Abuse in Academia: A Mental Health Crisis for Graduate Students

Policy change is needed to address this pervasive issue

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Executive Summary

Between the long hours, high stress environment, and turbulent nature of research, graduate school is known to be a strenuous endeavor. However, for some graduate students, the addition of power imbalances and abusive environments can turn this strenuous endeavor into an unhealthy situation. To support graduate student’s mental health, NIH policy changes are needed to protect graduate students from abusive mentoring relationships.

Key Findings:

· Poor mentoring relationships can contribute to mental health problems in graduate students

· Some universities have taken action to support graduate students and prevent abuse, but nationwide policies are lacking

· The NIH can take multiple actions to create nationwide policies to address this issue at NIH-funded universities

Introduction

Previous research has found that graduate students suffer from high rates of mental health issues¹ and that the duration of time spent in graduate school positively correlates with these symptoms². The reasons behind the high rates of mental illness are multi-faceted, but some research suggests that poor mentoring relationships are involved (Figure 1)³.

Figure 1. Modified graphic from Evans et al., 2018, showing the responses of graduate students with depression and anxiety for the statements: my advisor provides mentorship, ample support, a positive emotional impact; they are an asset to my career, and I feel valued by them.

In the worst-case scenarios, graduate students with abusive advisors have died by suicide. In 1998, Harvard University PhD student Jason Altom wrote a suicide note to his department chair, which included the words, ‘’This event could have been avoided […] Professors here have too much power over the lives of their grad students […] provide protection for graduate students from abusive research advisers. If I had such a committee now I know things would be different.’’⁴ Jason was the third member of Dr. Elias J. Corey’s lab to die by suicide. Decades later, this problem still persists, as PhD student John Brady died by suicide in 2016 while working under Dr. Akbar Sayeed at the University of Wisconsin. Investigations showed that Dr. Sayeed was extremely abusive and that the university lacked routine procedures for monitoring the climate of his lab⁵. In 2019, University of Florida PhD student Huixiang Chen died by suicide while in the research lab and his notes referenced abusive behavior and academic misconduct committed by his advisor Dr. Tao Li⁶.

Although the majority of graduate students with abusive advisors do not die by suicide, their mental and physical health, research careers, and overall quality of life can be negatively impacted in many other ways.

Previous Solutions at the University Level

Unfortunately, many universities do not require advisors to undergo any sort of mentorship or management training before accepting graduate students into their labs. In an attempt to prevent poor mentoring relationships, some universities (e.g., University of Colorado Boulder, Western Michigan University) have created agreement documents that outline the expectations of the mentor and the mentee, which both parties must sign when entering into a mentorship. These documents include research and productivity expectations, but also expectations regarding professionalism, respect, and personal interactions. However, these agreements are university specific, and do not exist at many universities.

Some universities (e.g., University of Michigan, Georgetown University) have an ombudsperson, who is an unbiased third party that graduate students can utilize for support and resources when they are having conflict with their advisor. Ombudsperson offices are not standard across universities and many graduate students do not have access to such an official. Another option that some universities have used to support graduate students with abusive mentors is to provide financial support while students switch advisors, as they might avoid leaving an abusive environment if they are worried about their financial options. Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently created a financial lifeline to support students while they move to a safer lab, but this financial support is not standard at all universities.

Graduate students at different universities (e.g., Duke University, University of Wisconsin) have also tried to address this issue by creating resource guides to help other graduate students navigate the process of reporting abuse (Figure 2). Depending on the type of abuse, universities have different offices to assist, but it is often difficult to know where to go for help. Graduate students are often not aware of what policies exist to protect them in the first place or how to report complaints if those policies are broken by their advisor. These resource guides are not available at all universities, and the ones created by graduate students took hours of extra work outside of their graduate program requirements.

Figure 2. Modified graphic from graduate students at the University of Wisconsin regarding reporting abuse.⁷

What can be done?

The NIH can require that NIH-funded universities must:

· Have advisors undergo annual mentorship, leadership, and management training

· Have an ombudsperson for graduate students

· Have NIH-required scientific integrity graduate classes include a section on healthy mentor/mentee relationships and how to address abuse

· Provide funding for graduate students while they are switching from an abusive advisor

· Have a program dedicated to educating graduate students in an accessible and understandable way about policies regarding abuse and discrimination, their rights, offices that can help them, and how to file reports

Acknowledgements

I want to thank Alejandra Villegas for her contributions to the development of this piece.

References

1. Satinsky, Emily N., et al. “Systematic review and meta-analysis of depression, anxiety, and suicidal ideation among Ph. D. students.” Scientific Reports 11.1 (2021): 1–12.
2. Gallea, José Ignacio, Leonardo Adrián Medrano, and Luis Pedro Morera. “Work-related mental health issues in graduate student population.” Frontiers in neuroscience 15 (2021): 593562.
3. Evans, Teresa M., et al. “Evidence for a mental health crisis in graduate education.” Nature biotechnology 36.3 (2018): 282–284.
4. Hall, Stephen S. “Lethal Chemistry at Harvard.” The New York Times Magazine (1998): 120.
5. Meyerhofer, Kelly. “‘Toxic’ lab lasted for years. UW-Madison had little idea until a student died by suicide.” Madison.com (2019) https://madison.com/news/local/education/university/toxic-lab-lasted-for-years-uw-madison-had-little-idea-until-a-student-died-by/article_199b0616-a558-5da5-b214-4896154ceecc.html.
6. Weber, Thomas J. “Family of UF grad student who died by suicide files legal claim against university.” The Gainesville Sun (2021) https://www.gainesville.com/story/news/education/campus/2021/08/13/family-uf-grad-student-suicide-files-claim-against-university-huixiang-chen-tao-li/8121082002/.
7. TAA-Madison. “TAA Publishes Guide to Workplace Abuse Policy.” TAA (2020) https://taa-madison.org/abuse-policy-guide/.