Mentoring Grad Students: Advising Statements

equitable policies & practices, Events, Institutional Climate, teaching

As you likely know, the NAS report on sexual and gender harassment makes plain at the outset that “the most potent predictor of sexual harassment is organizational climate” (x). We will be discussing NAS’s recommendations on how to improve that climate–across KSAS and WSE and across disciplines–at the annual Where We Stand event on Thursday, Oct 25 from 5:30-7pm in Mudd Atrium.

In the meantime, consider today’s Chronicle article “One Way to Be a Better Mentor to Grad Students? Try an Advising Statement” as one suggested step towards a healthier, more equitable academic culture.apple-3256487_1920

Moin Syed, in the psychology department at University of Minnesota, shares his advising statement and invites colleagues to use and adapt it. Here’s an excerpt:

Guiding Philosophy and Career Paths

My job as an advisor is to help my advisees to be successful in their chosen career. I can’t do that if I don’t know what career is desired. I want my advisees to let me know the range of career paths in which they are interested at the earliest possible date. I also recognize that career paths change through graduate school. . . . 

Although our training program is clearly designed to prepare you for an academic career, I am very well aware that not all of you will go that route. I will support you in whatever career path you choose, whether it is academic or not. I will do my best to help my advisees obtain the experiences and skills needed to succeed in those various careers.

P.S. Interested in participating in WFF@H? Want to guest blog, become a “friend of WFF@H,” or join? Take three minutes here.

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Office of Institutional Equity

equitable policies & practices, Institutional Climate, JHU

Last week, Karen & I had the chance to sit down and talk with Kimberly Hewitt (Vice Provost for Institutional Equity) and Joy Gaslevic, (Associate Vice Provost for Institutional Equity and Title IX Coordinator). We talked for over an hour in their Wyman Park office and we hope to collaborate on faculty events in the near future . . . . stay tuned.

What is the OIE? Here’s the overview, copied from their website:

The Office leads JHU efforts to foster an environment that is inclusive, respectful and free from discrimination and harassment. In its role, OIE ensures compliance with affirmative action and equal opportunity laws, investigates discrimination and sexual harassment complaints, and serves as a central resource for those with disabilities or those who require religious accommodation.

Just last week, the OIE published its 2017 annual reportScreen Shot 2018-10-09 at 10.49.40 PM. Vice Provost Hewitt introduces the report this way:

This document—the first annual report for our office—provides background and specific data on the university’s response to reports of sexual misconduct and other forms of discrimination and harassment. Our aim in this report, which covers the calendar year starting January 1, 2017, is to increase the transparency of our process and our community’s understanding of our work, and provide a baseline against which we can measure our progress in years ahead.

OIE has worked hard to establish solid processes and to improve investigation and report preparation techniques consistent with legal guidance and university values. At this point we believe we have made significant improvements in these areas and are modeling many best practices. We also hear the call from the community to identify ways to maintain the high quality of our work and complete the process more expeditiously. In response, OIE has engaged outside support to identify ways to streamline our approach to cases. We are also adding staff to the office in the coming year. We look forward to the ongoing process of improvement and understand the importance of our role as the principal means for members of the university community to seek recourse for their concerns about harassment and discrimination.

Danielle Allen: activism & institutions

Institutional Climate, teaching

One of the things I like about teaching undergrads is helping students think about why they came to college anyhow, and what they want to get out of it while they’re here. Classicist and political theorist Danielle Allen (also director of the Safra Center of Ethics at Harvard, and author of Cuz, the story of her Screen Shot 2018-09-21 at 5.23.27 PMcousin Michael) gave a “radically woke and deeply conservative” commencement speech (video & transcript published in the Atlantic here) that I have shared with my students.

Today it also strikes me as pretty useful for faculty who are thinking about how to support FLI (first-generation and/or lower income) students, how to create a world in which black male faculty can go to the library without being offered directions off campus, and, you know, how to support equity for all sorts of humans who operate on a university campus.

In her speech Professor Allen quoted the Declaration of Independence, which she has been “following” for the past 20 years in her teaching (nontraditional as well as traditional students) and research. In fact, JHU alumna Emily Snell ’11 discovered, working with Allen, a new copy of the Declaration in England in 2015 (more about that here). Anyway, here’s your excerpt:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed.That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness.

Professor Allen tells the Pomona graduating class:

It says we have these rights, among which are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Among which! It’s examples, people!

It’s not a complete list! The job of thinking is not done.

It is your job. All right?

Clarify your values. Maybe you care about sustainability. Maybe you care about gender equality. Maybe you care about free markets and capitalism.

But connect them to the basic question of what is good for our community together. A shared story. And then, don’t forget: Activism is valuable, no question about it, but our job at the end of the day is to build institutions that secure our shared rights. That means understanding the user manual. All right? The institutions. And yes, we can alter them. They’re not given in perpetuity. Originalism is about understanding democratic empowerment, which is about recognizing that democratic citizens build and change their world.

All right?

Where We Stand: Thurs, Oct 25, 5:30-7pm, Mudd Atrium

Events, Institutional Climate, JHU

Please save the date!

We will look at the NAS report on sexual  harassment. How can we adapt and implement its recommendations to further gender equity at Hopkins across the humanities, natural & social sciences, and engineering?

Students, faculty, and staff of all genders are welcome. So are children! Screen Shot 2018-09-20 at 9.29.55 PM

Stay tuned for details. In the meantime, we recommend Professor Sabine Stanley‘s 2017 interview in Earth & Space Science News, in which she points to positive developments for women in science. One excerpt for you:

Q: What are your hopes for the future of women in planetary science?

A: Ultimately, I hope that women and underrepresented minorities have equal opportunities. To make this happen, it is very important for them to have strong allies among the majority group (i.e. white men) in the community. My biggest hope is that more white men step up and prioritize improving equity, diversity, and inclusion in our field. We need to stop relying on women and underrepresented minorities to shoulder this burden.

Photo Credit: Sergey Nivens, Fotolio, Adobe Photostock. https://eos.org/editors-vox/women-in-science-a-qa-with-an-editor