What should I do if my advisor is forcing me to vote on a specific candidate in IEEE elections?

Question

The IEEE holds yearly elections for senior positions in its societies. Every member of the IEEE has the right to vote in these elections, including me. My advisor, however, has candidates who, for one reason or the other, he supports and wants to get elected.

The issue is that he is forcing all of his students to vote for his candidates. Voting is done online. He even asks his Assistant Professor to personally stand next to the students and watch them vote on the specified candidates.

This makes me extremely uncomfortable, as I find it morally incorrect. However, my professor is in a position of power over the students and I am afraid of standing against him and losing my graduate course and scholarship.

Has anyone gone through something similar? What should I do?

Answer 1

Allow me to hypothesize a different tack from most of the other answers: Simply don't engage in this issue at all. As my mentor said once, "You constantly get institutional demands for some action, in some cases it's best to ignore them, and you'll find that many just go away."

This request is so incredibly unethical, and also so completely orthogonal to your responsibilities as a graduate student, that it's hard for me to imagine your advisor spending time on tracking you down and taking revenge over it. If you think you might receive more pressure later on (e.g., I've sadly cracked under such circumstances), go ahead and cast the online vote in the privacy of your own home, and then later on say, "Oh sorry, I got a notification and cast the vote immediately."

The request is so inflammatory that I don't see any use to "politely having an open discussion with your advisor". I think that only opens the door for defensiveness and retaliation. As wildly unacceptable as it is, I don't see it as being a good use of your time tracking down where to lodge a complaint over this matter (which your advisor seems canny enough to avoid documenting except verbally, so it would be just your word against his, according to comments above).

At least consider the null action as a possibility.

Answer 2

This is extremely unethical. Do you have any proof of what he asked for ? If he can't check for who you did vote, there is no problem for you (but the moral problem is still here), you might just say you did it alone, without the Assistant Professor. (You do it, then that's it.)

The ethical way would be to inform your university. But that is really dangerous. You might want to wait until the end of your graduate program. It is hard to find a good way to solve this problem without harming you.

In your position, I would certainly tell the teacher that I don't want to do it without a good reason and the certitude that is a good choice, but if you're not confident you can't handle the consequences, don't do it.

Answer 3

It would be even more powerful to inform the IEEE (if the OP can muster the proof that this coercion is going on). But, unfair as it is, it will probably damage the OP's career irreparably. Utterly despicable - I heard such stuff only from hearsay (or from infamous examples in 20th century history). Collect evidence if you can, and, at some point in the future you may be in the position to dispense justice.

Answer 4

After forwarding a link to this posting to the IEEE Elections Committee, I received the reply below:

Thank you for the reference. We had concerns of this sort presented to us in the past and we are aware of this issue. We are working on a reporting mechanism of such infractions but, as you can imagine, it is not straightforward.

If you have answering privileges on the site where the question was posted, I would be grateful if you directed the student to write to me (Moshe Kam, Chair of IEEE Election Oversight Committee, [email protected]). The intricate requirements of the site where the question was posed necessitate that I gain "reputation points" first before I can answer the student directly. I am a member of the site (under my name, Moshe Kam) but can't get to the person who posed the question.

Regards,

Moshe Kam, Ph.D., P.E.

Dean, Newark College of Engineering

New Jersey Institute of Technology

University Heights, Newark, NJ 07102-1982

Email: [email protected]

Alternate Email: [email protected]

Answer 5

First I would suggest against complaining too loudly against your adviser in public. When bad things happen they flow downhill and you don't want to be a target.

Second, don't "tell the university" whatever that means. What you want to do is find a specific person at the university called the ombudsman. His or her job is to act as advocate for students in weird situations and also deal with administration issues. If you prefer to be completely silent and comply then that is probably also a correct choice. But if you want to change the situation, the ombudsman is the person in the university that can be most directly said to be working for the students. I would take his advice, whether to be silent or to stand up seriously because he knows not only the theoretical best thing to do but also the history of the campus you are at, and in your case, unfortunately, "whether it will work" is tied heavily into "whether you will receive fallout".

Answer 6

Walk, don't run, away. What your advisor is doing is obviously ridiculously unethical, especially considering how inconsequential the election is. Unfortunately, I would caution you against switching advisors without first ensuring that you'll have a safe landing. Honestly, it is worth putting up with something as petty and dishonest as this voting scheme in order to secure your degree and future career; academia really is that competitive. You should switch advisors; someone willing to act that unethical on something that trivial would presumably be willing to do worse on things that do matter. Just make sure that you don't do so hastily or without protecting your own career.

Answer 7

Let's start from the bottom line. Regardless of anything else, don't vote for his/her candidates. If push comes to shove, remember you're an academic and an IEEE member and you have a moral responsibility to your community which comes before spoiling your relations with your advisor or even your personall career advisement. Unless you are blackmailed with threats of physical violence, obliging your advisor on this is completely intolerable morally.

Now let me make some suggestions you might consider regarding how to fend off this forced drowning in the sea of turpitude.

• Talk about this with your fellow slaves, umm, I mean, Ph.D. candidates of that advisor. While resisting your advisor alone is dangerous, doing it as a group is less so (although there would still be risks). Also, if you're all coordinated, and something is done anonymously by one of you, your advisor can't know.
• Like others have suggested, gather iron-clad hard evidence, as much as you can. Get him to email you about it, get him to talk about it while you record him on your cell phone, then transcribe what was said, etc. Save copies of this evidence off campus, in several places where he is unlikely to reach. Remember a person like that is not beyond accusing you of fabricating accusations if this becomes public knowledge. @Stilez mentioned this in the context of contacting the IEEE, but evidence is important regardless, and you should get it before or in conjuction with anything else you do, not later.
• You mentioned power relations. Are the graduate researchers in your university unionized? If they are, then you are probably in luck. Go to the more seriously active union officials (at the faculty level or the university level; it's not always the head of the union who's the most trustworthy and militant on these matters), ask for their help and explain you've got evidence. If they are not completely spineless, they will have your back in the sense of being willing to go very far if you are harmed in any way - public protests and even a strike until you are restored to previous employment conditions in research and teaching. And it will not come to that, since if a union delegation pays a visit to your advisor, telling them they have evidence of his coersion attempts and will not hesitate to bring the public's full power to bear if he doesn't cut it out immediately, he will not dare touch you. If you're not unionized, then at least you now realize why that's important regardless of whether you get enough pay/benefits.
• An alternative to proper confronation is the sick-out: On election day (is it a single day?), be sick, asleep, at home. Go to the doctor that day and get a note, or a prescription or something, which you could show him if he claims you're lying. An even better alternative to the sick-out is getting called away on some fabricated emergency.

• If you are willing to confront him, but are just worried about the reprecussions, then - I would say that you should present as big a stick as possible. That is, if you have a "I won't do it" talk with him - try to have it in front of his other students; tell him he's breaking IEEE and university bylawys (having taken the trouble to figure out what these are, so you can cite exact articles to him), and if at this point he does not retract his demand, tell him if he insists you will publish an open letter to the IEEE, to his collaborators, to the dean of the faculty, to the president of the university and to the press, and will consider making a formal disciplinary complaint in the university and within the IEEE. He might not like you, but it should scare him enough. Oh, by the way, this is another conversation worth recording.

• Another option regarding power relations. Are there any senior faculty members, preferably not friends or even acquaintances of his, with which you are on a friendly basis? If so, consider consulting them.

Note again that the above are suggestions to consider rather than out-and-out recommendations.

Finally, and not as a method of avoiding this specific issue - consider switching advisors or finding a co-advisor. This does not sound like a person I would want to be dependent on too much for my academic future. I realize switching advisors is often completely infeasible, but if it isn't, it might be worth it for ethical and psychological peace of mind. This doesn't address your immediate problem, though.

Answer 8

I would start by contacting the IEEE professional ethics team (or ask for the most senior director related to that area you can get through to). State when they ask who you want, "I'm not sure: it's a serious issue of professional ethics, I really need to speak to a director or someone that sort of level, or their PA, someone very senior, not an ordinary customer facing person or service staff."

You'll be asked your name/number - perhaps told they can't put you through without it. State that you want this on a "no names" basis, and please just find such a person and put me through. Be polite but firm, and expect a long time on hold, this won't be usual and they will have to check what to do and who to put you through to.

If the person is in fact senior, you can add that this is because you are fearful of repercussions. In my experience people will very easily agree to this - if not it's the wrong person. Getting put through to the right person is usually the hardest step, if needed Google and figure who you want to talk to (and direct phone?) and then be prepared to push hard. Example: "Something's happened which I need to discuss with the director responsible for ethics. Can you put me through please". Then "sorry, I need the director responsible for ethics. As you can understand, I don't feel the matter can be told to other people for passing on, or I'd have left it with the customer services team" followed by "can I speak with the manager in charge" or "please just find who I need to speak to and put me through". Be prepared for a few conversations like this, repeated escalation, and understand it's unusual for them, too.

A good trick is to ask for the person's PA, instead - PAs are usually very good for this sort of thing, and if you get to them, you can be more open, and they are easier to get to as well.

Eventually, assuming you get through to someone who sounds senior and willing to talk/listen, tell them the situation without names or institution/university details, and tell them you feel they should know but fear consequences, and this is far beyond what you are used to. You don't know whether or not the IEEE rules forbid or allow it even. But you feel ethically bound to report it. You don't however want to formally report it as you would have to provide names, dates, testimony, or proof (voice recording etc?). So you are in a quandary. Can he/she advise.

Then see what they say. They will surely want to know more, which you can't tell them, so ask them what else can be done. Can they consider it and call you back (friends phone) or email you (use a throwaway email address). That might be best.

In my experience directors etc often care passionately and want to hear if something's wrong enough to merit their attention - and forcing students' votes to manipulate the election almost certainly would be.

But if at all possible get proof.

You don't say what country you are in, and IEEE is worldwide. If legal in your country (and allowing for legal exceptions related to professional misconduct/coercion/abuse of position of power by professionals, as some countries consider this to be criminal misconduct not just "bad conduct"), you may also be legally allowed to take a voice recording app and a phone loosely held in the hand (just saying " 'bye" when he/she opens the door as if it's end of a call may also help) when you ask your supervisor is all it takes: "please, I'm not really sure it's okay to tell me who to vote for, in the IEEE, can you retract the direction, I feel very conflicted and stressed over it" or "would it be okay to vote privately"?, and try to capture them saying you have to do as told (if they do).