adventuresinchemistry:

so often it feels like the discussion around the exploitation and abuse of graduate students by their PIs is centered around how to not be exploited. 

maybe it’s just the discussions that I, as a student, am privy to, but man, so often it’s framed around how to identify a problematic PI early in the process, or how to build your committee so you know you have someone who will be on your side, or what labs not to join under any circumstance, or how to balance pleasing your PI with not burning yourself out.

it never seems like anyone is talking about ways to train faculty in management and mentorship, or how to better deal with faculty who work their students into the ground, or how to protect us from them rather than how we should protect ourselves. 

i’ve watched a professor fire four students all at once and the department just shrugged. and a student be allowed to join the lab of a professor with an informal student ban from all the other related programs. and i’ve heard so very many stories about professors turning mean and cruel when someone’s project doesn’t work out as planned. 

if we want basic employee protections we have to unionize which is an uphill battle and only seems to make the faculty distrust us more (which, I realize, is a foundational narrative of modern capitalism). 

And again, the onus is on us to protect ourselves rather than on them to not abuse their power over us. 

It’s not any different than any power dynamic in our society really, but it’s tiring, and frustrating, to keep updating the list of professors to warn new students against with new stories every year, while they face no consequences for driving all the but the lucky few away from science and academia. 

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18. superfamousbouquetdragonworld said: As a 1st year student, I’m a little surprised at how many PIs I’m being warned away from. It seems roughly 50/50 from the people I’ve been looking at. Is this comparable at other schools?
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