Accountability in Academic Research and Mentoring

During the November Senate meeting, the Purdue Graduate Student Government (PGSG) passed a resolution endorsing the FAARM Project.

The FAARM (Framework for Accountability in Academic Research and Mentoring) Project is a graduate-student led effort to improve the quality of mentoring relationships. Research has shown that the quality of a graduate student’s relationship with their advisor is a crucial component of academic success, both during and after graduate school. Perhaps more importantly, the student-advisor relationship also has a significant impact on graduate student’s mental health. The FAARM Project seeks to understand what mentoring best practices look like through a series of mechanisms at both research institutions and at the federal research funding agencies. 

PGSG joins over a dozen other graduate student governments and the National Association of Graduate and Professional Students in endorsing the FAARM Project and its platform. PGSG’s resolution highlights that the same issues of graduate students’ mental health and mentoring relationships that are of concern to graduate students around the country are also important to us at Purdue. Addressing mental health is one of PGSG’s strategic priorities for the year. Recent survey data shows that approximately 20% of Purdue’s graduate students experience symptoms of depression and anxiety at least every other day. 44% of graduate students report that emotional health problems have posed at least a moderate obstacle to their degree progress. Mentoring and advising relationships are other obstacles to degree progress impacting graduate students.

In PGSG’s capacity to advocate for the well-being and success of Purdue’s graduate student population, we are pleased to support the FAARM Project.

By Rebecca-Eli Long, PGSG Legislative Affairs Officer