Question about how to treat poor advising from outside colleague

[emprof]

One of our former grad students now work in our university library and holds the title of (depending on which university website you look at) either Assistant Professor (non-TT) or Research Specialist. He also adjuncts for us, and has an office in our department. I recently was advising a student on graduate applications, and learned that the student is currently taking a class with this colleague. The student believed this colleague was a tenure-track faculty member in our department, and was therefore relying on him as the student's main mentor for grad school advice and for a rec letter.

This colleague is a lovely person, and I'm sure the mixup as to his role in the department was entirely innocent. My real concern is that he gave the student inaccurate advice that could have tanked his applications, and I am concerned that he is not qualified to advise students in this situation. He is not active as a scholar, has never published, and his experience of academia is limited to our university. He has never been credentialed to work with graduate students, so has no experience of the other side of admissions and funding, or a larger perspective on application statements. This colleague also did not advise the student (as others in our department usually do) to seek out further mentoring or use the resources we provide to our students applying to graduate schools.

I'm really concerned that this colleague should not be mentoring students for graduate applications, but there's no clear mechanism for approaching the issue. For clinical and TT faculty we have all kinds of systems and committees in place for informing/educating on these issues to improve mentoring. But we don't have policies or shared governance language for adjuncts, in part because we didn't use them until 5 years ago when a slew of retirements left us with recurring scheduling crunches, and since then there has been very rapid leadership turnover. It's been identified as one of about a dozen pressing needs in the department, but with the pandemic everything has been triaged.

Is this something that should be addressed, or am I making a mountain out of a molehill?

[Hegemony]

Why not just talk it over with the colleague, and tell him the way things really work?  You never know when students might consult him about grad school, and I think it's expecting too much to ask him to sternly tell them he knows nothing and they should consult a real scholar. Just have a friendly chat and set him straight on the information.

[Puget]

I agree with Hegemony, but it's also worth considering that students are often not the most reliable narrators when it comes to what colleagues have told them. Sometimes they misunderstand, or misremember, or hear what they want to hear. So I would approach it by relating what the student said they said, without assuming it is what they actually said.

[Ruralguy]

With the knowledge of the rest of your department (and only with their approval), just inform the colleague of the procedures and policies in place.  In an informal way, also inform him that you appreciate the team effort in advising, but that it has to be done as a team. I'd let it go at that unless some sort of fuss is made or he continues to give poor advice.

[Caracal]

The problem is that it isn't like there is a formal position as main mentor for grad school applications. Usually, it is something that develops organically. In my case, I took a class with a professor, became very interested in his field, and  then  I ended up taking a grad class with him and he supervised my honors thesis. When I started thinking about grad school in his area of study, I talked to him about it and he ended up shepherding me through the process (after making sure I was aware of all the reasons why it was probably a bad idea).

As an adjunct, I have occasionally given general advice on grad school. I've never been asked to write a letter for a PHD program, although I have written one or two for masters programs. I would never act as someone's main advisor about grad school, but I also can't really imagine it would ever come up. A student who wants to go a phd program is almost always going to be working closely with a full time faculty member. I can imagine writing a third letter for someone, but you would obviously want your primary letters to be from someone who has worked with you on a thesis or something similar.

I just wonder if this is an issue with the student as well as with the adjunct.

[Aster]

I would probably not choose to get involved in other faculty's business over something this minor.

[fizzycist]

I would probably not choose to get involved in other faculty's business over something this minor.

I'm inclined to agree with this.

Though I suppose there is some advice that could be truly egregious and worth speaking up about ("just change the order of the authors and list yourself first on your CV", etc .)

OP, what exactly was this bad advice you refer to?

[Ruralguy]

Well, when I gave my advice I was taking the OPs words at face value, and thus assuming that the problem could be significant.

As Hegemony said, finding some way to set this faculty member  straight (I'd loop in the Chair ) without admonishing is probably best. Yeah, sure, he or she might get defensive, and if so, just explain the team approach and everyone has  to go by same rules, etc..

Of course, if the problem actually is minor, then forget it. But don't sweep it under the rug.

[Aster]

If I had a dollar for every time that I've seen or heard another professor give dubious advice about graduate school... it would almost balance with out with every time I've heard or seen another professor complain about how another professor advised students about graduate school.

I've seen every flavor of professor give terrible graduate school advice to students. It's certainly not limited to the young.

I'm sure that my own peers have complained that I give bad advice on occasion.

[Caracal]

As Hegemony said, finding some way to set this faculty member  straight (I'd loop in the Chair ) without admonishing is probably best. Yeah, sure, he or she might get defensive, and if so, just explain the team approach and everyone has  to go by same rules, etc..

Are there rules though? This isn't like faculty advising where the department has a clear interest in making sure that students are getting the correct information and you want to make sure there is a clear point person if some problem comes up. Advising someone on grad school is a pretty informal relationship. I agree that, in most cases, an adjunct faculty member shouldn't be the person in that role. I'm still confused on how that even happens, however. Somebody applying to grad schools should have worked closely with faculty in advanced classes.

[Vkw10]

We tried to develop some graduate school information for our department website several years ago. Opinions varied greatly, so we ended with one bit of advice and a very short list of resources. Our advice statement is: If you're thinking about graduate school, talk to several faculty members about it. The faculty attended different graduate schools, so each can offer a different perspective.

[Ruralguy]

Perhaps "norms" would be a better word than "rules," though I imagine some departments have clear cut rules. Also, the perspective will be very different for an R1 department that also has a grad program then say at a SLAC that only has undergrads.

One of our most trusted advisers for such things never publishes (I'm at a so-so SLAC so you can get away with that after tenure if you don't care about promotion, named chairs, research awards, etc.).  Most of his students get in somewhere and the vast bulk graduate from their programs and get decent jobs doing something related to the field. I think where he tends to go wrong is putting way too much faith in weak students. Some of them have gotten into a grad program (I have no idea how) , but they tend to wash out, or never get a job.

[jerseyjay]

The student believed this colleague was a tenure-track faculty member in our department, and was therefore relying on him as the student's main mentor for grad school advice and for a rec letter.

"Main mentor for grad school advice" seems sort of like main mentor for dating advice. I mean, there are some a few straightforward rules for applying to grad school (get the applications in on time, make sure the application fee check doesn't bounce) and a bunch of advice that is pretty subjective (apply for top schools, don't go if you don't get fully-funded, don't go to grad school in English literature or US history). Of course, faculty-advisor in grad school is something different, but that is a formal relationship at a specific school.

I am not sure whether it would be a bad idea to get a letter from this person, but it does not seem wrong on the face of it.

When I was an adjunct or VAP (in history, at a non-research state university), several students asked me for grad school advice and for letters. My usual advice was to not go to grad school in history because, well I had gone to grad school and look how it had worked out for me. Usually these students would find a full-time professor to write a letter and encourage them to go on and study history. I am not sure which was better advice, but both reflected different experiences.

Now that I am on the tenure track, my advice is still to not go to grad school in history. I also tell students that the work they do at our university as an undergrad is much less than the work they will be expected to do as a grad student. Many of my colleagues--who did not spend 15 years on the adjunct/VAP circuit and have not taught at more elite undergraduate programs-- give much more optimistic advice.

[larryc]

Every department has its Professor Sparklepony, who tells all the students they are geniuses and they should get a PhD and follow their dreams.

This is often the most popular professor in the department.

[Aster]

Every department has its Professor Sparklepony, who tells all the students they are geniuses and they should get a PhD and follow their dreams.

This is often the most popular professor in the department.

with Students. THIS. Definitely. Ha ha.