Margaret F. King, Ph.D. The Graduate School

1. Mentoring Graduate Students: Ethical Issues Margaret F. King, Ph.D. The Graduate School

2. Mentoring Graduate Students:The Ethical Dimension • Ethics: Reasoned moral judgments in response to the following questions: • What is my duty in a given situation? • What is right, fair, obligatory? • Mentoring graduate students – among the “special duties” that come with assuming the role of university professor

3. Mentoring Graduate Students: Core Responsibility Helping graduate students become competentscholars or scientists capable of conducting independent, original and ethically sound research

4. + + Program Faculty Thesis Committee Research Advisor Who mentors graduate students?

5. Career Launching/Job Search Dissertation/Final Defense Research Preliminary Exams Plan of Work & Curriculum Advisor & Committee Selection Admissions/Orientation When should mentoring occur?

6. Overarching challenge: Right balance Guiding Principles: A Mentoring Compass Right Empowerment Right Attention Right Boundaries Right Empathy Right = ethically sound; also adequate or effective.

7. Right Attention • To student’s fit with and preparation for a particular program • To student’s uniqueness (background, personality, strengths, weaknesses) • To student’s progress through program • To aggregated student performance (indicators of the degree to which program outcomes are being achieved)

8. Right Boundaries • Maintaining appropriate professional distance • Avoiding romantic relationships • Resisting the urge to try to clone yourself in your students • Avoiding conflicts of interest and conflicts of commitment

9. Conflicts of Interest and Commitment • Conflict of Interest: The real or apparent interference of one person's interests with the interests of another person or persons, where potential bias may occur or unfair treatment may result • Conflict of Commitment: The situation that occurs when a faculty member’s external activities or commitments adversely affect that faculty members’ ability to carry out university responsibilities

10. Right Empathy • Being able to place oneself imaginatively in another’s situation • Respect for difference • Achieving the right balance between nurture and objective evaluation • Sometimes, having the courage to give negative feedback or even to terminate a student’s program

11. Power Over (Abuse) Power “With” (Empowerment) Power Withheld (Neglect) Right Empowerment vs. Disempowerment

12. Right Empowerment: Examples/Features • Shared knowledge/information • Clear expectations • Encouragement/coaching • Constructive criticism • Professional development opportunities • An environment where it is safe to risk • Advocacy/“running interference”

13. Graduate Student Mentoring: Sample Online Resources • University of Louisville’s online “Mentor and Graduate Student” handbook: http://graduate.louisville.edu/prog_pubs/mentorhandbook.htm University of Michigan’s handbooks for grad students and faculty mentors: http://www.rackham.umich.edu/StudentInfo/Publications/StudentMentoring/contents.html and http://www.rackham.umich.edu/StudentInfo/Publications/FacultyMentoring/contents.html • “Re-Envisioning the Ph.D.” – National list of grad student mentoring programs: http://www.grad.washington.edu/envision/practices/topics/t18.html