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Being Supportive and Getting Support: Suicide Prevention for Grad Students

“It will never get any better,” or “I can’t take it anymore”–sometimes phrases like these appear as posts on social media or comments in passing. Other times it’s behaviors such as being increasingly anxious, withdrawing from others, increasing drug/alcohol use, or expressing thoughts about wanting to die or feeling like a burden.

Combined together, these are signs that your peer, colleague, or loved one is experiencing intense emotional distress and could be at-risk for suicide. These verbal and behavioral cues are often a person’s invitation for support, and it is our job as a community to recognize these cues and get help.

It is estimated that 11% of college students seriously consider suicide annually, rendering suicide the second leading cause of death among college students nationally. And graduate students are at greater risk than undergraduates.

The good news? The vast majority of suicides are preventable and most people recover from suicidal thoughts.

If you notice the signs that a person might be in emotional distress, follow these steps:

Show you care. Express your concern for the person’s well-being. Say something like, “You mean a lot to me, and I want to help,” or “You really matter. I’d like to support you.”

Ask directly about suicide. Say something like, “Sometimes when people have lost interest in their work, are feeling hopeless, and are withdrawing from others, they’re thinking about suicide. Are you thinking about suicide?” Asking about suicide will not put the idea in someone’s head. It is perhaps the most critical step in suicide prevention.

Get support. If it is a UW student you are concerned about, call SafeCampus at 206.685.7233 (SAFE). If you are concerned about a non-UW student, call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1.800.273.8255 (TALK). This will route you to your local crisis center where the person in distress can receive a suicide risk assessment and will be connected to appropriate community resources. Encourage the person to call with you, but you can also call without him/her to seek expert advice on next steps. Please save both of these numbers in your cell phone! You never know when you might need them.

Restrict access to lethal means. Help to ensure that the person in distress does not have access to means that can be used in a suicide attempt, such as a firearm or large quantities of prescription medication.

If you are struggling with suicidal thoughts, there is help available!

You can call SafeCampus or head over to the Counseling Center or Hall Health. Both have walk-in crisis counselors available during business hours from M-F, and you can also receive ongoing treatment there. Importantly, there is no shame in having these thoughts.

Now Matters Now is a fantastic public resource where people who have experienced suicidal thoughts share their clinically proven coping strategies.

For more information on how UW is working to prevent suicide, please visit:
Forefront: Innovations in Suicide Prevention

This post’s guest author is Lauren Davis, Director of Higher Education and Senior Policy Analyst for Forefront: Innovations in Suicide Prevention (School of Social Work) and an MPA student at the Evans School of Public Affairs.

Cultivating Effective Writing Practices

We’re nearly halfway through the quarter, and we know you are all doing your best to manage and blend academic, interpersonal, and work responsibilities. We also know it can be difficult to find time for that seminar or research paper, or perhaps your capstone or thesis project. Below are some tips to get you on your way to writing. Incorporating these strategies into a regular routine takes time and practice—so be patient, be gentle with yourself, and most importantly, happy writing!

Free write.  For those of us who procrastinate, most of the time it’s because we have very high standards for ourselves. We inevitably end up writing papers at the last minute. One way to work through this anxiety is to free write. Journal or type out all of your ideas and don’t worry about grammar or cohesion. Your ultimate goal is to get words on a page. Try this for 15 minutes and use a timer. More often than not, you’ll glean ideas, arguments, or even a thesis statement.

Making time & making space.  What time of the day are you most productive? Set aside this time to write. Do you enjoy quiet, solitary spaces or bustling cafes? Being in the right environment is important to feeling comfortable and motivated. It’s all about recognizing both when you do your best work, and where you do your best work.

Set realistic goals.  It is rare to get a full day to work on writing, and most experts suggest that these large blocks of time are not actually your most generative. Instead, break up the process into manageable pieces. You may want to carve out 15 minutes each day to write and eventually work your way up to 1–2 hour blocks. Setting up a more realistic writing schedule will allow you to feel successful along the way. By doing a little each day, you will find that the project is always percolating in your mind. You may also have some breakthroughs when you least expect it. Plus, you get to celebrate your progress along the way!

Join a writing group.  Connect and coordinate a writing group with peers from your cohort, or with familiar colleagues from other graduate programs. You’ll find that even just sitting next to one another at a table can help you feel less isolated. Even if you are working on very different projects, you can hold each other accountable and cheer each other on.

Avoid distractions.  This is a difficult one. We live in an age where multi-tasking is the norm, yet this can often be a distraction to writing. Switch off wifi access on your laptop and phones. Once you set aside time to write, commit to it without accessing social media or your favorite websites. Avoid searching for more references (often a great time sink). Many of you are parents, so we understand that you need your mobile phone nearby to connect with partners, caretakers, or your children.

Get support.  The Odegaard Writing and Research Center (OWRC) recommends getting the support you need to complete your work. This includes scheduling a meeting with your professor to go over a draft or asking a peer who is a strong writer to help revise your work. You can also schedule tutoring appointments at your campus writing center, because they assist students at all degree levels. If your department has a writing center, we encourage you to seek out assistance and tutoring from those resources as well.

Conflicts with Advisor

What do you do when it becomes clear your graduate advisor will never let you graduate due to personal conflicts?     —Anonymous

Yeesh. I am so, so sorry. It’s clear from the tone of your question that you are not being dramatic or flippant. This is one of the worst case scenarios for a graduate student. But please be assured that you are not the first nor the only, and there are protocols and strategies in place just for this. First, it’s essential that you document your interactions and conflicts with your advisor. The Graduate School has Guidelines for Good Practice in Graduate Education. You need to be able to be able to point to the specific responsibilities that your advisor is failing to fulfill, rather than just claim a vague “My advisor has it in for me.” The first step is usually to talk directly to your advisor. If that doesn’t help, then usually you should go to your Graduate School Representative (GSR) and other committee members. Of course, all this depends on your situation and your relationships with these individuals. It also sounds like you are past this point?

In that case, you should start following the Graduate School’s Academic Grievance Policy. You attempt an “informal conciliation,” where you invite the director/chair or dean to conciliate the grievance with your advisor. If this discussion with your advisor and the facilitator does not resolve the grievance, you then request the Graduate School to assist in an informal resolution. An associate dean of the Graduate School then acts as conciliator, either directly or with the involvement of the Office of the Ombudsman. If you’re still dissatisfied with the informal conciliation, you can then file a formal complaint with the Graduate School. This is an involved process, outlined here. Please note that there are certain time limitations. I hope this doesn’t sound daunting. Such a process is in place for your protection, really. I truly hope it works out!

Kelly Edwards, associate dean for student and postdoctoral affairs in the Graduate School, has these tips for additional strategies and self-care while you go through this process:

Facing conflicts with your advisor is one of the hardest things you do in your academic career. I know from talking to many students that it can take an emotional toll as well as a professional one. Knowing how to manage yourself (the one thing you can control in the situation) can help you get through it. These are a few strategies that have helped some students in the past, which may be helpful to you:

  • Stay calm (hard to do!). While it is understandably frustrating/upsetting/infuriating, do things (yoga, walking, breathing, venting conversations with allies) to help calm you. It will be easier to do what you need to do when you are thinking more clearly, and calming your stress response helps you think.
  • Put the roadblock in perspective. It might feel like the end of the world, or the end of your academic career, but is it really? Talk to others about your situation. When necessary, have someone from the outside (the department chair, my office in the Grad School, your GSR) explore the conflict or current barrier with your advisor. It may not be what it seems, and there may be a way past it.
  • Know when to move on. There are times when a personal conflict presents too large a barrier to work through with the usual channels, and the emotional cost to you may not be worth it (the professional cost too—as deep conflicts with your advisor will not often yield positive letters of reference, etc). Even though it feels like a set-back (and it often does involve taking some extra time in the program), changing advisors, finding a new research team, identifying a new project is sometimes the best way forward.
  • Find allies. This is tough, and you shouldn’t do it alone. Find safe people to talk to, including those you can vent with (family, peers) and those who you can strategize with (other faculty, staff, and leaders).

Optional:

  • Be transparent and direct. It may not be safe to do this, in which case, take one of the other communication routes, but it can be helpful at times to just name what you perceive from your advisor. Stating this as descriptively and non-emotionally as possible is important. Something like: “Can I run something by you? I’ve been noticing a trend with my drafts and your feedback in that it seems you are really not happy with my work. Can we talk about what I can do differently that will help me move forward? I am really motivated to finish and I want to know what steps I can take to make that happen.” Document the conversation in an email to confirm what you have heard, and that becomes a learning contract of sorts for the two of you, which you can refer back to as needed.

Ask the Grad School Guru is an advice column for all y’all graduate and professional students. Real questions from real students, answered by real people. If the guru doesn’t know the answer, the guru will seek out experts all across campus to address the issue. (Please note: The guru is not a medical doctor, therapist, lawyer or academic advisor, and all advice offered here is for informational purposes only.) Submit a question for the column →

Preparing for Teaching Careers at Community Colleges

If teaching is your passion, it is well worth exploring a career working at a community college. Although community colleges can vary from one another, excellence in teaching and student-centered learning are always top priorities. Community colleges also offer an array of degrees and certificates, serving student populations that enrich and diversify the classroom. Because teaching is such a priority, it takes the right approach to be successful in getting a faculty position at a community college. It is also worth learning about, and applying to, different campuses to find the best organizational fit for you.  In the meantime, below are a few tips to consider when applying:

Preparing and Applying

Every community college has a unique mission statement and set of core values. Visit the college’s website to learn more about its institutional culture and courses offered. Contact faculty and set up informational interviews at the campus. Gain a sense of student experiences on campus by engaging students in conversation. Your goal is to learn as much as you can about the institution so you can tailor your application. More tips:

  • Read the faculty job posting carefully to know what is expected
  • Tailor your cover letter and highlight your enthusiasm for the college’s mission and student population stating why you want to work at that specific institution, your awareness of the college’s student learning needs, and your interest and experience in teaching
  • Submit a concise resume that showcases your teaching experience and de-emphasizes your research
  • Submit a well-crafted statement that describes your teaching philosophy

The Interview

Community college interview panels will have a standard set of questions. Set up a mock interview with a friend or peer and practice your responses to the following sample questions. You’re aiming for well-thought out responses that speak to your specific experiences with teaching and why you’re a great fit for the college. It also doesn’t hurt to contact the department and ask what you can expect during the interview. Sample interview questions:

  • Why do you want to teach at our college?
  • Give an example of a successful teaching experience you had in the classroom.
  • Talk about your greatest frustration in teaching and what you learned from this.
  • Tell us about your experience working or volunteering in diverse settings.
  • How do you assess student learning?
  • What departmental activities were you involved in during grad school or while you taught at another college?

Teaching Demo

During the interview, you will most likely be required to do a teaching demo for the hiring committee. Here are some suggestions to help you prepare:

  • Do an online search and look at course syllabi from the department you are applying to
  • Design a lesson with the college’s student population in mind and treat the demo as if you were teaching a real class
  • Start your lesson by describing the goals for the day and ask everyone to introduce themselves
  • Include activities that get committee members talking with each other
  • Use handouts as a teaching tool
  • Avoid lecturing and be relatable
  • Make sure your lesson highlights your teaching philosophy

Core Programs thanks our partners in the Seattle Colleges District for providing feedback on this newsletter:

Marty Logan, Human Resources Director, North Seattle College
Kate Krieg, Associate Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences Division, Seattle Central College

Additional Resources

Student Parents

I’m a single parent. Are there any resources available to me?      —Anonymous

First of all, congratulations! Kids are awesome. The Student Parent Resource Center provides resource and financial support, in the form of childcare assistance. You can also connect with other student parents. The center is located on the Seattle campus in Schmitz Hall. For Tacoma student parents, the UW Tacoma Childcare Assistance Program helps with childcare costs. (Unfortunately, Bothell currently doesn’t have any funds for childcare assistance.)

Ask the Grad School Guru is an advice column for all y’all graduate and professional students. Real questions from real students, answered by real people. If the guru doesn’t know the answer, the guru will seek out experts all across campus to address the issue. (Please note: The guru is not a medical doctor, therapist, lawyer or academic advisor, and all advice offered here is for informational purposes only.) Submit a question for the column →

It’s Never Too Early, or Late, to Get Started on Your Career Path

Welcome back!  We hope you made time for yourself to relax and enjoy the break. As you begin the Spring quarter, we know that many of you are thinking, “What next?!,” especially if you’re pursuing work outside of academia (note: For those of you who are interested in pursuing an academic career, we haven’t forgotten about you! Check out these resources.)  We assure you that it’s never too early—or late—to get started on planning your career path.

Here are some tips:

Research.  Conduct an online search about industries you’d like to work in. Take a look at these resources:  Exploring Options, Versatile PhD, or Ph.D. Career Guide.  Also, take your research offline and schedule informational interviews with professionals in fields that interest you.  From these one-on-one meetings, you’ll get a more accurate picture of specific job experiences and work environments.

Identify.  Know your strengths and transferable skills.  Highlight them in application materials and interviews. Earning a graduate degree means you can do a task to completion, meet multiple deadlines, display strong written and verbal communication skills, to name but a few.  More here:  Dependable Strengths, Ph.D. Transferrable Skills, and Transferrable Skills and Qualities.

Network.  Reach out to alums, join professional organizations and social media sites, or attend a campus or niche market career fair to make connections and market yourself as a strong and employable candidate.  A UW Career Center survey found that local employers usually recruit grads through networking referrals.

Practice.  Learning how to present yourself during job interviews takes practice, and one way to build confidence, learn what to expect, and effectively respond to different types of interview questions is to do mock interviews.  As with any actual interview, be prepared for your practice session by knowing the job description well, doing research about the company that’s hiring, tailoring your cover letter and resume, and brushing up on standard interview questions.  Here’s another set of commonly asked interview questions.

We recognize this is a lot of work and you already have a full plate.  As one alum said at a recent panel, treat looking for a job as a job.  If you set aside a little time each week, you can make progress over time.  By developing these habits now, you will set yourself up for success and work that is meaningful for you.

TA/RA Positions

Where may I look for available TA/RA positions for next quarter? Also, does working in a UW Library give any benefit as the ones received through TA/RA: Tuition waiver or graduate insurance? —Anonymous

Teaching assistants, research assistants and graduate staff assistants are hired directly by departments. If you are interested in a TA/RA/GSA position, contact the department in which you are interested directly for more information. Keep in mind that you can look for positions outside of your home department. Though most departments hire through their own student populations, other departments—particularly those that don’t have graduate students or administrative units that hire graduate staff assistants—will recruit widely for positions from relevant degree programs across campus. Every department runs its own hiring process and can let you know what it requires to be considered for such positions. Check the UW Employment site for TA/RA/GSA positions (category: Academic Student Employee).

The Graduate Funding Information Service is another resource and runs a blog for both UW and outside funding.

As for library positions, Erik Dahl, employment and payroll services manager of UW Libraries, says: “We generally have one or two salaried positions that are in academic student employee positions covered by the UAW contract and, thus, eligible for the tuition waiver or graduate insurance. Most of our student employee positions, however, are hourly positions that do not offer formal benefits beyond wages. Working in the libraries does offer the opportunity to learn more about our resources, programs, and services, which can be beneficial to employees’ academic work. Library positions also allow students to gain skills and work experience that, depending on career goals, may be directly related to their field or generally transferable. And of course (like any on-campus job) library positions are conveniently located and may offer tax benefits relative to off-campus work. Like other on-campus jobs, library positions usually find students working with staff and supervisors who are highly supportive and flexible when it comes to balancing work with their academic schedules and other demands.”

Good luck!

Ask the Grad School Guru is an advice column for all y’all graduate and professional students. Real questions from real students, answered by real people. If the guru doesn’t know the answer, the guru will seek out experts all across campus to address the issue. (Please note: The guru is not a medical doctor, therapist, lawyer or academic advisor, and all advice offered here is for informational purposes only.) Submit a question for the column →

Death and Taxes

Filing taxes seems more complicated than it should be, and there seems to be no help from the university, despite the fact that many graduate students have very similar tax situations. What’s the best way to file to maximize our return (where do we put student fees and union dues and all of the other things that we can claim to reduce our tax liability)? Are there good tax help resources available? —Anonymous

Why are taxes so complicated? Albert Einstein once said, “The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax.” Anyway, yes, the UW does provide tax help! Student Fiscal Services is holding general student tax workshops Thursdays, April 2 and 9, 1:30-2:30 p.m. They are also holding a workshop specifically for graduate/professional students on Wednesday, April 8, 2:30-3:30 p.m. and one for international students on Tuesday, April 7, 1:30-2:20 p.m. All workshops are held at UW Seattle, Odegaard 220. If you can’t make a workshop in person, you can download their presentation. Also, the Seattle Public Library offers one-on-one tax help at various branches. United Way offers help at a few additional sites. (You must have made less than $60,000 in 2014 to be eligible for their free help. Probably not a problem for grad students?) Good luck!

“Taxation with representation ain’t so hot either.” —Gerald Barzan, humorist 

Ask the Grad School Guru is an advice column for all y’all graduate and professional students. Real questions from real students, answered by real people. If the guru doesn’t know the answer, the guru will seek out experts all across campus to address the issue. (Please note: The guru is not a medical doctor, therapist, lawyer or academic advisor, and all advice offered here is for informational purposes only.) Submit a question for the column →

I Am Not Perfect, I Am a Whole Person

Do any of these sound familiar to you?

“My paper has to be perfect, before I submit it to my advisors. They’ll think I’m stupid otherwise.”
“I can’t lose my train of thought during my presentation.”
“I have to run the numbers many more times, before I start my report. If I don’t, my labmates will ridicule me.”
“I need to be on top of everything!“

As you complete your work this quarter, we know that perfectionism can be an obstacle to feeling like you’ve done your best. The culture of academia is good at promoting the notion that your work is always under the toughest scrutiny, leaving little room for error or work that may be rough around the edges.

For some, staying up all night to really nail the analysis can provide a tremendous sense of accomplishment. But repeatedly working at this super-productive pace ultimately comes at a cost to your emotional and physical health. For others, setting goals that are impossible to reach may lead to procrastination, avoidance and feeling not good enough.

For those coping with perfectionism, we see you and encourage you to shift your thinking so you can acknowledge yourself as a whole person. Intellectual and professional development are constant processes that require supportive feedback, self-revision and personal growth over time. Four thoughts below may give you something to try differently as you head into these last few weeks of the quarter:

Accept.  Perfectionism reduces you to the sum of what you can and can’t accomplish. The reality is you can’t do it all, and you can’t do it all perfectly. Be concrete and intentional in your goal setting each quarter, so you can do work that is manageable and meaningful to you. Adjust your goals as you go, to know what is really possible to accomplish now, this weekend, or this week.

Invite. Perfectionistic thinking distorts the way you perceive the quality of your work and can contribute to isolation. Instead of feeling like you have to buckle down and work harder, make time to ask peers, faculty advisors, and colleagues for help in clarifying ideas for that seminar paper or presentation. Framing something as a “work-in-progress” can take some pressure off. Knowledge production is a process, not a product. Nobody just “gets there” from sheer self-determination.

Ground.  Perfectionism can perpetuate obsessive thinking on school or work related projects. Intentionally spend time with friends, family, and community who know that you are more than just a graduate or professional student. Your community can help remind you that you are a partner, sibling, parent, friend, artist, dancer, gamer, hiker… the list goes on and on.

Enough.  Accepting “this is enough” means that you have done the best you could given the time, experience, and resources available, and it is time to be done. It also means you are enough, just as you are.

More resources:

Talk All Day

Where can I find a place which requires me to speak English all day long? I’m a foreign student, and I want to practice my English speaking. —Jinchang

Hello! Welcome to Seattle and UW! An organization that immediately comes to mind is the Foundation for International Understanding Through Students (FIUTS). They host a monthly lunch, weekly Conversation Groups, fun outings, volunteer opportunities and more. Please do check them out.

Another UW program is the Language Exchange Program, where you are matched with a native English speaker for conversation practice. The Seattle Public Library also holds Talk Time, an ESL conversation group, at several locations.

There are also several UW-programs meant as an intensive orientation to incoming students, but if you really think you would benefit from a short-term immersion, you should check out the following: Campus Intensive English Program, Downtown Intensive English Program, Advanced Conversation Course, Advanced Academic Preparation Skills.

In addition, there are many informal ways you can practice your English. You could join Toastmasters or join a MeetUp, or you could take up a volunteer opportunity on your own. If you need help locating a position, you can start with VolunteerMatch or United Way or this nice round-up of Seattle opportunities. Here’s some additional information about volunteering as a way to enrich your own language experience.

The Graduate School understands international students face unique challenges and also offer myriad contributions to our campus. If you’re interested, please see our International Students Report 2014, detailing international admissions and enrollment trends and how to best serve the needs of international students and the larger UW graduate community.

*Ask the Grad School Guru is an advice column for all y’all graduate and professional students. Real questions from real students, answered by real people. If the guru doesn’t know the answer, the guru will seek out experts all across campus to address the issue. (Please note: The guru is not a medical doctor, therapist, lawyer or academic advisor, and all advice offered here is for informational purposes only.) Submit a question for the column →