You and others (especially students and postdocs) may be interested in
the information on the pages at these URLs:
http://cgeu.org/contacts.php
http://www.nigms.nih.gov/Training/StrategicPlan.
http://blogs.sciencemag.org/sciencecareers/2010/04/congressional-h.html
http://www.amacad.org/arisefolder/ariseReport.pdf
http://www.nigms.nih.gov/Training/StrategicPlan.
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/325/5940/528
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/22/fair-unpaid-internships-u_n_547543.html?ref=fb&src=sp#sb=841075
http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/compliance/whdfs71.pdf
http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2010_04_16/caredit.a1000039
http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/short/325/5940/528
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/03/business/03intern.html
(I have other related articles if anyone is interested :) ).
Aaron T. Dossey, Ph.D.
Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
Frank Marenghi wrote:
Hi all,
I graduated with my master's last year from a State University with a relatively new (<10 years)
graduate program. In our Dept., they had 15 students sharing one small office with 4 computers, one of
which was rarely functioning, and the IT "staff" were largely absent. Some of the students
had their own laptops but trying to work in this space was very difficult, for obvious reasons. Even
with 5 or 6 people it was quite loud and distracting. I was fortunate to be able to work on my laptop
from home often, which allowed me to be very productive despite the on-campus environment. The issue
was not with my advisor but firmly with the administration. It was very clear to me that the
undergraduates (because of tuition?) were more "valuable" to the University than grad
students. There were university-run forums that heard graduate student requests on a montlhy basis,
but I beleive these were mainly for show, since I did not see any real changes come out of them while
I was there!
or since and many of the student commetns were rebuffed or dismissed at the forum itself, showing a callousness and lack of understanding that was surprisiong to me at the time. Complaints made directly to the administrators went nowhere, for example, completely unused lab and office space remain locked and off limits to students, while the number of students increased and the amount of funding decreased. Even the dean of the colleage, the VP of academic affairs and the president would often defend the corrupt practices of the "junior" administrators rather than use their authority to promote fairness and right action, as it applied to the graduate students who were conducting the research that gave the Dept. the funding and visibility it wanted. As so wisely suggested by others on the list, grad students organizing seems to be the only way out of some of these situations.
Additionally, upon telling some faculty members (both within and outside this institution) about some of the long list of unfair, unethical practices grad students were asked to endure, more than one responded, "so you mean you are a grad student!" As if this was a normal part of some sort of academic hazing practice, akin to joining a fraternity or sorority. I am curious of what the list thinks of this phenomenon?
That being said, I feel that I received a good education and was able to conduct some important research during that time in spite of the problems. So, while it was certainly not a perfect situation, it was not insurmountable.
Regards,
Frank Marenghi
Date: Sat, 24 Apr 2010 09:01:41 -0400
From: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [ECOLOG-L] Grad students: what are they worth, and does their work
space effect their productivity? Input gratefully accepted
To: [email protected]
Hi Alisha,
I'm going to piggy back on what Marty said. I've been working in
the professional world for about 2 years (Museum administration),
and about 9 months ago my supervisor and I were forced to give up
our private office with a window and move to a group workspace
with 9 total people and no window. Though we have no empirical
evidence, tensions have increased and productivity and morale have
decreased considerably in this time period. Feeling valued and
supported by your department is a major part of any institution's
draw, whether it be professional or academic.
I recently decided to go back to school and get my master's, due
to these (and other) poor conditions. I looked at several schools,
and the one I ended up choosing supports its grad students wholly,
through small office shares (2-5 students in each room), funding,
general comradery and administrative support. There is no way I
would ever select a school with such poor graduate student
conditions as you describe.
Even if you can't find any papers directly linking productivity
and working conditions (which as Marty said, I'm sure you can if
you reach outside of the academic setting), check out some
papers/books on educational psychology and learning theory. I've
come across several great documentations of learning environment
and classroom culture, and how they directly relate to
productivity within the classroom.
Good luck!!
Amanda
Amanda Arner
[email protected]
(727) 798-0642
"Those that know, do. Those that understand, teach." - Aristotle
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