Policy Brief: Departmental Policies to Improve Mentorship for Graduate Students

The relationship between an advisor and student is one of the most important factors in predicting graduate student outcomes, yet the vast majority of faculty never participate in formal mentorship training. Furthermore, few mechanisms of accountability exist to assess the quality of mentorship that graduate students receive. Departmental leadership must take responsibility for graduate student success by enacting policies and structures to ensure all students receive effective and equitable mentorship. I recommend that departments reward effective mentorship in performance evaluations and hiring, tenure, and promotion decisions. Providing incentives to develop mentorship competencies will catalyze faculty adoption of recommended best practices.

Graduate Student-Athletes: An Examination of Identity Roles and Transition

Increasingly, student athletes are enrolling in graduate programs with remaining athletic eligibility. From identity role conflict and transition theory approaches, this study examines how graduate student athletes develop by negotiating their identities as both graduate students and as athletes. Implications for collegiate administrators, coaches, and faculty who seek to support graduate student success and transition out of sport are discussed.

Institutional Strategies to Enhance Graduate Student Success Through Mentoring

High-quality mentoring is a vital component of graduate education that leads to degree completion. For many students and faculty members, the traditional model of mentorship based on a fixed hierarchy is no longer viable because of the increasing complexity of higher education, diversification of graduate student career paths, and responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. For the success of our students and graduate programs, it is essential that kinesiology leaders place renewed effort on supporting the mentoring relationship through departmental strategies. Effective mentoring can assist students in feeling competent, autonomous, and connected with others. The purpose of this paper is to explore the three components of a contemporary model of mentorship—transparent socialization, mutually shared expectations, and the student as a whole individual.

Repackaging library workshops into disciplinary bootcamps: Creating graduate student success

Academic libraries typically offer short, stand-alone workshops focused on specific topics. These might be 60- to 120-minute sessions on topics such as an introduction to citation management software, text analysis, 3-D printing, or systematic reviews, and are predominantly offered throughout the fall and spring semesters.

Library roles in advancing graduate peer-tutor agency and integrated academic literacies

Purpose This paper aims to apply integrated academic literacies and threshold concepts constructs to the development of graduate student literacies. Western Washington University has developed a graduate peer-tutors program to advance integrated academic literacies and graduate student agency. Graduate peer-tutors are expert-outsiders (Nowacek and Hughes, 2015): expert in conversations about literacies and outsiders to disciplinary expertise. Peer-tutors augment a support ecosystem that includes faculty advisors, subject librarians and others. Libraries should lead innovative programs to develop integrated literacies, and librarians should leverage both subject and literacies expertise as part of an ecosystem of support. Design/methodology/approach Drawing on library, writing center and higher education scholarship, the author draws on research methodologies from writing center scholarship to explore models for integrated graduate student literacies. The author collaborates with graduate peer-tutors to connect theory and practice in the Graduate Research & Writing Studio (GRWS). Findings Peer-tutor models offer a valuable layer of support for graduate students engaged in thesis-writing. Peer-tutors, faculty advisors and subject librarians play important roles in advancing development of integrated literacies. The role of peer-tutors is unique in advancing integrated literacies, and addressing affective barriers and equity concerns. Practical implications Economic pressures have transformed higher education, ushering new populations into graduate programs. Opportunities to enhance inclusivity cannot be realized without support for development of literacies. Libraries should lead with innovative services that address barriers to graduate student success. Originality/value The author leverages the unique laboratory offered by the GRWS and engages graduate peer-tutors in connecting scholarship and practice. Drawing on contemporary theoretical lenses on literacies, she argues for libraries’ leadership of programs that support integrated graduate student literacies.