools) and discussing (and probably voting on) the resolutions passed at the NAGPS National Conference (to be distributed via e-mail before the meeting). As always, you may find an agenda on the GSC web site and suggest additional items by e-mail to . This meeting is VERY important and VERY relevant to all of us. The recent suicide of a member of our graduate community has shocked all of us and has revealed the frustration and difficulties many of us and our fellow students face. For those who were able to attend the HCSSA Special Seminar this past Friday evening, it is clear the depth of feeling many students have on this issue and the intense frustration many have felt with their advisors or the ways they are being treated. Yet, as graduate students, we may not have any recourse, any real mechanism for dealing with problems that may arise, or even a clear elucidation of what we can expect from our faculty advisors and from our departments and the graduate school. The bulk of the December GSC meeting will be taken up with a serious dicussion about the kind of difficulties students face. The GSC is trying to find out as much as it can about experiences students have had so that we can determine the breadth of the problems and the kinds of pressure that students are under. Please come and share your experiences and those of your fellow students. If you've been fortunate to have an experience at Harvard unmarked by any problems or difficulties, please come share that as well! We are working to determine the best means for letting the faculty know of the seriousness and widespreadness of this issue; the ability to point to departments which do have the best interests of students at heart and have an effective mechanism for responding to problems and lackluster advising may be very effective in getting the "lazy" departments to make a change. In addition to discussing what works and what doesn't we will also be talking about things that will help the situation. The Graduate Student Council is committed to not having this issue related to window-dressing. While such things as buddy-systems (pairing of G1s and G2s, for example) are valuable, they do NOT address the underlying problem, that of the relative unconcern for graduate students and their experiences by some faculty members and graduate programs. Students must have certain rights and protections from abuse and capricious decisions and insults. Advising is central to ALL of us in our experiences at Harvard. We must be sure that the faculty and administration keep it as a priority and don't leave it up to individuals to do (or, more troubling, not do) their responsibilities as a graduate advisor. Some suggestions which have been made so far include: * Drafting a Student Rights document about what we expect from our advisors, the department and the instituion. * Drafting a Faculty Responsilities document outlining the responsibilities faculty have to their students, and spelling out what we consider to be unprofessional behavior. * Establishing a real mechanism to respond to charges of such examples of unprofessional behavior. * Rating advisors and departments on their attitude towards students and fulfillment of advising responsibilities to protect future students from finding themselves in bad situations. * Speaking with current and former students about their experiences to determine the true nature of the problem and relating these concerns (collectively) to the Faculty and Administration. * many more ideas. Please come to the meeting on December 3rd to share your own ideas and the ideas and experiences of your fellow students. If you can't make it, please send us your comments to . This issue is at the very heart of our experience and we must address it and push the entire community to make appropriate changes where required. //====================================================================// \\ Graduate Student Council \\ \\ // Harvard University GSAS // gsc@hcs.harvard.edu // \\ Lehman Hall, M-4 \\ \\ // Cambridge, MA 02138 // http://www.hcs.harvard.edu/~gsc/ // \\ 617-495-7512; 496-5459 FAX \\ \\ //====================================================================//