Date: Thu 14-Nov-2019
Time: 4:05-5:00pm
Location: PSC 1136
Speaker: Patrick Banner and Adam Ehrenberg
Title: Mental Health Task Force
In this talk, we will discuss results from a mental health survey administered earlier this year to both astronomy and physics graduate students at UMD. We asked about experiences and symptoms relating to depression, anxiety, impostor phenomenon, and other aspects of mental health, and received over 60 responses with a large spread of answers. We will summarize the results from the astronomy department, compare these with physics and the general population, and present free responses. We will then use these results to start an open discussion among attendees about ways that the university, faculty, and students themselves can improve the mental health of astronomy graduate students at UMD. We encourage interested parties, including both graduate students and faculty, to attend to take part in this discussion and to raise awareness about mental health concerns in the department.
