International PhD Student Encountering Advisor Abuse

You are listening to The Academic Verdict, the official podcast of academicabuse.com. This is Julie Cruse, and I'll be giving you the latest headlines of academic abuse from the trenches of higher education. Let's get on with the dispatch. Hello, everyone, and thank you for joining the Academic Verdict podcast. Today we have our guest, Gabby, who is going to be telling us about a situation that is ongoing in her case.

Would you like to start by introducing yourself?

Yes. Thank you very much for inviting me. I am an international student who came to The United States for my PhD. I obtained my first degree in my country, a Master of Science degree. I joined this university in 2022.

I have three years here, and unfortunately I have a situation with my PhD advisor.

Uh-huh. PhD advisors, they can be tricky. I had one in my master's degree, I understand. What's happening with your PhD advisor?

Well, everything started when I hear some comments from my advisor in the lab. He starts saying, for example, when I was doing experiments that, Oh, you are doing these experiments for the lab. Very early, I joined to the university in 2022 and the following year in 2023 he started saying, Please give these experiments to another student and which I did. And after a few months, again he asked me, You have to give these experiments to another student. And I was worried because collaboration is when all the lab members, I don't know, as I give experiments, they should give me also experiments to me, right?

That it will be like a true collaboration. But I was the only one who was doing that, and I believe that is how the problem started.

So it sounds like there might've been an equity issue. Yeah, exactly. Okay. Okay. So then, how did this situation progress?

Are you currently in a situation where you're not getting collaborative experiments from your peers in the lab and your advisor is not encouraging that to happen. So, say more about what that's doing for you.

Well, so the problem is that the second time that he asked me to provide these important experiments to another student, is because these experiments were designed for my own thesis. Oh, and that is affecting me a lot, right? Because, and then I asked him, I sent him an email and I said, okay, how are you using this work for the other student now? I already collaborate. I gave experiments to him.

And the second time it is what I am giving to the other student is part of my own research proposal and for my thesis. And he want to answer the question. Oh, Yes. He didn't reply, no, no, no, don't worry. Everything is fine.

Don't worry. But of course that I was worried. And then he started doing other things that were, I mean, he started saying that, no, you are paranoid or something like that. And they accused me about this until he decided to give up my project and to start a new one.

Wow. Oh my. Essentially, he's saying give up your dissertation project and do a new because I want to give your dissertation project to other students in the lab and probably take credit for it.

Exactly. It's exactly Oh what

boy. Well, okay. So this question I think you've kind of already touched on, but I was going to ask, when did you recognize that what was occurring indicated that an abuse was taking place?

Yes. Well, think it was after, because I passed my research proposal, my defense, I think, and then I started noticing that he was using part of this work with the other student. Then I think it was this year on May, around May, and then, I think it was this year.

Wow. Okay. Wow.

So,

yeah. And so, I am curious, how do you feel that this is affecting your trajectory for graduation?

Well, it's affecting me a lot because I have been already working in this project three years and of course that I didn't accept that. So I said, No, I cannot give up my project at all. And then I went through the, as most of the students do, started asking for help, right? From the dean to the graduate school to the ethics office and everybody. Evidently, everybody's helping my advisor and not me.

Yeah. So frustrating. So frustrating. I know that feeling. So it sounds like initially you went through the internal channels of the university going systemically up the chain of command.

Exactly.

Yeah. And you find, okay, so there's a bunch of brick walls, basically. They're not helping you. They're not responding to you. Did you feel like in any case, did they actually, in some cases, not respond to you?

Well, what they are trying to do is to avoid talking about the situation. I believe that the word has been already used in some way. So they don't want to talk about it and they offer me to find another advisor. That is the only solution that I have. Anyway, I will have to start a new project.

And of course, I disagree with that.

Wow. Yeah. That's kind of too little too late really. And that would've maybe three years ago, that would've been viable.

Exactly. And after three years, I know.

Yeah. And did you take any of your research? Did any of your research from your master's carry over or was this new research?

It's new research.

Okay. At the very least, you're only out three years and not more at the very

least, which is not good. No, not Okay.

You definitely have gone through the internal channels in terms of maybe informally or kind of like, I don't want say informally, but formally going up the chain of command. But did you at any point in time file like an official complaint with HR or any of the other kind of complaint departments within the university?

Yes, yes. I finally submit a complaint to the provost, which was the last thing I did because I mean, what else can I do? And the response was the same thing, right? So you can go with another advisor, but the work that you already did belongs to your advisor. What?

Which I don't think is true.

So they're not routing you through the channels for basically intellectual property theft. They're not recognizing a violation of university policy.

Exactly. Wow. So that's why I decided that there is no help within the university. Then I decided to look for help outside of the university.

Was your PhD advisor paying you to do your research or were you just self funded in your PhD program?

Hey, the problem is that I am a teaching assistant and I am an employee, yes. Then I believe that is the reason why they say that the research belongs to the university.

Gotcha. Yeah, they can do that. I think it sounds to me like what's happened here is a failure to be transparent about that upfront with you being an international student. This is something I talk about. I have a blog on academicabuse.com that talks about intellectual property theft in higher education, and one of the things that I recommend is setting out with a clear memorandum of understanding, or they call those MOUs, or just an agreement in place that says, Hey, this part of what you're doing will belong to the university.

This part of what you're doing will belong to you. I think the unfortunate thing here is no one did that for you.

Exactly.

No one did that for you, and in fact, from what it sounds like, was very underhanded. Just like pass your research to someone else and we're not going to tell you why. Exactly. And then accusing you of being paranoid afterward when you probably had every reason to be. Wow.

Interesting. Okay. So now you're at the point of escalating the complaint and you're going to, at this point, mechanisms outside the university.

Yes. Well, I heard about the OCR and then I just But the problem here is that they may take a lot of time for finding a solution for this problem. I believe that that is the major problem, that it may take months or years to hear from them.

Yeah, and I think that does depend on the state where you reside, and we don't have to disclose what state you reside in. But that does depend. I've been through OCR in the past and it was months. It was months, but it was months at least. It wasn't years, so I was lucky in that case.

Where does this Okay. I'm curious now because you've made a complaint. Have you noticed any change in behavior towards you since your complaint?

Yes, of course. I mean, I tried to ask for help to the director of the school and she's not giving me options about anything because I found another advisor within another department who was willing to say, we can continue with your research, with your project because in fact, what I wrote in my research proposal are my ideas. Then what I was saying, if these are my ideas, I have the right to develop this part of my project, right? Just to continue with my project. And she said, yes, no problem.

You can join to my lab. But the problem is that the director says, Yes, but this is in another department, a different department, and then you can do that. The only thing that you can do is to find an advisor in our department and to start a new project. That is the solution that she has and nobody wants to talk about the issue anymore from this account.

They're basically saying, If you want to graduate with this degree, you have to find an advisor within our department. It sounds like you must have found it difficult because you had to go outside the department. Were there any faculty in the department that were willing to work with you?

Well, so there is one that he's thinking about it, but the problem is that it's completely a different topic, which means that I will have to defend the proposal again, even though I pass and everything. So that is frankly, it doesn't make sense for me. It doesn't make sense

I'm for dumbfounded by this because when I'm thinking about it, the problem is you started out with your dissertation idea. You were pursuing this idea for three years and no one told you that they were going to keep it. This is going to delay you, isn't it?

Exactly, yeah, of course, yeah. Yeah.

So, and now there have to be like confidence issues. Like how can you know when you do get a new advisor in that department if they will do the same thing to you? There's so many people that go through things like this. And I wanted to ask you, in your opinion, what do you think that institutions could be doing better in a scenario such as yours? What would have avoided all of this, prevented it?

How should they have handled it after it happened?

Well, think that the most important thing is that PhD advisor really needs to understand ethics. I believe that this is not problem in this university. I have heard, as you, several cases all over the world. And now it's like a tradition, right? So the professors can basically do whatever they want.

And as long as the universities allows this, it will never change. I mean, the universities has a lot of offices and I ask for help for the ethics office, for the deans and many, and I don't understand what is the, I mean, they don't do anything, I don't understand what is their function in this case, right? If they are not doing anything because the ethics, the policies are there, so the only thing that they have to do is to follow the rules, but they don't follow their own rules, so mean, the only problem is like they have to do it.

It's almost like the policies are just window dressing. Like they're there to decorate the university, but not to actually do anything within the university.

So, what is the point to have them read if they don't?

Managing their image. Yeah. Well, and then the way that plays out is if say this were to go public, which I'm not suggesting that that would be the best way to go about it, but let's just say hypothetically it did go public, If the university saw that, then they could say, Well, we have a strict policy against intellectual property theft, and then they would show the policy that would say, Oh, see, we're against this, but that's typically all the policy is there for, just to say that it exists and that they have a stance on it, but does it actually

Yes, yes. Believe that is an issue. Is these things happen all the time, but nobody is doing anything. I mean, they protect professors, as long as they do it.

Yeah. That power differential can make or break a student's career trajectory. Yeah. So speaking of students, for others out there who are currently navigating similar situations, what advice would you give them?

Well, believe that something that can help my case is document everything because I started seeing what my advisor was doing and then I started documented my work in detail in different ways, in different ways. I mean, I have notebooks and I have, I mean, summaries and documents on my computer, but I also found a website which is the OSF, I think, and I start uploading my work just to have a time to know when I did this experiment so and then. Okay. So that I can demonstrate that these experiments are mine.

Understood. Yeah, and there is a benefit to doing both paper and digital documentation. Because paper, notebooks, as you say, would function as conciliatory notes in a in a court situation. Oh, okay. Yeah.

Conciliatory notes have a lot of power. That's like your, you know, sort of basically your journal of what's been going on.

Okay.

Yeah. And and adding, like, your thoughts about how it's affecting you, how it's affecting your career trajectory, what it's gonna do financially to you in the long run. Are things. Also, getting, if it's accessible to you, in with therapy to discuss with a professional how this is impacting your mental health so that if needed, you can show damages down the road.

Exactly. And it is. It impacts us a lot, right? Not only in this stage and where I am now, but when you start seeing this with your advisor, it's a person you trust. Mean, there should be trust between an advisor and a student because, otherwise, how can you work?

Right? Yeah. Yeah. So trust is very important, so that is important for mental health and also. Right?

Mhmm.

Absolutely. Well, we are about out of time today, so I want to thank you so much, Gabby, for sharing your story with everyone. And thank you for your advice about what institutions could do better and what those who are navigating institutions can do in situations such as yours. Are there any other final thoughts you'd like to share?

Oh, no. I mean, I'm glad that you have a website like this so many people can share their stories and to find a way to go through this, right, and to find a solution, probably it will help a lot.

Yeah. Thank you so much, and I'm glad it's helping. Okay. Everyone, thank you for listening. This is The Academic Verdict.

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