Mentor/Trainee Responsibilities

1. Administrators may play a role in mentoring graduate students. When a situation occurs in which a student is reluctant to confront his/her advisor it is important for the administrator to:

Approach the advisor on behalf of the student.

Ignore the student.

Advise the student it is his/her problem to handle.

Guide the student to existing policies and guidance developed by the department and institution.

2. Administrators are service providers for faculty and other researchers. When a graduate student makes a request on behalf of his/her faculty advisor which the administrator knows is in violation of institutional policy, it is the responsibility of the administrator to accommodate the graduate student so as to please the faculty member, conduct business expeditiously, and not put up walls which may impede faculty requests or be detrimental to the student.

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False

3. It is not uncommon for a faculty member to have founded, or be closely affiliated with, a start-up company. The distinction between institutional and company responsibilities can sometimes get blurred, not only for an administrator but also for graduate students in the faculty member's lab. At times, this blurring of responsibilities can draw graduate students, and possibly administrators, into a conflict of interest or conflict of commitment. How are these situations best handled?

The faculty member has the ability to use the resources (including student help) to promote whatever interests he/she sees fit and therefore administrators should not be involved in these situations.

Remind the faculty member that he/she is required to disclose personal interests that may constitute a conflict of interest or commitment and, once disclosed, the faculty member has no additional obligation.

The faculty member should be reminded of his/her obligations and separation of responsibilities. This could be accomplished by bringing the situation to the attention of the Chair of the department.

4. The sponsored programs office (SPO) is negotiating an award. The PI is anxious to have the negotiations concluded and have his graduate student begin working on the project. The PI has insisted that publications will not result from the project, and he demanded that the award be executed immediately. The faculty member, however, is very busy, is difficult to reach during business hours, and has not respond to calls from SPO. SPO would like to discuss a publication restriction in the award document which would be detrimental to the graduate student's dissertation. How should SPO proceed?

Ask the graduate student if the publication restriction would be a problem.

Email the faculty member, copying the departmental administrator or possibly the department chair who may be able to intercede.

Sign the agreement without further consultation.

5. Mentoring a graduate student or post-doctoral fellow properly is the sole responsibility of the faculty advisor.

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False