How often have you heard - ‘Earning your PhD is all about building character’?
And how often have you found yourself questioning – ‘Is undergoing conflicts to build character an inevitable price needed to earn a PhD’?
Since overcoming a conflict is essential to continue forward in our PhD training, should conflict management be addressed more prominently in academia?
During a recent Newsletter meeting, a discussion about conflict management in academia motivated us to ask whether we need an independently-run Human Resources (HR) department to support graduate students. An independent HR department could facilitate conflict management, work toward racial and gender equity, vie for equal opportunities for minority groups and international students, deal with workplace harassment, provide career counseling, and most importantly, foster accountability and transparency in academia.
We conducted a BGS-wide anonymous survey asking graduate students about their thoughts. Sixty-five doctoral students spanning the seven graduate groups under BGS took the survey and shared their views with us. 78.5% of respondents agreed that graduate students could benefit from an independent HR department. 64.6% admitted that they had faced problems (personal, health, or work-related) at least once, and kept them private because they didn’t feel they had somewhere to turn. Furthermore, 72.3% of students mentioned they find it fairly difficult to communicate about sensitive topics entailing interpersonal relations, training, and career opportunities with their PI and program leadership. Unfortunately, these statistics indicate a gap in communication between students and their mentors in academia. They also speak volumes about the lack of a perceived safe space for graduate students to share their concerns.
Aggregate responses to a subset of the questions we asked to BGS students in an anonymous survey.
When asked about accountability in academia, only 20% of students felt confident in having someone to talk openly to about the expected roles and duties of lab members. 30.8% of students admitted they had no one to talk to about a fundamental work-requisite like accountability. 45% of students admitted their labs have either no system or a poor system in place for conflict management and only 6% of students considered their labs to have an excellent conflict management system in place.
Another area of disparity highlighted by our survey was career planning. All BGS PhD students are required to complete an Individual Development Plan (IDP) on an annual basis. The IDP serves as an important tool to develop a personalized mentoring plan based on the needs and goals of each student, describes student’s short- and long-term career objectives, recognizes trainee professional development activities, and facilitates communication with PIs. Surprisingly, only half (49.2%) of the students surveyed share their IDP with their PI every year. 15.4% of students admitted that they have never discussed their IDP with their PI. The question is, what holds back the remaining 50% of students from discussing their career plans with their PI regularly? More importantly, do these students have any other forum to discuss their career plans?
While the overwhelming majority of survey respondents felt that there was a need for an independent HR department, nine students (13.8%) considered the proposal to be obsolete. These students referenced currently available resources, like Penn’s Office of Ombuds. The Office of Ombuds offers a safe forum to resolve differences among members of the Penn community, including BGS graduate students. However, Ombuds is not BGS-specific and, most often, the last resort for students once a conflict has already escalated. While this resource is useful, it may be unsuitable for the day-to-day needs of BGS students. BGS also supports other organizations like the Office of Research and Diversity Training (ORDT), LTBGS+, the Peer Support Network (PSN) and Students Confronting Racism and White Privilege (SCRWP). While we acknowledge the important work done by these groups, they are mostly student and faculty-led, and hence, unequipped to fulfill all the needs outlined in our survey. A BGS HR department would be led by trained HR specialists that could work in conjunction with these pre-existing organizations. We have reached out to the Office of Ombuds and ORDT to hear their perspectives on the results of our survey and the pros and cons of setting up an HR department for BGS students (Look out for an update in our May 2021 issue!).
So, how could an independent HR department benefit graduate students? From our survey, it is clear that many students find it difficult to communicate effectively within the existing academic structures. An HR department could encourage graduate students to come forth with their concerns more readily, provide a platform with increased anonymity, and limit trainee fears of retaliation. The HR department could function as an important advocate for student rights, and an intermediary to encourage open communication between students and their mentors. This structure could also promote accountability of PIs with respect to their mentorship style, commitment to trainees, and biases that may exist. In parallel, an HR department could help to explicitly outline work expectations from graduate students.
An HR department could also play an essential role in vouching for the marginalized and minority groups like first generation and low-income students, the LGBTQ community, and international students. An area of concern that emerged from our survey centered on gender and racial equity. Our results show that only 9 students identifying as male participated in the survey, of which 5 belong to the LGBTQ+ community (from 53 responses to this question). The remaining 44 responses were shared by students who identified as female and/or LGBTQ+. The substantial difference in responses reflects that trainees who identify as female and/or LGBTQ+ may feel more strongly about the need for a potential HR department. Being a graduate student (who may feel at the mercy of their PI and graduate program) may make it challenging to voice these concerns, especially when they are often a result of unconscious-bias and microaggressions. An HR department could provide an anonymous platform for students to report instances of sexism, racism, and workplace harassment.
An HR department could also reach out to students regularly to ensure their mental and emotional well-being, refer students to CAPS whenever required, and conduct regular follow-ups for specific cases. They can also play an integral role in initiating proactive, science and alternative careers-directed career counseling, and mediate networking among current BGS students and program alumni. Many students also expressed a need for professional advice on pay negotiations, taxation, student-loan deferment, healthcare and insurance, vacation/sick days, international travel, and housing.
The HR department could serve as a one-stop centralized forum, specifically designated for BGS graduate students. The HR office should be easily accessible to students, both in-person and online. For the HR department to function autonomously, the HR representatives should be hired impartially, function outside BGS leadership, and most importantly, have some mechanism to take action and intervene. The department could draft a detailed outline of their responsibilities and appropriate courses of action to resolve issues. These templates would allow a standardized approach to conflict management and streamline the process.
A histogram of students' hopes for what an HR department might be helpful for
Where do we go from here?
The hierarchical dynamics in academia often make graduate students feel as if they sit at the bottom of a metaphorical pyramid. PIs, graduate group chairs, and thesis committees do their best to provide a safe, accessible forum for graduate students to voice their concerns. However, our survey suggests that the majority of respondents perceive their mentors’ collegiate relationships with one another as superior to their relationships with their trainees. This structure weakens students' trust, does not allow for anonymity and ultimately deters them from openly sharing their concerns. A majority of students who responded to our survey would like an independent, anonymous platform to deal with issues like conflict management. Can BGS amplify our already-existing platforms to meet these needs? Or, is an independently-run HR department the missing piece?
(Look out for our May 2021 issue to read about our discussion with ORDT, the Office of Ombuds and BGS management about the results of our survey)
Links
CAMB Student Newsletter Blog - https://cambnewsletter.wixsite.com/blog
Office of Research and Diversity Training (ORDT) - https://www.med.upenn.edu/ordt/
Office Of The Ombuds - https://ombuds.upenn.edu/
Peer Support Network (PSN) - https://www.med.upenn.edu/bgs/psn.html
BGS Association Student Groups - https://www.med.upenn.edu/bgsa/studentgroups.html
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