When entering graduate school one of the most stressful and difficult things is finding a mentor. Every department has their own culture for students selecting their mentors and visa versa. But once you’ve selected your mentor then everything should go smoothly, right? Wrong. Entering in a modern-day apprenticeship requires time and commitment from both parties to have an enriching experience conducting research.
Sadly, it’s not unheard of academic bullying to happen in academic institutions. Academic bullying can come in many forms and Virginia Tech is one of the first institutions to have to anonymously report these incidents. Check out the page here. To discuss this matter more in-depth, this post refers to a case study from the Office of Research Integrity (ORI). The case study can be found here.
To summarize the case study, there are two named personas. Kara is a pre-doctoral student who is working on research for a very demanding professor, Dr. Srichaphan, in psychology. The relationship is strained right from the get go. Dr. Srichaphan considers himself a mentor to Kara, yet he doesn’t offer any constructive guidance and is exploitative and intolerant to Kara. He also burdens Kara with both clinical trail work and teaching responsibilities.
The questions below are proposed by ORI after the case study. My answers provided are opinions I hold and most likely follow if I was found in the situation.
- Why do you suppose Kara has let things get to this point? Has she been exploited in any way?
If Kara is a pre-doctoral student, then chances are she isn’t very familiar with the research culture in this particular psychology department. Additionally, a pre-doctoral student’s first concern is beefing up an academic presence and CV to hopefully increase their chances of acceptance in higher end institutions.
The fact Kara is receiving no help from Dr. Srichaphan and is being criticized by him show a lack of mentoring and is abusing the power of his position to overload Kara with this work. I do believe she is being exploited. As a general human being, this case study makes me rather sick.
- What internal (personality) characteristics and external (situational) factors do you suppose have combined to make it so difficult for Kara to solve this problem before it evolved into a full-blown crisis?
Temporally, how could Kara had known the workload would be so extensive overtime? Again, this could be due to a lack of experience on knowing what to look for when it comes to working with a mentor. Some things Kara could have done is read dissertations of past students or even contact current students to get a feel for Dr. Srichaphan.
- Why do you suppose Kara, the expert problem solver, does not solve this problem easily?
- What’s the worst thing that could happen if she does nothing?
- What’s the worst that could happen if she seeks a new approach to getting through this?
- How might Kara ask for help? From whom? With what likely result?
Pressure to do well and look good in a mentor’s eye is a powerful dynamic that all trainees have towards their mentors. If Kara did nothing in her current situation, she will more than likely crack and suffer psychological damage under the pressure (an interesting paper on PhD students having a higher risk of psychological disorders can be found here). If Kara seeks a new approach she’ll be better off than not doing anything at all. The worst case can still happen but you decrease the chance from it happening by changing things around.
The last question is hugely important. Asking for help should be the FIRST thing to do (easier said than done, I know). If possible she should contact an ombudsman/department head/person in position to help with these issues. It would be likely that she would get a lot of rap from her mentor for this and would result in a separation (in hindsight this is the BEST thing for her even though it seems like a setback for pre-doctoral research opportunities.)
- What expectations were set for Kara at the start of her graduate program by the program director, the graduate school, Dr. Srichaphan, and herself?
Program Director: The case study didn’t mention a role for the program director.
Graduate school: The case study didn’t mention a role for the graduate school. But I would assume the graduate school has rules and regulations to help prevent things like this.
Dr. Scrichahan: Dr. Scrichahan had very high expectations for Kara from the beginning. I feel the issue here is lack of leadership and responsibility from Dr. Scrichahan doomed Kara from the start as it left her with many burdens that were not reasonable. Because of this, it lead to the undergraduate class issues that impacted Kara’s graduate work.
Kara: Kara noted herself to be an “expert problem solver.” I believe she went in thinking with such a skill she will not have too many issues that couldn’t be brute forced and completed. Also noted, that she didn’t account for her mentor to be abusive.
- Can you offer an example of stressful or disastrous situation based on your own learning experiences? How did you deal with it, and what lessons did you learn?
My first semester in graduate school I was doing my best to jump right into the research. Being overzealous I made the mistake to not consider how my ex-mentor handled their lab and the people in it. It was a very high stress environment where it was demanded to be producing as much as possible. I was even withheld pay because it was determined I was not doing enough work (this is on top of adjusting to the new area, classes, and work). Of course I know this to be illegal and it was settle appropriately. The lessons I learned is that when first starting graduate school, my two cents would be prioritizing knowing the person who is to be your mentor. And know your options if you get in abusive relationship with an mentor.
My ending thoughts on this scenario reminds me of a statement told to me a long time ago: “Professors are not managers. You will find some who know how to manage and some who do not. It’s interesting trying to work with your professor when they have to be so many roles to you alone (can be viewed as a manager/friend/research colleague/course instructor/boss). ”
Thanks for reading and until the next post.