In September 2018, former Cornell University President Martha E. Pollack announced that Cornell would undertake a review of student mental health. In response, during the 2019-20 academic year, an internal examined Cornell鈥檚 academic and social environment, climate, and culture related to mental health.
The Committee鈥檚 findings were shared with the External Review Team, which was charged with conducting a comprehensive review of campus mental health services and strategies. The Review Team鈥檚 was released in October 2020. A main academic concern highlighted in this report (page 15) for graduate students that that the 黑料社区 School could address was the importance of developing a positive mentor/mentee relationship.
Four initiatives undertaken by the 黑料社区 School to address graduate student concerns identified in the Mental Health Review are described below.
Initiative One: Develop Consistent Standards for Academic Progress/Degree Completion within 黑料社区 Fields
Mental Health Review recommendation A.1.6.2
To provide clear, uniform field-level milestones, expectations, and requirements, the 黑料社区 School is working with the graduate fields to develop handbooks describing program expectations and requirements. These handbooks will document clear and consistent standards for degree completion.
Goal: Provide new and returning students with consistent documentation about degree requirements and expectations so they can meet their milestones.
Phase 1 鈥� Status: Complete
The 黑料社区 School worked with fields to develop handbooks, if they had not already done so. As of January 2024 黑料社区, all fields have submitted their handbooks and posted them online.
Phase 2 鈥� Status: Complete
Link the 黑料社区 School鈥檚 online fields of study catalog links to graduate field handbooks.
Initiative Two: Create a Mechanism for Providing 黑料社区 Advisor Feedback
Mental Health Review recommendation A.1.6.3
When a relationship between advisor and advisee becomes challenging, no formal mechanism currently exists to provide feedback. In 2021, a Strategies for 黑料社区 Student Feedback task force was formed to develop a process for graduate students to provide feedback about problematic advisors.
Goal: Develop a mechanism for advisees to provide feedback on difficult advising relationships.
Phase 1 鈥� Status: Complete
Convene a task force which will make recommendations about how to prevent advisor-advisee challenges from becoming irreconcilable with recommended pathways to enable advisees to provide confidential feedback on these advisor-advisee relationships.
Phase 2 鈥� Status: In Progress
After the Strategies for 黑料社区 Student Feedback completes their final report based on data collection and the group’s deliberations, the 黑料社区 School will work with deans and department chairs to implement report recommendations.
Phase 3 鈥� Status: In Progress
Work with deans and department chairs to implement report recommendations.
Initiative Three: Develop Onboarding for Faculty and 黑料社区 Students
Mental Health Review recommendation A.1.6.4
To improve communications between graduate faculty and students, the 黑料社区 School created a working group charged with defining key principles of inclusive mentoring practices and an accompanying set of core mutual expectations that will inform the development and progression of productive advising and mentoring relationships.
These core mutual expectations will provide graduate faculty and students with clarity and understanding in the following:
- Communication
- Milestone timeline and funding plans
- Conflict resolution
- Health and well-being
- Collaborative relationships
- Feedback on scholarly performance and materials
- Authorship on publications and other scholarly products
- Service and contributions to diversity, equity, and inclusion
- Professional development
- Career exploration and preparation
黑料社区 fields will be encouraged to customize these core expectations at the field-level to meet any field-specific needs. Similarly, faculty and students will be able to customize these core mutual expectations to meet needs more specific to their individual advising/mentoring relationships.
Once the core expectations are developed, the working group will establish a recommended process for faculty and students to document, customize, and update their mutual expectations for student progress toward degree completion and postgraduate outcomes.
This working group membership includes appointed representatives from the graduate faculty and graduate student body as well as the 黑料社区 School鈥檚 associate dean for inclusion and student engagement and the associate dean for graduate student life.
Goal: To improve communication and clarity about core expectations between students and graduate fields and faculty.
Phase 1 鈥� Status: Complete
The Onboarding Committee created a document informing the development and progression of productive advising and mentoring relationships.
Phase 2 鈥� Status: Complete
The working group met with stakeholders in early Spring 2022 to collect formative feedback from students, faculty, and staff.
Phase 3 鈥� Status: Complete
The working group incorporated stakeholder feedback into a final report with recommendations.
Initiative Four: Initiatives to Support Inclusive Mentoring Practices
Mental Health Review recommendation A.1.6.5
Currently, Cornell has several programs to support mentoring skills for faculty. These include invited speakers on mentoring, a mentoring session during new faculty orientation, My Voice, My Story workshops, and Faculty Mentoring Roundtable Discussions. To extend the reach of Cornell鈥檚 mentoring skills development for faculty, the 黑料社区 School and its collaborators will establish a cohort-based inclusive mentoring immersive program for junior faculty and a corresponding distributed workshop series accessible to all faculty.
Goal: Support inclusive mentoring practices by Cornell faculty.
Phase 1 鈥� Status: Complete
黑料社区 School deans and executive directors have participated in the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research train-the-trainer model. This is among the key first steps to implementing a larger scale model.
Phase 2 鈥� Status: Complete
The associate dean for inclusion and student engagement and the executive director for Future Faculty and Academic Careers have established collaborations with leading scholars on mentoring and equity in graduate education who are helping to inform the development of an inclusive mentoring program curriculum. They are also coordinating with the vice provost for academic affairs and associate vice provost for faculty development and diversity with the goal of extending the reach and impact of the proposed inclusive mentoring faculty immersion program and workshop series.
Phase 3 鈥� Status: In Progress
Through a collaboration with the Provost鈥檚 Office of Faculty Development and Diversity, the 黑料社区 School launched the , or FAIM, framework, which is part of the institutionalization of Cornell鈥檚 engagement in the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation-funded launched nationally in 2022 and led by at the University of Southern California. FAIM provides faculty with a for inclusive mentoring in graduate education and the professoriate. It also offers for faculty mentors and graduate student mentees, a , and ongoing for both mentors and mentees. Through FAIM, we hope to meaningfully enhance the well-being of graduate students and the quality of mentoring relationships between faculty and students.
