COLLOQUY

THE QUESTION

RESPONSES

BACKGROUND

It has been assumed that because graduate students have completed college, they have developed to the point where they can handle the new responsibilities of graduate study on their own. The chapter on advising and the one on counseling show that the student-faculty relationship is clearly one in which the adviser is the most powerful and significant person in the student's life. The section devoted to "Creating Environments of Support" goes on to cover other important considerations, such as student career needs, financial aid, and housing, in addition to the very special concerns of women, international students, students of color, those with disabilities, and gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender students. The point is that the pressures on graduate students are unique, derive from a variety of sources, and that the development of a scholar - which is the point of doctoral education - requires that we pay attention to more than the life of the mind.

Another document that speaks to the advising experience has been published by The Council of Graduate Schools. Titled, "The Doctor of Philosophy Degree," it points out that although the responsibility for advising and mentoring vary from one institution to another, those that provide continuous feedback, both formal and informal, are the most successful. Indeed, it recommends that students have a committee, but it also says that at all stages, advising is a reciprocal responsibility, i.e., students are expected to seek help when they need it.

-- Anne S. Pruitt-Logan, Scholar in Residence, Council of Graduate Schools (posted 10/22, 4:36 p.m., E.D.T.)

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