Suicide Spurs GSAS, Chem. Department To Review Advising

A fifth-year graduate student in the chemistry department drafted a plea for administrative change before taking his own life last month.

In a hand-written note, Jason D. Altom, who died in his Somerville apartment Aug. 15, urged Weld Professor of Atmospheric Chemistry James G. Anderson, newly-appointed chair of the chemistry department, to broaden the base of faculty who interact with students regarding their research.

"This event could have been avoided," begins the note, which was provided to The Crimson by Altom's family.

"Professors here have too much power over the lives of their grad students," Altom continued, saying he felt a chemistry student's advisor has sole control over the student's academic and occupational prospects.

Altom suggests involving thesis committees--a group of three professors who evaluate a degree candidate's research--earlier in the process would "provide protection for graduate students from abusive research advisors."

"If I had such a committee now I know things would be different," he added.

Altom's death has galvanized Anderson, who assumed the chair of the chemistry department July 1, to place scrutiny of the graduate student experience at the top of his agenda.

And the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) is taking a second look at the programs it has instituted to improve the advising system.

After the death of Hailei Ge, a first-year graduate student in computer science, last November, the Graduate Student Council (GSC) urged the administration to reexamine the student-advisor relationship.

Last spring, GSAS Dean Christoph J. Wolff and Dudley House Master Everett I. Mendelsohn initiated a series of roundtable discussions, during which faculty and students spoke openly about advisor expectations; further panels are scheduled for later this fall.

Student leaders call for more action, and say GSAS is only beginning to respond to the call for changes in the advising structure.

In the wake of three suicides within GSAS since 1997, student leaders ultimately lament that it seems to take tragedy to spur forward the fight for better advising.

Think Different

Anderson tells The Crimson he has a number of ideas for significant changes within the chemistry department to be discussed this fall, estimating that he has spent three-quarters of his time as chair since the recent suicide thinking about the event and devising ways to improve advising.

"There is no doubt that the Altom death crystallized a number of things that have been in our thinking," Anderson says.

When Fung Lam, a first-year graduate student in chemistry, died last year--in what Harvard spokesperson Alex Huppe says the medical examiner has ruled a suicide--the chemistry department did not take a critical look at advising because Lam had been in the program for only one semester.

Altom was a department student-veteran, and he explicitly criticized the department in his suicide note.

Anderson says he has been meeting withexperts in graduate education, psychology andpsychiatry, as well as University Health ServicesDirector David S. Rosenthal '59, to try anddetermine the best approach to improve thegraduate student experience.

"It's time to change the way we view graduateeducation," Anderson says, noting the "importanttransition" between undergraduate life, marked bybooks, lectures and exams, and graduate work, alonely search for answers in the library or thelaboratory.

Performing intense lab research as a graduatestudent is a "very exciting period, but also aperiod of difficulty," Anderson says. "There's ahuge amount of frustration--doing things that havenever been done before. We've all gone throughit."

Anderson says departments need to "broaden astudent's emotional base," arguing thatfriend-ships, exercise and multiple interests areessential to successful scholarship.

"A broad emotional base leads to the finestresearch," Anderson says.

Departments should also "explicitly encouragepeople to seek advice--to make it literally partof the curriculum," Anderson says.

Opening the channels of communication within adepartment--guaranteeing that a student will havemore than one professor with whom to discuss workor career goals--is also a new priority, Andersonsays.

According to Rebecca J. Jackman and MichaelGrogan, graduate students in chemistry and closefriends of Altom, change in their department is"long overdue."

"A long-standing lack of communication betweenstudents and faculty," Jackman and Grogan agree,is the most important problem facing the graduateprogram.

Just how to solve to this problem depends onwhom you ask.

Improving "The Best"

Grogan says that the student-advisorrelationship itself should not necessarily change,but a department should ensure students receivesupplementary guidance.

As the chemistry program now stands, mostgraduate students engage in full-time research asearly as their second year. Apart from interactionwith a group leader, a faculty member who may havemore than 20 students to supervise, there is noformal departmental evaluation--no indication ofhow one is progressing--until a month before astudent defends the thesis in front of acommittee.

The result: students can feel that "they'redoing chemistry in a vacuum," Grogan says. Thethesis committee "is really a rubber stamp," afrustrating process for those interested inconstructive direction for their work.

Grogan and Jackman advocate practical goals foradvising improvements--solutions that "allow forhuman imperfections."

Graduate students do not come to Harvardbecause of the personalities of the professors,Grogan says. They come for the stellar academics,and without those priorities, this "wouldn't bethe department, or the University, that it is."

Jackman agrees: "You can't legislate how aperson is going tointeract with someone."

Current GSC President Carlos Lopez, who hasserved on the board for four years, saysattempting to mechanize the advisor's role isfutile.

"There are too many variables--age,temperament," Lopez says. "This comes down topeople."

Besides, department administrators have nomechanisms to regulate faculty, especially theirtenured professors.

"Chairmans are not dictators but facilitators,"Anderson says. "I don't serve as a judge or a juryto reprimand or condemn."

Instead of cracking down on the way professorswork with their advisees, Jackman says thedepartment's student-run Quality of Life committeewill finish a proposal this fall advocating"multiple lines of communication" within thedepartment.

It is unrealistic to expect three professors toconvene once a year to discuss a student's work,Jackman says.

But creating an informal thesis-advisingcommittee early, and asking another professor tobe available via e-mail to provide a differentperspective from one's own research advisor, isnot an unreasonable expectation, they say.

One on One

Some members of the GSC, however, hope toredefine the student-advisor relationship itself.

In the wake of Ge's suicide, then-GSC PresidentAdam P. Fagen wrote an open letter to PresidentRudenstine, indicating that Ge's death had causedsome graduate students to vocalize theirfrustrations at a November meeting of HarvardChinese Students and Scholars Association.

"It was very clear that many students feelpowerless against the unreasonable expectations,unconcern, and unprofessional behavior of somefaculty members," the letter reads. "As graduatestudents, we often feel that we have no recourse,no real mechanism for dealing with problems thatmay arise, or even a clear elucidation of what isexpected from our faculty advisors, ourdepartments, the Graduate School and theUniversity."

J. Paul Callan, a physics graduate student whorepresented the Committee on Graduate Education,addressed the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS)meeting in February, echoing the assertion thatwhile some are satisfied with the assistance theyreceive, others suffer.

Callan told the Faculty they need to crack downon "advisors who expect students to live for theirwork alone, who repeatedly criticize students, whohang on to grad students for longer than necessaryto complete the Ph.D., or those who neglect theirstudents, even to the point of refusing to meet astudent or read his dissertation."

The GSC is drafting a document titled "GraduateStudent Life and Education," which outlines theways in which current FAS policy "does not playthe important role in the day-to-day conduct ofgraduate education" that it "was meant [to] at thetime of its formulation."

The proposal calls for systematic changeswithin the advising structure, such as requiringall decisions regarding a student's progress to becommunicated in writing to the student.

The document, which is targeted for completionby the end of the calendar year, will go to theFAS for review.

Can Things Change?

In the meantime, GSA Administrative, DeanMargot N. Gill says she and Wolff are continuingto encourage all 47 programs of the GSAS to pursuemore frequent contact with students and moreregular reporting to students about theirprogress.

To improve student life annually, theadministration surveys graduate students andtransmits the data back to the departments inaggregate to ensure confidentiality, Gill says.

And she will encourage departments to take partin the GSAS discussion panels at Dudley House,which will continue next month, although Callansays he hopes the administration will not stopthere.

While "a lot of interesting ideas came out ofthose discussions," Callan says, "there's been alot of talk, but no action."

To be sure, Gill can only "encourage"departments to participate in GSAS activities.

When asked whether his department sentrepresentatives to this spring's roundtablediscussions, Alan K. Long, director of thechemistry laboratories, said "no," indicating thatmembers of the department "must have been toobusy."

"Each department does things differently," Longsays. "We're fairly autonomous."

Calling for a "genuine commitment from theGSAS," Callan advocates placing "a lot ofpressure" on the Faculty to establish standardsfor advising.

"Things can be made to change, even at Harvard,"Callan says.

Gill says she "anticipates full participation,"especially in light of Altom's death, which "hasclearly reminded us how important these sessionsare."

Gill also notes there will increased resourcesfor international students, who face "specialproblems and must make special adjustments."

Recognizing that it is not enough to provide aseparate orientation for international students,GSAS will offer a seminar next month, "After theFirst Month in the New Culture," to try to addressproblem that students could not anticipate duringthe first week of school.

And Callan is currently working with the GSC toestablish a series of advising awards--similar tothe Levenson Awards for undergraduate teaching--toincrease the emphasis on quality mentors.

The idea was the brainchild of Provost HarveyV. Fineberg '67, and was raised by President NeilL. Rudenstine in his annual meeting with the GSClast April.

"If anything good comes of this suicide, it maybe renewed vigor on the part of GSAS, theUniversity and the GSC to work hard," Callan says."It's possible that an event like this mightgalvanize efforts. That would be good--though notnearly worth the cost."

Anderson says he has been meeting withexperts in graduate education, psychology andpsychiatry, as well as University Health ServicesDirector David S. Rosenthal '59, to try anddetermine the best approach to improve thegraduate student experience.

"It's time to change the way we view graduateeducation," Anderson says, noting the "importanttransition" between undergraduate life, marked bybooks, lectures and exams, and graduate work, alonely search for answers in the library or thelaboratory.

Performing intense lab research as a graduatestudent is a "very exciting period, but also aperiod of difficulty," Anderson says. "There's ahuge amount of frustration--doing things that havenever been done before. We've all gone throughit."

Anderson says departments need to "broaden astudent's emotional base," arguing thatfriend-ships, exercise and multiple interests areessential to successful scholarship.

"A broad emotional base leads to the finestresearch," Anderson says.

Departments should also "explicitly encouragepeople to seek advice--to make it literally partof the curriculum," Anderson says.

Opening the channels of communication within adepartment--guaranteeing that a student will havemore than one professor with whom to discuss workor career goals--is also a new priority, Andersonsays.

According to Rebecca J. Jackman and MichaelGrogan, graduate students in chemistry and closefriends of Altom, change in their department is"long overdue."

"A long-standing lack of communication betweenstudents and faculty," Jackman and Grogan agree,is the most important problem facing the graduateprogram.

Just how to solve to this problem depends onwhom you ask.

Improving "The Best"

Grogan says that the student-advisorrelationship itself should not necessarily change,but a department should ensure students receivesupplementary guidance.

As the chemistry program now stands, mostgraduate students engage in full-time research asearly as their second year. Apart from interactionwith a group leader, a faculty member who may havemore than 20 students to supervise, there is noformal departmental evaluation--no indication ofhow one is progressing--until a month before astudent defends the thesis in front of acommittee.

The result: students can feel that "they'redoing chemistry in a vacuum," Grogan says. Thethesis committee "is really a rubber stamp," afrustrating process for those interested inconstructive direction for their work.

Grogan and Jackman advocate practical goals foradvising improvements--solutions that "allow forhuman imperfections."

Graduate students do not come to Harvardbecause of the personalities of the professors,Grogan says. They come for the stellar academics,and without those priorities, this "wouldn't bethe department, or the University, that it is."

Jackman agrees: "You can't legislate how aperson is going tointeract with someone."

Current GSC President Carlos Lopez, who hasserved on the board for four years, saysattempting to mechanize the advisor's role isfutile.

"There are too many variables--age,temperament," Lopez says. "This comes down topeople."

Besides, department administrators have nomechanisms to regulate faculty, especially theirtenured professors.

"Chairmans are not dictators but facilitators,"Anderson says. "I don't serve as a judge or a juryto reprimand or condemn."

Instead of cracking down on the way professorswork with their advisees, Jackman says thedepartment's student-run Quality of Life committeewill finish a proposal this fall advocating"multiple lines of communication" within thedepartment.

It is unrealistic to expect three professors toconvene once a year to discuss a student's work,Jackman says.

But creating an informal thesis-advisingcommittee early, and asking another professor tobe available via e-mail to provide a differentperspective from one's own research advisor, isnot an unreasonable expectation, they say.

One on One

Some members of the GSC, however, hope toredefine the student-advisor relationship itself.

In the wake of Ge's suicide, then-GSC PresidentAdam P. Fagen wrote an open letter to PresidentRudenstine, indicating that Ge's death had causedsome graduate students to vocalize theirfrustrations at a November meeting of HarvardChinese Students and Scholars Association.

"It was very clear that many students feelpowerless against the unreasonable expectations,unconcern, and unprofessional behavior of somefaculty members," the letter reads. "As graduatestudents, we often feel that we have no recourse,no real mechanism for dealing with problems thatmay arise, or even a clear elucidation of what isexpected from our faculty advisors, ourdepartments, the Graduate School and theUniversity."

J. Paul Callan, a physics graduate student whorepresented the Committee on Graduate Education,addressed the Faculty of Arts and Sciences (FAS)meeting in February, echoing the assertion thatwhile some are satisfied with the assistance theyreceive, others suffer.

Callan told the Faculty they need to crack downon "advisors who expect students to live for theirwork alone, who repeatedly criticize students, whohang on to grad students for longer than necessaryto complete the Ph.D., or those who neglect theirstudents, even to the point of refusing to meet astudent or read his dissertation."

The GSC is drafting a document titled "GraduateStudent Life and Education," which outlines theways in which current FAS policy "does not playthe important role in the day-to-day conduct ofgraduate education" that it "was meant [to] at thetime of its formulation."

The proposal calls for systematic changeswithin the advising structure, such as requiringall decisions regarding a student's progress to becommunicated in writing to the student.

The document, which is targeted for completionby the end of the calendar year, will go to theFAS for review.

Can Things Change?

In the meantime, GSA Administrative, DeanMargot N. Gill says she and Wolff are continuingto encourage all 47 programs of the GSAS to pursuemore frequent contact with students and moreregular reporting to students about theirprogress.

To improve student life annually, theadministration surveys graduate students andtransmits the data back to the departments inaggregate to ensure confidentiality, Gill says.

And she will encourage departments to take partin the GSAS discussion panels at Dudley House,which will continue next month, although Callansays he hopes the administration will not stopthere.

While "a lot of interesting ideas came out ofthose discussions," Callan says, "there's been alot of talk, but no action."

To be sure, Gill can only "encourage"departments to participate in GSAS activities.

When asked whether his department sentrepresentatives to this spring's roundtablediscussions, Alan K. Long, director of thechemistry laboratories, said "no," indicating thatmembers of the department "must have been toobusy."

"Each department does things differently," Longsays. "We're fairly autonomous."

Calling for a "genuine commitment from theGSAS," Callan advocates placing "a lot ofpressure" on the Faculty to establish standardsfor advising.

"Things can be made to change, even at Harvard,"Callan says.

Gill says she "anticipates full participation,"especially in light of Altom's death, which "hasclearly reminded us how important these sessionsare."

Gill also notes there will increased resourcesfor international students, who face "specialproblems and must make special adjustments."

Recognizing that it is not enough to provide aseparate orientation for international students,GSAS will offer a seminar next month, "After theFirst Month in the New Culture," to try to addressproblem that students could not anticipate duringthe first week of school.

And Callan is currently working with the GSC toestablish a series of advising awards--similar tothe Levenson Awards for undergraduate teaching--toincrease the emphasis on quality mentors.

The idea was the brainchild of Provost HarveyV. Fineberg '67, and was raised by President NeilL. Rudenstine in his annual meeting with the GSClast April.

"If anything good comes of this suicide, it maybe renewed vigor on the part of GSAS, theUniversity and the GSC to work hard," Callan says."It's possible that an event like this mightgalvanize efforts. That would be good--though notnearly worth the cost."