The OpenSeminar in Research Ethics:

Mentoring

Presentation prepared by Gary Comstock for use by instructors using OSRE materials. You are permitted to use, and encouraged to modify, the presentation if using it in a non-profit instructional setting and you grant permission for others to do likewise and you leave this slide and statement intact as acknowledgment.

• Independent judgment• Thoroughness• Rigor• Intellectual honesty

Dr. Christine GrantNSF 2003 Presidential Award for

Excellence in Mentoring

The essence of graduate education is to initiate the student into the practice of scholarship

Mentoring

“All students in graduate programs must have a graduate advisor…”

Graduate Administrative Handbook, ch. 3.2

Your adviser should:

Encourage you to engage in scholarly activities

Alert you to collaborative opportunities

Prepare you for your job search

Not give you assignments that will unnecessarily delay degree completion

Your faculty adviser is your friend.

“… the necessity of frequent personal contact between the student and committee members cannot be overemphasized.”

An adviser should not have so many graduate students that close interaction and support is impossible.

Grad Admin Handbook

www.fis.ncsu.edu/grad_publicns/handbook/

Your faculty adviser is your friend.

Research leaders should provide careful supervision of the student’s project, including initial design as well as the acquiring, recording, examining, and interpreting of data.

Research leaders who limit their function to the editing of manuscripts are not providing adequate supervision.

Your faculty adviser is your friend.

“The essence of graduate education is to initiate the student into the practice of scholarship: … independent judgment, thoroughness, rigor and intellectual honesty.”

“The {adviser} is responsible for this process …”

The adviser should encourage “wholesome and appropriate relationships within the academic community…”

Graduate School Policies Pertaining to Graduate Student Rights and Responsibilitieswww2.acs.ncsu.edu/grad/publicns/rights.htm/#grad

Your adviser should:

Encourage you to engage in scholarly activities, e.g., present papers at conferences, submit articles, write grant applications

Alert you to collaborative opportunities

Prepare you for your job search

Not give you assignments that will unnecessarily delay degree completion

Graduate students’ rights

Academic guidance from adviser Periodic evaluation of progress, performance,

and professional potential from adviser Adviser’s assistance in convening meetings of

your committee Academic freedom to pursue novel ideas Freedom of conscience, freedom of speech Equality before the law in judicial hearings Rights of due process

Your faculty adviser is not that kind of friend.

“Faculty should never be in the position of supervising … graduate students with whom there is a … romantic and/or sexual relationship.”

“Both the fact and semblance of any exploitation must be avoided.”

Graduate School Policies Pertaining to Graduate Student Rights and Responsibilities www2.acs.ncsu.edu/grad/publicns/rights.htm/#grad

NCSU Policy on Interpersonal Relationships: www.ncsu.edu/policies/campus_environ/health_safety_welfare/POL04.20.6.php

Everyone who engages in research—including grad students—must be aware of all regulations and follow them closely.

Not to do so is irresponsible, may be unlawful, and could lead to physical harm, loss of financial support, or worse.

Advisers play a dual role: mentor and gatekeeper.

Adviser’s power:

• Power over (abuse)

• Withholding power(neglect)

Empowerment: A Balancing Act

• Attention to graduate students vs. attention to other responsibilities

• Supportiveness vs. pressure to perform• Structure vs. open-endedness in research

supervision• Advisor’s greater experience vs.

student’s need to make mistakes

The Department’s role

Continuous program improvement Departmental orientation & handbooks Making sure students know rules and

deadlines Making sure all students are assigned

appropriate advisors in a timely manner Requiring regular meetings with advisor

and committee Requiring annual progress reports to

graduate administrator

Thanks to Becky Rufty & Margaret King, NC State, for permission to use slides.

Graduate students’ responsibilities

• Communicate often, honestly, and directlywith your adviser.

• Conduct research responsibly, with integrity.

• Treat all university employees with respect.

• Learn and follow all federal and university regulations and policies.

• Exercise your freedom of speech, andconscience; pursue novel ideas.

www.ncsu.edu/policies

Additional resources:Additional resources:

• Your university’s policy statements

• e.g. NC State University’s

“You know it’s not the honors and prizes and the fancy outsides of life which ultimately nourish our souls.”

“It’s the knowing that we can be trusted,that we never have to fear the truth,that the bedrock of our very being is good stuff.”

- Fred Rogers

Acknowledgments Rebeca C. Rufty and Margaret King

NC State University, “Ethical Issues in Mentoring Graduate Students”

www.chass.ncsu.edu/ethics/resources/Rufty_Slides.pdf

Margaret King, NC State University, “Mentoring Graduate Students: Ethical Issues”

www.chass.ncsu.edu/ethics/events/presenters/king/mentoring_workshop5.pdf

Acknowledgments

These slides prepared by Gary Comstock, editor in chief, OpenSeminar in Research Ethics. Thanks to Christine Grant, Brenda Alston-Mills, Rebeca Rufty, and Margaret King, NC State University, for permission to use material from their presentations. Free use is encouraged in non-profit instructional settings with customary acknowledgment.

The instructional materials in the OpenSeminar in Research Ethics are being developed by the Model Curriculum for Land Grant Universities in Research Ethics (LANGURE) project at www.chass.ncsu.edu/langure/ and by the Extend and Assess Research Ethics Education (EAREE) project. LANGURE is supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 0530217 and EAREE by Grant No. 0734919. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation (NSF).

All materials used in these modules are used with permission or pursuant to the fair use provisions of Section 107 of Title 17, the United States Copyright law. Further uses may be subject to the copyright law. The materials under NC State University copyright may be used for non-profit educational purposes, if given the customary attribution and notification is sent to the LANGURE director at gcomstock@ncsu.edu.