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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]This thread is in part bizarre, in part awesome. So great to read about the many meaningful relationships some of you have/had with your advisors. But bizarre how many people don't understand how academia works. Where do you think professors come from? They are commonly the ones who started working/socializing with professors as undergrads. Training a young person to become an academic is a decade or longer process, often starting in undergrad. Academia is about interaction, discussion, close collaboration. Sometimes in the lab, but often the best research advances are born over beers or dinners among a small group of people discussing an idea.

C[b]urious, do those of you clutching your pearls understand what professors actually do? Teaching undergraduates in classroom settings is about 10% of the job for those of us at research universities. Mentoring future academics is a substantially larger fraction of our job. [/b] [/quote]

When the "me too" movement finally hits academia hard you will get why this is so inappropriate. People abuse power all.the.time in academia-often white males, but now plenty of women too. The more you loosen boundaries and add alcohol, the worse it can get.[/quote]

Be careful what you ask for. Studies that show the benefits of an elite education for minorities and first gen college students attribute that to the social and networking opportunities available at those schools. The rich and connected kids that show up with those networks already in place won’t be the ones who are harmed. Can it be abused? Sure.  But if you institute a complete ban on all social interaction, you’re going to throw the baby out with the bath water.

In academia or elsewhere in the professional world, being able to interact with, socially and otherwise, others who may not be like you is essential to success.  There are geniuses who are so brilliant that their lack of social skills doesn’t matter, but they are few and far between. There is a reason that law firms take summer associates to lunch, and it isn’t just to give them a nice meal. [/quote]

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