December 20, 2016, by Lisa Chin
PGRs – Thank you for being there
This post is written by Dr Svenja Hanson, Associate Professor from the Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering.
Dr Svenja Hanson
A shout out to PGRs, and an apology if you have only ever have heard from me – and most of my colleagues – when you were allocate to help us teach. No, we don’t think you are expendable, cheap labour. But we are probably all at one time or another guilty of taking you for granted.
So, for all the times I have only thought it but not said it: Thank you! Thank you for being in the examples class when 5 groups of freshers have questions at the same time, thank you for being in the lab session and actually knowing how the equipment works, thank you for sitting through countless presentations with me and making sure my marks aren’t getting meaner and meaner as time goes on, thank you for looking through my marked scripts and making sure I didn’t overlook anything or add up the marks wrongly, thank you for coming on the industrial or field trip and making sure I bring all the undergraduates I left with back to campus unharmed. Thank you. You should hear those words more often from the academic staff you assist. Your help is valued and important to us.
PGRs have always, as long as I can remember back, been an important part of every department, school and faculty. To a large extent you are the glue that holds us together, reminding us of research when we are in full swing mid-semester teaching mode, and bridging the age gap between us and the undergraduates (who seem to be getting younger every year).
I remember being a PhD student and later post-doc, and I was lucky to have a sizeable research group which gave me some sort of sense of belonging. But I was still never quite sure how I fitted into the university structure. In some respects you were staff, but not allowed into staff meetings or on committees (I now, of course, realise that was a treat, not a punishment), in other respects a student, but without the power of the undergraduate masses dominating the student union. To any PGR who feels that way, don’t. Being neither is your strength as it makes you the link holding departments and schools together. Having one foot in each camp, so to say, makes you an arbitrator, somebody young undergraduates feel more comfortable opening up to than crusty academics, and somebody who can help people old enough to be their parents or grandparents understand the latest generation of youngsters.
You are valued as a vital part of academic life. Please remember that next time you feel unappreciated because we, the senior academics, are rubbish at saying ‘thank you’.
Great article good thoughts thanks for sharing …..