In the 2019-2020 report from the Graduate Ombuds, the challenges students face are changing and growing more complex.
Bruce Taylor, Ph.D., serves as the Graduate Student Ombuds. In his report to the Graduate School, Taylor noted that the per student time spent in consultation increased slightly over the previous year owing to increased complexity of consultations. He said the more complex situations involve interpersonal challenges among students or between a student and a faculty member. This type of situation represents 44 percent of the cases in the past year.
“The COVID-19 pandemic brought some new concerns—access to campus services and labs, changing expectations for graduate assistantships and changes to the content and format of dissertations,” Taylor said. “However, many of the concerns continued to center around relationships with faculty mentors and programs.”
A summary of the Ombuds Report is available for download.
