Mentoring engineering students: Turning pebbles into diamonds

Journal of Engineering Education, Jul 2001 by Vesilind, P Aarne

A few years ago I took part in a semester-long workshop on gender issues in science and engineering. A group of female graduate students and another group of male graduate students discussed their concerns with a facilitator and this person brought the concern from these two groups to a third group comprised only of faculty. All information was conveyed by the facilitator, and the groups never met each other. What we the faculty heard from the students were complaints about how the faculty treated the students. But we the faculty could not relate to such actions and were honesty incredulous and often disbelieving that these could occur. Finally we came to the conclusion that there appear to be a lot of jerks out there on the faculty--professors who simply have no interpersonal skills and do not know how to treat other people with respect. There was little wonder that these professors often developed toxic relationships with their students.

For example, one faculty member prominently displayed mildly suggestive pictures of women in his office. The female students were unable to convince the professor that the pictures made them feel uncomfortable, and eventually they went to the departmental chair and asked him to intercede, which he did. The pictures came down, but the relationship between the students and the advisor was poisoned. The professor did not understand that the pictures were inappropriate and resented the students going to the chair with their concerns. In this particular case the relationship between the senior graduate student and the professor deteriorated to the point where she did not even ask him for a letter of recommendation when she sought academic work after graduation. The chair had to write a letter of explanation as to why no such recommendation from the primary advisor was forthcoming.

Students caught in a trap with a toxic mentor can either suck it up and graduate fast or try to change the primary advisor. Neither is easily done. If the students are in graduate school, faculty often believe that they make investments in students and that the student should then show loyalty in not shopping around for a new primary advisor, taking the news of disloyal behavior personally and often vindictively. In undergraduate school, changing advisors is often impossible due to departmental or college rules on advising. An incompetent advisor is often blamed for the failure to graduate from a science or engineering program.

V. THE UNIVERSITY's ROLE IN IMPROVING THE QUALITY OF MENTORING

The university can enhance the quality of advising available to students and increase the potential of having an adviser/advisee relationship turn into a much more rewarding and lasting mentor/protege relationship. Some suggestions, based on experiences at some forward looking universities, might be helpful.12

1 .Universities should establish policies that would allow students to have the option of selecting advisors, even if not all students want this freedom. The mentoring relationship is best fostered with sound advice and in a mutually comfortable environment.