Graduate School Council Pushes For Better Advising System

In the wake of the recent apparent suicide of a first-year graduate student, members of the Graduate Student Council (GSC) discussed ways to improve graduate student advising at their monthly meeting.

More than 30 students attended the meeting last night in Dudley House.

The apparent suicide last month of Hailei Ge, a first-year student in computer science, emphasized the extent and gravity of the problem, said council president Adam P. Fagen.

"To me and a lot of other students I know, it really brought to light a lot of concerns about advising," Fagen said.

Many students at the meeting said their advisers often overcriticized their work, did not give adequate advice and were not accessible.

Many students keep silent because they fear retribution from their advisers, who often make or break their academic careers, several students said.

"They're no channel for students to voice their complaints, while faculty members have absolute power," said Xiaobing Chen, one of the leaders of the Chinese Students and Scholars Association, which has been a vocal supporter of reform since Ge's death.

The group suggested creating a graduate student-faculty committee on advising, setting faculty officer hours for graduate student advising and creating a CUE-guide-like rating system.

"It's always risky going up against your adviser; some professors have a tendency to blackball people who do," said Nick M. Dechman, a third-year student in applied sciences.

The council planned to send a letter to President Neil L. Rudenstine outlining their concerns.

The administration has too often evaded the problem in the past, said GSC vice-president Elgin K. Eckert, a second-year graduate student in classics.

"Saying we should solve it at a departmental level is what the administration has been saying all along and it doesn't work," Eckert said.

Students also voiced concern over the fact that other faculty members in the department were unwilling to help them with complaints against fellow faculty members.

"They have professional working relationships they're not going to jeopardize," said Sheila J. Kannappan, a fifth-year physics graduate student. "They're not going to stick their necks out for a student who's not going to help their careers."

The administration needs to take a greater role in regulating the involvement of faculty members in advising, some students said.

"I find that it's the tenured professors who are generally the least helpful," said Gabriella C. Gonzalez, a third-year graduate student in sociology. "Professors come here and are pretty much given carte blanche. I think we have to say that this system doesn't work."

Guidelines need to be set for advisers, Fagen said.

"Nowhere is it written down what advisers are expected to do," he said.

Some students said that a more formalized organization of graduate students might be the solution.

"Harvard [graduate] students aren't unionized but many others are. I'm not saying that's what should be done here, but there is no element of that here," Kannappan said.

Fagen said he hoped more publicity about the problem would spur the faculty and the administration to take more action.

"They're a lot of faculty out there that do care," Fagen said. "I just don't think they know the extent of the problem."