Hi,
I just started a PHd program (in fact, I haven't even started yet classes don't begin till tomorrow) at a prestigeous school, with a senior professor as my advisor. But based on our communications so far he seems to be trying to turn me into his personal secretary.
I arrived in town a month ago and Emailed him to let him know I'd arrived. He responded immediately asking me to come in the next morning. We didn't talk about my research, he didn't give me any reading etc., he just asked me to work with him to organize some conferenecs he is putting on next year. I said sure looked over/corrected/edited/added to the two conference proposals, met with the departmental events manager about the budget etc.
I met him for the second time this week, bringing a list of talking points and some new ideas about potential areas of research and potential changes to my research question. He didn't offer anything substantial in response to my proposed changes in my research (just kind of 'humm' or 'yes') and asked me to work with him and other people organizing/analyzing some data they've just collected.
I was a bit surprised he wasn't pointing me in the directon of readings, but at least the above tasks are within the things that researchers do even it they are the boring buttwork sides. But now I just got an Email from him addressed to me and the events manager, he askes me to enter the names and details of the colleagues working together on the upcoming conferences into the online conference system, if I don't have their information I'm told to Email them and also work out how to delete a double entry. This task wouldn't take very long, but isn't this what the department has an event's manager for. I'm afraid if I agree to do this, I'm basically accepting that I will be his personal secretary before I've even started the term.
Also, I'm getting some conflicting signals in regards to how my thesis should be progressing over this year. He says the first year is just to get my bearings and says I should take all the classes that the department's master's students take (even though my master's degree is in a very similar area at a different university and most of what will be covered is very familiar to me). But the message I seem to get from everyone else is that I need to be working on refining my thesis immediately, the grad program director said only three classes are recommended in the first term (rather than the four my advisor seems to think I should take) and I have to do a 25 minute presentation on my research topic in the PhD student seminar in less than a month.
I hope that someone out here might have a comment on this "situation".
Thanks
