October 2, 2011

To Encourage Ethical Behavior by Graduate Advisers, 3 Scholars Call for Detailed Codes of Conduct

Graduate Advisers Need a Set of No-No's, 3 Scholars Argue 1

Joon Powell for The Chronicle

John Braxton, a professor of higher education at Vanderbilt U., is one of the authors of "Professors Behaving Badly." He says poor examples set by professors can have lasting effects as their students become faculty members.

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close Graduate Advisers Need a Set of No-No's, 3 Scholars Argue 1

Joon Powell for The Chronicle

John Braxton, a professor of higher education at Vanderbilt U., is one of the authors of "Professors Behaving Badly." He says poor examples set by professors can have lasting effects as their students become faculty members.

By Brenda Medina

Bad behavior among faculty who teach and advise graduate students can take many forms. It may amount to neglect: an adviser failing to respond to multiple requests for feedback at a crucial stage of a student's dissertation work. It may be much worse: a professor copying an advisee's ideas without attribution and trying to pass them off as his own.

What constitutes a violation of good conduct in graduate education, though, is both ill-defined and inconsistently rectified. Many