Professors Receive Mentoring Awards

Last year, advising of Harvard's graduate students came under fire with the apparent suicides of two graduate students, Halei Ge and Jason Altom. Faculty, students and administrators tackled the problem head-on, and last month the Faculty of Arts and Sciences approved changes to the grad student advising policy.

But in the reforming zeal, say GSC members, the good advising that went on was overlooked.

" The big issue was to improve the quality of advising," said Adam P. Fagen, chair of the GSC Awards Committee. "But those who were already doing a good job were forgotten about."

This led Fagen and John P. Callan, also a graduate student, to push for an idea they felt was long overdue--an awards ceremony to honor good advisers.

Last Thursday in Dudley House, the council awarded nine professors the first ever GSC Excellence in Mentoring Award. First nominated by graduate students, the winners were ultimately chosen by a GSC committee.

The awards went to David M. Cutler, professor of economics; Charles Hallisey, Loeb associate professor of the humanities, Joseph D. Harris, professor of economics, Eric J. Heller, professor of chemistry and physics, Lawrence F. Katz, professor of economics, Thomas A. McMahon, McKay professor of applied mechanics and professor of biology (awarded posthumously), James R. Rice, McKay professor of Engineering Sciences and Geophysics, William Mills Todd III, Reisinger professor of Slavic languages and literature.

The winners had their names engraved on a plaque in Dudley House, and each received an engraved desk clock.

According to Fagen who is also a sixth-year graduate student studying molecular biology and education, over 200 GSAS students in three-quarters of the programs in the Graduate School nominated over 80 individual faculty members.

The number of nominations sent in by the graduate students surprised the Awards Chair Committee, Fagen said.

Grad students honored their professors with the "pent-up gratitude" of several years, according to Fagen.

"There were so many nominations that we were forced to pick nine people as the recipients of the award--which was more than expected," Fagen said.

"All nominations said their adviser was always available but it was the personal stories that hit home. In cases where people really had difficulties and their adviser showed real personal connection."

For undergraduate students, good advising can make for a fulfilling academic experience. But for graduate students, advising can make or break a career.

When a student enters graduate school the search for an adviser begins. Once the student finds an adviser, the adviser helps the student to define a research project, apply for grants and fellowships and write papers. Finally, an adviser helps the student to find a job.

The adviser's job falls somewhere between being a teacher, nurturer, and advocate of the student, grad students say.

For award recipient Ulrich, receiving the award for mentoring was an added delight to working with her advisees.

She said the relationship between an adviser and advisee can be very special.

"Advising a Ph.D. candidate means developing a relationship centered around the things we both care about," she said.

Under her guidance, Ulrich's advisees have seen success. One of her advisees, Kirsten D. Sword, who won the Woodrow Wilson fellowship, praised her adviser.

"She's incredibly wonderful," Sword said. "She's built a community without rivalry."

The aim of the awards was not only to recognize those advisers doing a good job but also to show the importance of an adviser to a graduate student.

Cutler, a professor in health policy, recognizes the hard work that graduate students must incur to receive a Ph.D.

"All advisers are aware that graduate school can be stressful time," Cutler said. "Many faculty members try to pay attention to difficult times."

Heller, an award recipient, compared the importance of an adviser to the importance of having oxygen to breathe.

Heller said he was surprised to learn that he had won the Excellence in Mentoring Award because he had never heard of it. But once he found out what the award was for, he was pleased, he said.

When asked how the deaths of the two students affected him, Heller said that it caused him and his peers to think about what they were doing wrong and what they were doing right for their students.

"Being an adviser is caring, watching, and having time for students. "I guess I must be doing an okay job," Heller said.