WIAS PhD Group
Apes together strong.
Since elections are coming up, here's our limited account of what kind of responsibilities fall to the PhD representatives at the institutes.
This is simply our account so far over the past two years and heavily influenced by the preludes to the audit 2024. You are your own person and your environment will be different from ours, so you may also have a different experience and decide to do things differently!
First, let's give you a short list of the concrete tasks that need to be taken care of by the PhD representative team:
Keep the PhD seminar alive
hunt for contributions
regularly reserve a room and be somewhat familiar with the tech setup
Take care of the PhD website
there are instructions
you don't have to do this alone!
Include and foster connections between the PhDs
keep the PhD lunch (or something similar) going
try to put together the occasional get-together outside of a work context (these are usually well-received!)
Keep up to date with the mail alias
also welcome new PhDs with an email (yes, there is a template)
Involve yourself in the institute's politics when it makes sense
Take part in Leibniz PhD Network activities that make sense to you
Don't take on too much! You need time for yourself, too!
Now let's get to some details!
Keep the PhD seminar alive
The seminar is something we've been able to keep up for some time now. It's one of the few places people from different groups actually come together regularly to even get a bird's eye view of what other people at the institute are up to.
We think it's a great thing to have because there are otherwise few opportunities to present anything in a safer space of peers who know exactly how clueless and insecure one can feel about some aspects of the work they do.
The representatives should try and make sure that we have enough contributions to run the seminar at least with some degree of continuity. We typically are up to around 40 PhDs at the institute at any point in time. That should be plenty to fill up the schedule. Some people may just need a little push sometimes 😇
Take care of the PhD website
This one's a routine thing. There are detailed instructions on how to update parts of the website and how to publish them so it will not be too hard to pick that up.
In the meantime, you will definitely be eased into it. Just give Daniel the update and he'll have it online soon after!
Include and foster connections between the PhDs
The seminar is already a nice opportunity for people to exchange knowledge and connect a little. But it will often feel a little rigid and more like a mathematical seminar. Which is fine.
But sometimes people just need a more relaxed setting to talk freely and explore ideas, find interesting connections, just have fun together or commiserate. That's why we go out for lunch together regularly and also try to organize more informal get-togethers to just hang out sometimes. Things have slowed down on that front lately. Maybe you can bring some much needed new energy into this? ⚡
Keep up to date with the mail alias
From an official perspective, the "representative" part means that whenever some institute politics requires some kind of involvement or consultation with the "status group PhDs", your team will be contacted first. Typically via the mail alias.
This means we are supposed to check these emails. They may contain all manner of things: requests on input for some official documents or presentations (very rarely), questions or requests from fellow PhDs about general things or personal problems (a little less rarely) or mails from other student organizations and networks about get-togethers, seminars or general information (even less rarely).
While not via this specific alias, the representatives also welcome new PhD students to the institute with an initial shower of information and regularly send official statements and info around.
Involve yourself in the institute's politics when it makes sense
This one is a little longer, but it's kind of important, so strap in.
You should keep tabs on different goings-on at the institute's organizational level. You don't have to know everything, but especially over the last two years, there have been things such as the employee survey, the audit or the evaluation. Representatives should be aware of what these kinds of things are and how they work because they play an important role for the PhD community as a whole.
Don't be scared by a bunch of dry documents and boring procedures. Most of this specifically is almost over anyway and you're going to be filled in and supported by your predecessors as well!
But in general, for these and similar processes, you both need to serve as a focal point to voice questions and concerns that have been brought up by your fellow PhDs regarding those kinds of institute politics. You are supposed to be there so the directorate and whoever else doesn't need to tour all the buildings asking all PhDs individually about their opinion on whatever is going on. But you're also there to remind the directorate of the needs and wants of the PhDs as a group.
For instance, in the aftermath of the employee survey, these lunch talks were scheduled (some of you may recall) to interview the "status groups" as a whole and ask them about more details on their concerns and how to improve the situation at the WIAS. Representatives should simply know what the heck is going on right now, what has happened so far and help start and keep such a conversation going. You listen to people's concerns during lunch breaks, when you have coffee or in small talk whenever PhDs come together. Make some notes and think about clarifying questions. This is so you can act as a mouthpiece and remind everyone of what they have said before and maybe speak for those who are too shy to do it themselves. You can't just rely on everyone sending you an email with their thoughts on some issue (though you will likely get some if you announce it).
Usually, when you start conversations like these, you break the ice and everyone continues fine on their own. Your job is to get the ball rolling on different topics and make sure that whatever is mentioned is not just simply forgotten by everyone (especially the directorate).
You can always vary your style, perhaps even call for official assemblies of the PhDs or coax people out with a fun activity to update your knowledge base of questions and concerns in an informal setting.
However, we expect that this kind of stuff will not happen particularly frequently once the evaluation has concluded. It's likely much smoother sailing from then on (unless you'd like to push for some issues yourself!).
Why is this important, though?
Because we can't rely on everyone being on top of all the important organizational stuff at the institute all the time. We are all super busy so we need a couple of people who are at least somewhat aware and can help the PhD community develop a coherent set of needs and wants and communicate them to those responsible for making improvements.
Without a little preparation and guidance, it would have been even harder to have a conversation about and try to ameliorate issues surrounding:
incoherent PhD contract lengths
problems faced by new students from abroad and lack of institutional support
harassment and discrimination in the workplace
challenges posed by mental health issues
complete absence of career development opportunities
lack of leadership training for group leaders and advisors.
If no one is there to structure, record and carry the results of such conversations to the right people, nothing gets done after all.
Take part in Leibniz PhD Network activities that make sense to you
The PhD Network is a community of PhD students across all the Leibniz institutes. It serves very similar functions as PhD representatives serve locally – but in a Germany-wide capacity.
It is open to all PhDs at Leibniz institutes and serves to represent the interests of PhD students as a whole towards the administration of the Leibniz Association. For you as representatives, they also serve as a resource: they have more infos and guidelines about the role of PhD representatives from their view. They also regularly form working groups every PhD student can take a part in.
A valuable resource they provide is the PhD group survey which can be used to gain some general insights about the circumstances of PhD students all across the Leibniz Association. It also provides some usefully quotable statistics. The PhD Network also routinely comes together in a general assembly.
Don't take on too much! You need time for yourself, too!
You can decide on how proactively you want to act in your role as representative. Don't forget that you may want to graduate at some point as well. And that you have a life outside of work!
It's already very helpful to have this role filled by two people and we think that is kind of a minimum. But you don't have to do everything alone. Even when you're two, there are sometimes busier times and stuff that needs more regular care. Try and delegate some tasks to other volunteers! We know it's not easy, but the whole thing is a team effort. We are a big group. That is a resource we can draw from!
We don't try to sugarcoat that there is some work involved, but it can be very rewarding to help other people empower themselves! So that they can stand up for their needs, exchange knowledge and laughs with one another and just plain have a good time! 😁
Scholar Minds is a group of PhD students at the Charité Berlin and the Humboldt University sharing information and organizing events on mental health awareness.
It deserves mentioning that the Leibniz PhD Network has also instituted working groups on similar topics and are always looking for interested students to lend a hand with their work! The Survey Working Group has also been gathering and analyzing data regarding the topic of mental health among PhD students (see ch.10).
