Ph.D Advising May Intensify

According to a report heard by the Faculty Council yesterday, Ph.D. dissertation advising should be made more uniform across departments.

The report, termed a "discussion paper" by the nine-person committee that prepared it, suggested that all departments use committees to advise their Ph.D. candidates, rather than one single adviser.

"While advising committees exist in the majority of departments, there are still several departments that retain the single-adviser model," the report reads. "Such a model concentrates considerable power and responsibility in the hands of one individual and is best avoided."

Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences (GSAS) Christoph J. Wolff, who chaired the Committee on the Structure of Ph.D. Advising, said last night that committee advising would not affect the close relationship that develops between a dissertation writer and a Faculty mentor.

"The single most important relationship--which may actually last a lifetime--is between the principle adviser and the student," he said. "But just in case that relationship goes sour, we want to create a safety net."

That suggestion echoes one made by chemistry graduate student Jason D. Altom in a letter he wrote prior to committing suicide this past summer.

Wolff said that discussions of Ph.D advising began last fall, but the speed of the report was affected by the Altom tragedy.

"[The report] was not in response to it, but the events certainly gave our discussion some urgency," he said.

According to Wolff, the change would protect Faculty members as well, preventing any one person from feeling the full burden of supervising years of work.

He noted the change would be particularly useful for advisers who are frequently "too shy or too reluctant to destroy a student's career by saying he should stop writing and do something else."

The report also suggested increasing the number of Faculty readers who sign a graduate student's Thesis Acceptance Certificate from two to three. The change requires the approval of the full Faculty and will be introduced at a Faculty meeting sometime this spring.