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When to approach potential PhD supervisors while bonded to a private company?
I am serving a 1 year bond in my company that paid the expenses for my masters program, which stipulates that I have to serve the bond for a year on the date of my completion. It has been 3 to 4 months since I have completed my studies and I wonder when would be the right time to approach potential supervisors of a different University, as I have another 8 months left to serve the bond.
The PhD application is open throughout the year.
I am wondering when would be the right time to approach the supervisor since realistically I could only join in only 8 months later?
Should I approach when I have another 2 months left to serve the bond, maybe sooner, or maybe I could correspond with the PhD supervisor even now?

Actually, eight months doesn't seem like a long time to me. And two months seems far too short. Just be clear about when you can start.

What part of the world are you in?

Before you contact prospective supervisors you should first have a look at the preferred practice in the university you are going to apply to --- some universities discourage contact with prospective supervisors prior to program entry and others require it.  Assuming that contact with prospective supervisors prior to entry is okay, it would be perfectly fine (even desirable) to have early contact.  A period of eight months prior to entry is desirable since it gives the prospective supervisor time to interview you, scrutinise your work and proposed research, seek revisions, and contact your referees (again, universities vary on these practices).

From what I've read on the university page and the professors page they do encourage direct contact with the professor. Thanks for the swift reply

When a PhD position is open, it is expected to be filled as soon as possible.
However, as soon as possible means at minimum 4 months (opening the positions, receiveing applications, screening candidates, interviewing them ....) more realistically 6 months.
Assuming you apply now and that you are called for an interview in one month from now, it would not be unusual you will be asked "when will you be available to begin the position?".
Unless your answer is "in 2 years starting from now" it is quite likely that saying in "~7 months from now" is not going to have influence on the decision: if you will be the picked candidate, they know you will be available in 7 months, and that's all.
To clarify the matter, you can contact the secretary or other similar-HR position, since it is a rolling open position, they should be able to provide an answer, without you bothering the professor. You may discover the PhD has teaching duties so there are preferred starting times (thanks @GEdgar).

If a PhD position has teaching duties, then the starting time is likely synchronized with the academic calendar.

@GEdgar oh thanks for the reminder about the teaching duties as well !


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How should special terms be styled according to the IEEE style guide?
I was wondering how to style special terms (such as private key), according to IEEE Style Manual.
I couldn't find any meaningful source nor any stack exchange discussion.
In my opinion one of these should apply:

latex emph or italic font face (as used in the style manual itself)
single quotes (Latex ` ')
double quotes (Latex ``, '', or ")

Is any of these required or preferred?

You can see IEEE's style guide here; however, it does not state a policy for "special terms." It does contain many examples, all of which show common technical words used with no quotes or italics. Looking through some published IEEE papers, I again see no examples of technical words being introduced with italics or quotation marks. This is aligned with my intuition: using italics or quotes for common technical terms (like private key) might be natural in a textbook but less so in a research paper. Indeed, your example of "private key" is such a widely-used term that it is probably not necessary to supply a definition at all (though this may vary depending on your target audience).

source: Stack Exchange

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

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Who to contact when my undergraduate thesis advisor doesn't return my e-mails?
I am an undergraduate working on my thesis. It is a difficult situation because my thesis advisor took a new job and has left the university, and I also work part-time. My advisor goes months without responding to my e-mails, and there is no other way for me to contact him.
I am curious on who to contact when a professor is treating you unfairly. I have contacted the dean once, and because of this my professor did not grade my project for two whole months, and my complaint honestly resulted in him being way more distant. By being treated bad I specifically mean him not replying to my emails, forgetting to grade/give feedback to my drafts, and being very vague and cold when he replies to me once in a while. Many of my emails are still probably in his inbox waiting to be replied to. However, what made me really write this is him forgetting to give me feedback for my draft. Everyone has gotten their feedback, and there is very short time until our defense date. I just feel crappy, and so let down. What do I do and who do I contact?

I note that you asked this question: I have already used up all my hours with my supervisor.  Is that the same professor?

Yes, this is the same professor and I am doing this online as I also work a part-time job. He only uses emails, and it is incredibly difficult to reach him.

First of all, remind the professor.
Unless I am misunderstanding the comments, you did that before on a different assignment, but seemingly did not explore that venue with regards to the thesis deadline.
If they prove being unreasonable, two main points of contact are the department chair and the dean office. The latter is in charge of the administrative procedures and can put some pressure on the department, and are the ones ultimately responsible for the timelines to be observed. But it can not, generally, judge some specific interactions, as those may heavily depend on the content of relevant work.
As a student, the dean is who you should be complaining to. Make sure you describe the situation with sufficient clarity and level of detail. For example, "all the other students have gotten their feedbacks" is hardly a supporting argument, at best it establishes that your expectations are not entirely unreasonable. By contrast, that you are supposed to have at least two weeks for the edits as per curriculum and are already being deprived of that time is a clear and easily provable point (assuming the e-mails from the examiner did not end up in your spam folder, of course).
Teaching is a delicate matter; students are unique and, thus, should be treated differently in order to let them reach their full potential. Unfortunately, it might be plain old discrimination at play as well, and it is hard to tell. To offer a devil's advocate perspective: what if you are perceived as over-dependent on the external input? It is not implausible that a professor could consider that student A needs some specific feedback the most, and student B needs to work on their own more.
This entire tangent is caused by most of the complaints in the post being non-specific and somewhat emotional. "Being very vague and cold" is very much your perception, it is valid and affects you, but it is not clear why that should change. Similarly, unless the professor has violated some guidelines (which?), they are upholding their end of the bargain, and formal complaints are unlikely to do any good at all.

In a well-functioning academic department, legitimate complaints to the Dean ought to result in actual improvement to the relevant process or work that is the subject of complaint.  In the case of a complaint about delays in the work of academic staff, the complaint ought to trigger action to improve work outcomes so that things are completed on time.  If no improvement is forthcoming, that is bad.  If additionally there are further bad outcomes imposed on the student as a result of the complaint, that may be arguably retaliatory and it reflects a dysfunctional complaint system.  Well-functioning academic departments do not act in this way.
As to next steps, my advice would be: in for a penny, in for a pound --- go and see the Dean again and report that the problems that have continued without improvement, and that additional problems have now occurred that might arguably be retaliation for your previous complaint.  (Bear in mind that it might be reasonable for a person to be a bit more distant if they are the subject of a complaint; ideally professionals would not take this personally and would try to improve and remain warm and approachable, but some people do go into their shell a bit in this situation.)  If the Dean is not of assistance, you should consider escalating your complaint directly to the central complaints office for the university.

You are right, it should actually not be a problem to further the complaints. I might do that again if he continues doing that. However a fear a lot of us students have is that the situation will only worsen. I especially fear that this will negatively affect my grade. It is already affecting my grade I feel like, as he has still not approved my thesis ( second time doing it). I wonder if it is possible to ask to request another examiner if the current one is not being helpful or if I feel like I am being examined unfairly?

I don't think you should assume that non-approval of your thesis is retaliatory, unless you have evidence for that.  It might simply be that your thesis is deficient in some way that needs remediation.  Irrespective of this, what you can reasonably expect in this situation is that reviews, responses, etc., ought to be done on time; your advisor should not be forgetting to give feedback on your work.  If you have reason to believe that you are being punished for raising legitimate complaints about time delays then you should leave that institution as soon as you are able.

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Will poor grades from my first attempt at college affect graduate school admission?
I first attended college A, but had many personal problems, failed many classes, and eventually dropped out and returned to my home country. Three years later, I applied to local college B, where I started from the beginning and ended up earning excellent grades, strong GRE scores, lots of research experience, and good letters of recommendation.
I now intend to apply to PhD programs in the US/Canada, but the following has me worried. I understand that the answers depend on the school in question, but I need to know since it costs money to apply. If possible, please answer from the POV of an admissions committee:

How much will the grades from school 'A' hurt my application? Will the admission committees from renowned research schools look at my grades and reject my application outright?

Is it possible to turn my case into a narrative of triumph over depression and make me an even stronger candidate?

Can you point to any case similar to mine and how they ended up?

I suggest checking our our canonical question about grad school admissions; the answer there certainly covers much of this ground.

Please avoid edits that remove critical information. I took a pass at editing this myself; this should be a good balance between privacy and clarity.

In the US and (I guess/suspect Canada) the early grades won't hurt you and will be largely ignored, due to the later success. Just like high school grades have no real impact on doctoral admissions if the later performance is good. The most recent results heavily (heavily) outweigh earlier attempts.
But, the early mental issues and how you overcame them is dangerous to bring up and I recommend against it. A story of how you achieved success despite early issues isn't really needed and might be misinterpreted. I suggest you avoid that unless asked, in which case, "health issues, now resolved" is enough of a response. The change in performance speaks for itself as reflected in the grades and such.
And, no, a history of mental illness is usually (I wish it were always) invisible to any admitting committee. Others with similar issues might be in the same pool and not mention it. To consider such things, beyond the academic record, would be wrong.
But, get good letters of recommendation which are important here and write a good, forward looking, Statement of Purpose that outlines your goals and how you will achieve them; both educational and career goals. Let the CV speak to the past without further comment.
Yes, lots of people have such stories, some of them mentioned in other questions here. Congratulations on getting beyond the past problems and to a better place. You don't need to look back or shine a light on the past to move forward.

Thank you very much. On the internet, I have read something to the effect of: A university that does not see your progress is not worth attending in the first place. Should I bring my history up when emailing professors?

In my opinion, don't. Do it later if you want. Your progress is already shown by the current transcript and recommendation letter.

The grade from the school A will not hurt you. Your current academic achievements will show them that you have the perspiration to overcome hardship to achieve success again despite of that mental burden you went through, but I doubt that it will help as you are going to apply for a PhD, not an undergraduate program which such a story may help. A person with a history of mental illness may have to show more than just academic achievements to have the same likelihood of being accepted.
I have overcome depression as well. I used to be a good student (#1), and suddenly one day I just lost the motivation for no reason. Depression sucks. Eventually I realized I was on the verge of losing everything I earned, so I decided to stop all of that madness by forcing myself to study even if I did not have the motivation. It worked. I eventually ended up with excellent results and kinda got over the (great) depression. I have never been hard-working and confident like this in my life.
My academic results are great. I feel lucky that I realized what I needed to do in time.
More importantly, I have a realistic plan for my research journay, and I have a lot of motivation for that, but I do not care if somehow I lose the motivation as I can work well under no motivation and extreme stress. I also have many professors who support me and are willing to help me for what I am going to do next.
I will not mention this story in my application. It will just make things more complicated, but if one may want to know I may share not to show them that how I got over depression and got excellent grades, but how I trained myself to become a persistent, consistent and goal-oriented person. I do believe (I) having a history of mental illness may look like a risky asset to professors, but I can always show that I got over all of the hardship and I have the qualities and academic capability needed for the success (or at least completion) of my future research journey.
Good luck!


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How to make sure that the Selection Committee made fair decision for a Postdoc position?
I have applied for a postdoc position in October 2021 by sending my application to the responsible professor by email (as it's the only way to apply) as announced in the poster (in Germany). I got an instant automatic reply email from the professor mentioning that she was away for 10 days. I never heard from them after that.
After five months, yesterday, I emailed the prof again asking about the position and if there are any updates. Today I got an email from her secretary saying that they have already chosen someone and my application document will be destroyed.
The question is, how to make sure that my application was even on the list for the competition (because I didn't get a rejection email or any feedback until I wrote them yesterday)? Is there anything I can make it to make sure the process was fair and indeed they evaluated my application? I believe the professor just forgot my application completely as she was on holiday the day I have applied.

I don't know about Germany, but in my country selection proceedings are public documents, and any candidate can ask to review them. You can check if there is a similar law also in Germany.

It is unfortunately very common in academia to never receive any kind of rejection after sending an application. In hindsight, it would have been wise to send an email immediately after the 10 days were up, rather than five months later.

@astronat yes I know but the question here is how to make sure that my application was included. Its not my task to remember the prof her duties about not forgetting people applications.

My unsolicited advice here is to forget about them and move on. Even if you had evidence that the hiring decision was unfair (the chances of which to happen are basically zero since public institutions in Germany are not transparent about these things), this information would not be useful for you in any way when it comes to building your scientific career. Maybe you could sue your way into a position, but your experience would surely be terrible and they might try to get rid of you as soon as they can.

It's common even in the regular job market to not receive a rejection after applying for a job, hence ''don't call us, we'll call you'' etc.

@Krebto Is not having to send a follow up e-mail really the hill you want to die on?

Define 'Fair'. Or do you want to know if you were treated 'Equally'. If the institution followed their process, you were treated 'Equally'. Whether the result was what you consider 'Fair' is a totally different question...

"After five months" it looks like you were really motivated to get that position!
Jokes apart, I am not wondering if the professor forgot to evaluate your application, I am seriously wondering how did you rememeber you sent that application five months later!

@MassimoOrtolano Is that true for any type of positions (PhD, postdoc, ...) or only professorships? And does it mean there must be written documentation of the selection procedure? (In Germany, this is certainly true for professorships, where there is a committee, documentation, and if you are not selected you can potentially sue and then get to see the documents.)

@user151413 Yes, it's true for any position. Usually, the rankings are published in a public website (e.g. here you can find those at my institution (here for PhD)), but a candidate can also ask to review the detailed proceedings. Along the years there have also been a number of appeals from candidates that felt unfairly assessed, after reviewing the proceedings. Sometimes these led to a rerun of the selection, with different evaluators.

@user151413 As far as I know, in my country you don't need to sue to see the proceedings. Typically (at least to my knowledge), you can ask the proceedings directly to the institution (with a formal letter), and they should oblige.

@MassimoOrtolano On the one hand, this sounds reasonable. On the other hand, I feel that this creates a lot of work, if for every PhD position advertised one has to write a statement for every single applicant?

@user151413 It's even worse than that, because you also have to write down the exact criteria that you use to evaluate the CV of a candidate (e.g. how many points they get according to the grade they got at graduation, types of publications etc.). Some of this work is alleviated by pre-filled form prepared by the administrations, but it's burdensome anyway. The reason for all this is that in Italy there was a long history of nepotism in university (not that other countries don't have it), and the government thinks that it can be reduced by making the process as "deterministic" as possible :-(

In theory, the Personalrat is informed about hiring processes for open positions and is eligible to see a list of all applicants. However, I am not sure if they would tell you if your application was on the list or not if you contacted them. Besides, what would you do with this information?
Unfortunately, it is not unusual to not receive a rejection letter. It's typically not done before the preferred applicant has signed the contract and once that's done they have probably already forgotten about the rest or just don't care anymore. I wouldn't take this as a sign that they didn't consider your application.

Is there anything I can make it to make sure the process was fair and indeed they evaluated my application?

No.  I do not know about your local laws, but in most places there is no requirement to evaluate every application.  Some might argue that hiring the first qualified applicant found is "fair."  Others might argue that, so long as no discrimination law was violated, the process is "fair."

in fact many job descriptions are written so that a known person will qualify, and the process of reviewing applications is just pro forma.

@ZeroTheHero Yes, but that isn’t generally regarded as “fair,” most notably by the people who decided what the “form” in question is: the requirement to advertise the position publicly exists precisely to prevent that sort of behavior

@KRyan regrettably true IMO although I’ve heard this issue debated: “fair” is in the eye of the beholder

This is not true in generality in Germany - for instance, for professor positions, they can't just hire the first qualified candidate. And also for postdoc positions, the rules will depend on the type of position (university funded vs. third party, civil servant vs. employee).


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What is the difference between early career research positions
I am looking for the differences between the following positions:

Researcher
Postdoctoral fellow
Postdoctoral researcher

Possible duplicate: https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/46950/postdoctoral-job-search-positions-and-job-titles/46956#46956

Also https://academia.stackexchange.com/questions/2173/who-actually-is-a-post-doctoral-fellow/23898#23898

Which country? "Researcher" does not sound like a particularly specific term.

Researcher may be a permanent position (or not). Post docs are usually term limited and possibly renewable, but not likely indefinitely.
But I imagine that different institutions may use them interchangeably for things that are pretty similar.
Some postdocs actually do a bit of teaching and advising, and in that case, might not be best described as "researchers", but I don't think there is any universally valid terminology for these things.
But each offering announcement should make clear what the expected duties are and, how free you will be, or not be, to carry out your own research.


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How can we help cope with sleep deprivation among university students?
Sleep deprivation is a common problem among college students that has become so serious that universities in the US have taken measures to help their students overcome it.
As a particular example, the curriculum of Ateneo de Manila University was planned taking into consideration what would constitute a healthy student-life in a Philippine setting, however its students still experience the same sleep deprivation problem. With this in mind, we would like to gather ideas on what measures or projects can be taken to help students in our community cope with this problem.

I don't know about the Philippines, but in the US and Europe I don't think "sleep deprivation is a common problem among college students". Unless you consider LAN parties and beer pong to be official requirements.

@CapeCode sleep deprivation is a serious problem in the US.  http://www.cdc.gov/features/dssleep/

@emory As a whole, from the link. Therefore, the problem is not uniquely related to students....

@TheMightyDucks "Sleep deprivation is a common problem among college students that has become so serious that universities in the US have taken measures to help their students overcome it." sleep deprivation is a serious problem in US universities, but is there any evidence that US universities are anything but asleep on the switch on this issue.  I don't think anyone cares.

@CapeCode As a former British college student I can say it's a definite problem. Usually it's related to coming home from a full day of college work, then having to do coursework when you get home and after having worked on coursework trying to find time to relax after all the work-related stress. By the time you've worked on your coursework and had dinner it's usually 22:00 or even midnight. Also having deadlines close to midnight means most students are working on their coursework right up to the last 10 minutes. Also I never attended any LAN parties and I don't know what beer pong is.

@NajibIdrissicollege students are an easy study cohort for academics.  There's now a body of research on the pitfalls of assuming them to be representative of the general population in studies.

Not long enough to be an answer but the most sleep deprived I felt at Uni where when it was end of year - constant need to finish assignments and revise for 1001 exams means weeks of late nights. Spread out this work load as much as possible so there is some time for a day off!

@ChrisH but in this instance, the conclusion is exactly about college students themselves, and not an extrapolation to the general population.

@mrp I was also taking into account emory's comment about the general population. (CDC link).

@CapeCode Any college student who remotely cares about their education and is working 15+ hours per week (most students I've met), are sleep deprived. The ones who don't care about their education, well you're right - lack of sleep is their problem. But they are the minority, by far.

I do not see the need to include the name of the university in the title or even in the text.  I suggest that you remove it.

I removed the name of the university from the title of the question, since I didn't think it was necessary information. However, I left the university name in the body of the question in case it helps the reader understand the motivation behind the question. Please, check to make sure that my edits are acceptable; if they are not, feel free to revert back to the previous version of this question.

Good point @JoelReyesNoche.

Sleep deprivation is a serious detriment when it comes to a person (or in the context of this questions a students) Academic, extracurricular and social life. As a university its job is to mainly offer a conducive working environment that helps students achieve their goals and develop their full potential.
With this "duty" of a university in mind, we also have to factor in the individual sensitivity of a student and as to how best we can cater or create a policy (in your case project) that best caters to the biggest amount of individuals.
http://time.com/3211964/nap-rooms-at-universities/ Time provides a look at one of the projects colleges have resorted to tackle this problem. The idea of a "nap" is also something that could be a universal answer to this whole sleep deprivation scenario because again, the school does not have control over what the student may do at most it can gives suggestions through workshops, but one thing that appeals to most if not all individuals is a nap that allows you to feel refreshed.
Taking the context of the Philippines into account (with a tropical climate) I'm assuming the best course of action would be to hold a 'nap station' in a cold maybe dimmer environment and record people's willingness to participate in said station. This can give incite to further projects and perhaps even help motivate the idea of the "need" of such stations. Hope this helps!

Unless the university is requiring students to become sleep deprived in order to complete assignments (which i'm sure it is not), then changing the course structure, reducing the number of lectures, etc, will have very little impact.
Sleep deprivation is often actually a cultural issue. Cultural in the sense that every Institute/Company/University has a culture, and new students are always brought into that culture, taught "how things are done here", and in 3 years they teach it to the next intake of students.
If the culture at your university is to work all day and play all night, or simply just work all day and all night because to be seen working is to be a good student - then you need to change that culture.
Ideally try informing the students of the dangers of sleep deprivation. Try to promote efficient learning, and a balanced lifestyle of work and rest. Try to explain that being in the library 18 hours a day, does not make you a good student. Alternatively, if you play MMORPGs all night instead of sleeping, you will fail the course, and that is your own fault.

I played Halo for about 30 hours per week my first two years of college. I complained about lack of sleep, but it was my own fault. In hindsight I would have done it differently. Personal productivity classes as a required first-year course would probably be of benefit to a lot of students.

Often sleep deprivation or stress have their root cause in overcommiting by the student (need to graduate on time, that means taking 150% class load, ...) or, very often seen here, bad time management or inefficient studying. I.e., play all day (and party through the night) until just before midterms, (try to) cram in two days what just flew by for three months, rinse and repeat. Or study irrational hours, but do not recognize you are stuck, don't seek outside help, don't look for additional material (today there are tons of lecture notes, blogs, and discussion sites like this!), ... Results (in horrible grades, in high stress levels) are predictable.
Some suggestions that helped me are to review each class shortly afterwards, at least the same day, and jot down any doubts to resolve next time; reserve a few (more or less fixed) hours each week for resolving problems, exercises and homework; keep one day a week for other activities (go hiking, go to the movies, whatever), disconnect; never study for an exam the day before, arrange to do a last sweep two days early, leave the last day to e.g. study something else altogether, make sure you go to bed early and are rested for the exam.
If you get stuck studying (or while doing homework, or whatever), switch over to something else. Staying stuck is just a waste of time, often you just need to have your subconcicious mull it over a night or a couple of days, and the solution (or at least some alternative lines of attack) will be obvious next time you pick it up again. So it is useful to have several tasks pending (to have something worthwhile to do always).
Yes, you won't always be able to keep it up, but try to do so. Your sanity will thank you. Yes, I recommend my students to do this each term; yes, only a tiny minority heeds the advise.

From the point of view of a student, one way is to start classes later, preferably after 10am.
Another way is to limit the amount of homework given by professors to a realistic amount.
Lastly, one can spread pamphlets detailing the harms of sleep deprivation and excessive use of Internet. For undergrads the major reason for sleep deprivation is probably internet usage or late night partying.

If the cause of sleep deprivation is internet usage or partying, reducing homework or rescheduling classes is unlikely to have any effect: internet usage and partying expand to fill the time availabel.

Students are at the age where the bodyclock naturally makes them most likely to go to sleep late and rise late. (source: Inner Time - https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Inner_Time.html?id=c5wsAAAAYAAJ&hl=en)

As far as the realistic amount of homework thing goes, I recall one of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite professors: "If you have enough time to complain about how much homework there is, then clearly you have too much free time and need to have more homework."

I'm answering this question as a student based on my experiences in a U.S. college; I can't speak to any specifics of Ateneo de Manila University.
There are 2 main reasons that I stay up late:

Multiple assignments/tests due on a single day
A large assignment due soon that should have been started earlier

As an individual instructor, this is what you could do to help with those two issues.

Allow students 1 or 2 day extensions on assignments/projects as long as they ask a few days in advance. This allows students (who plan ahead) to spread out their workload so they are not overwhelmed
A personal example: I had a large project, a test and a homework assignment in 3 different classes all on a Friday. On Wednesday I asked for an extension on the homework assignment and turned it in on Saturday. Overall I spent more time on both the homework and the project.

Announce this policy at the beginning of the semester; I would never have dared to ask a professor this if my first year English professor hadn't mentioned the possibility.
I have only done this twice in my approximately 2 years of college.
If you're worried about students taking advantage of this policy then set a limit on the amount of extensions they can make

Break large projects/assignments up into multiple smaller assignments or checkpoints. Requiring students to distribute their work on a project means that the entire project will never be done at the last minute.
A personal example: For a software design course, we had a semester-long project that involved applying concepts learned in class to build a video game. The professor split up the assignment into 12 milestones, one which had to be completed and demo'd to a TA each week.

If a long assignment cannot be split up then giving students 20 minutes of class time to plan out their own deadlines and ask general project questions goes a long way to accomplish the same thing.

I do understand the concern that students should be responsible for managing their own time. Most of us are still transitioning into adulthood and taking on increasing amounts of responsibilities. Don't let us off the hook for failing to plan ahead; instead encourage us to allocate our time efficiently so that we can give you our best work.

I think that encountering an all-nighter every once in a while is part of university life. The problem rests in if this happens too often.
From my experience and the experiences of my friends, it has become normal to stay up all night and sleep in the early morning. If we finish what we have to do before 10 P.M., we take this as "We have 2 more hours to do whatever we want."
Essentially, it's a bad habit. We forget that sleep deprivation causes serious health problems in the long run. Because we don't see the effects now, we don't really care. So I guess a good solution is to make people care. Find a way to make the community see lack of sleep as unhealthy as drinking soda. In the end, the change can only happen if the people themselves will want to change.

I like what you're getting at. It's a good concept. Can you provide a more concrete way of achieving this?

I'd like to echo some of the thoughts already posted and add my own experiences and ideas into the mix.
As noted by JJ, this tends to be a cultural thing first and foremost. But it's not easy to change cultural norms, it will take time and creativity. Perhaps one of the faster ways to do it is to "short-circuit" the root behaviors in the culture that cause students to become sleep deprived. If, for example, you observe that students spend all night in the library studying, you need to analyze why they are doing that. Social pressure? Too much course work? Extremely strict exam grading? You may need to do things like institute a new policy that the library closes promptly at 7PM, and combine that with mandatory classes/seminars to teach students effective time management.
If students are becoming sleep deprived because they party too much, then you'll need to find ways to dissuade them from such behaviors. Possibly institute stricter policies on noise disturbances and unregistered guests in dorm rooms, disallow alcohol in dorms (at least those that allow students who are not old enough to drink), or provide some kind of large bonus for students who maintain a certain GPA so they may take studying and exam prep more seriously.
In some cases it may not be possible to change cultural norms. For example if students staying up late and studying too much is caused by the job market being extremely competitive (not enough jobs for all the students, so only the best/luckiest get employed) then you can't do anything about it directly. You would need to somehow provide them with more opportunities so they aren't scared about getting a job to support their families.
Ultimately you can't control their behaviors, but the more you encourage them in the right direction, the more effective it will be. From my experience, the most effective way to convince people to change their behaviors is to show them tangible proof of the good that can come from it. What works in the Philippines will likely be unique to the Philippines, so you'll need to know and understand your own culture and society to spot the core problems.

mandatory classes/seminars to teach students effective time management really, we have come to universities having to tell students that they need to get some sleep?

Like I said, all depends on the culture. What we may take for granted in one place may be a new concept somewhere else. Anyways it's just an example, and certainly not meant to fit all situations

Just my 2 cents but there is a touch of cultural responsibility here. Filipino parents who send their kids to university/college and live away generally put a lot of pressure on them to succeed. Pride in academic and athletics is important for those attending their college, so a lot of time is spent studying or practising.
However, this is also the first time for many young filipinos to be independent from their family (no maid, no mother/father to help them out), and use it cooking, cleaning, socialising (A LOT OF SOCIALISING, if you don't believe me check out the streets at night during the end of a school day). Students are torn between a mix of doing well, and enjoying their life...as they revel in new found freedoms and independence.
On the other side of the spectrum, those that struggle to pay fees in university spend their time doing other jobs just to support their degree and maintain independence. This leads to cramming and finding time to study decreases, with the only sacrifice being sleep (same thing that happens with those that want to socialise).
On top of being kind, helpful, and generous, Filipinos are also proud people, they will try not to accept handouts or help where possible if they feel the person feels sorry for them, especially if they are not close to them. Their response is more work to catch up (financially or academically).
Additionally, course material may also be too hard, but in order to catch up, students will work extra hard, put in more hours.
In my opinion, if you're not even a bit sleep deprived, then you're doing college/university wrong :)
However, to solve sleep deprivation, make it more well known what an issue it is. Do posters, talks, and adverts about how ill health and poor academic performance are affected by lack of sleep. Additionally, try to keep lectures at normal times (9am to 5pm latest) and avoid weekends. I've known some lectures to take place at 7 or 8pm for 2 hours.
Source: ex-Student, filipino, friends who are filipino at colleges

This is not an answer. The OP is asking how to cope with the problem.

@scaaahu good point, i'll edit it to say

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/


text:
How to search for a Career Counselor / Specialist for Life Sciences?
Does anyone know how I could go about finding a career counselor that can help an "ex-academic" in some way to find a job in "real world"? Essentially, I am looking for type of counseling service that is similar to K Kelsky's "Professor Is In," but with expertise in and inside knowledge of biotech/life science. I know this forum cannot recommend individuals directly, but maybe you can tell me where/how to look. I would love to hear other people stories: if anyone used a career coach/help in "Life Sciences", how did you find that person and how did you know that you are getting sensible guidance?
I am a former "life scientist" (molecular biologist). I am aware of "Cheeky Scientist's Association", but I would never-ever approach an company that employs such a predatory marketing strategy.
I would like to provide an excerpt from someone else's blog post to explain my problem:

I was desperate to find jobs in industry and somehow got hold of the
CEO of a mid-sized pharmaceutical firm for an interview. I didn’t get
the job because he couldn’t see where to fit me in his organization.
Take for example, as he ran through the choices:

I can’t put you in sales or marketing because you’ve never sold a product
I can’t give you a manufacturing or production role since they require different expertise such as GMP, GLP, etc unrelated to yours
I can’t assign you a role in quality control/regulatory since you’re
not aware of the compliance and regulatory issues related to the
pharmaceutical industry
We like so many pharma companies are into
generics and there is no R&D arm; so I’m not sure where to have you
within us”

None of this was done in a condescending way. It’s the reality. And
then I understood this: Really world values different set of skills
(life skills) over academic smartness.

Unfortunately, this was precisely my experience as well during a really intense job search a few years ago.
As far as pharma/biotech is concerned, they look for either people with 10 to 15 years of industry experience, knowledge of industry-specific regulations, credentials etc. Alternatively, they need B.Sc. or, at most, M.Sc. to work as technicians in control or on a production line.
I feel that I have exhausted my creativity and completely lost now. I had extremely damaging experience in "academia" (from a bad Ph.D to a horrible postdoc). I do not believe that I have any competitive edge, to be honest. I feel like I do need an external council, but with a professional who knows the field.
P.S. To make it  really clear: I have no chances for successful "academic" career and I do not want to waste time and effort chasing it. I desperately need a non-academic career. However, I cannot find anywhere the guidance/career coaching that I need.
P.P.S. I was a "wet-lab" scientist. People refuse to understand that there is a HUGE difference in employ-ability between bio-statisticians, bioinformaticians and people of this ilk and "Wet-lab scientists".
It took me ~ 12 months to find a job of a project manager on "soft money" at a small University. I have applied like crazy all across Canada. Now things start to collapse due to politics and ever-absent/super-busy PI of the project. I simply do not have administrative power to hold people to account and make things work.
I am out of ideas now. Seriously. I am sick and tired of academic BS.
I have no imagination left. No ideas. Zero. I do not do drugs. I am out of any ideas. I need a career coach, a creative writer, a fairy-tale writer, I do not know whom to get some fresh ideas. I cannot live like this anymore.

You might look at places that support substantial R&D activities or at startups. Local recruiters probably will (eventually) be useful, and keep building your network. Who knows, a startup might need a consultant just like you to help set the foundations? Also, if such skills are yours, the ability to lead a project team with diverse talent types, your ability to communicate up, down, and sideways, -- people skills, -- those can be key differentiators for you, maybe a whole new career path.

If your interest is in nonacademic positions, your instinct to look for a career counselor is on the right track. Some of the worst career advice I’ve seen has been given by well-intentioned advisors, advice based on what Should Be or Could Be rather than What Is. So look for appropriate guidance, which I assume you are. In addition to developing your professional network, look for internships at all levels. They give you a taste of what’s what, the mindsets, and so forth in addition to providing potential further opportunities.

Thanks for your post, it's courageous to put yourself out there. Hope all works out.  I came across your post because I was looking for the exact same thing, i.e. a career adviser or coach with experience with life sciences. I am also ex-science trying to find a stable job.
I don't think such specific career counseling exists, and even when it does, it may be focussed locally. I'm in Australia and I've seen some career coaches in Boston, but I know the Biotech sector is much bigger there, so  their regional advice might not work in other areas.
From my experience I need to gather up information from lots of different sources to put together a complete scoped picture. I've had some success asking a colleague intros to HR talent agents, these people give their view on the industry, but like the other commenters have mentioned they are biased to their particular industries. After talking to several of these people in different related industries you can build up a picture of what the job scape is with incissent questioning.
Also start rekindling your connection with old colleagues, and just message them and talk over the phone with them, ask them about what other jobs they have thought about doing.
After a dozen or so of these conversations you can build a proper picture of the landscape.

You're focusing on finding a career counselor. Most career counselors I've known are general purpose, trying to help people with the basics of cover letter and resume construction, the typical flow of the hiring process, etc. Never heard of one specializing in the life sciences or, for that matter, any sciences, but I suppose that might have changed over the years.
A recruiter is not a career counselor. A recruiter is a matchmaker. There are lots of recruiters for the IT fields, but don't imagine for a moment they play the role of career counselors for computer science grads. If a recruiter is telling you to leave off the PhD aspect of your training, he or she is doing it for practical reasons. Crappy and  unfair and humbling? Yep.
Nearly everyone I know professionally, at the higher levels outside of academia, got his or her job because of his or her network and knew how to present him or herself appropriately at interviews. It's a thing you learn.
Cattle calls through web sites?  They're not always what they seem. But you're playing the numbers.
One thing you don't speak of is what other career avenues you've explored outside of the life sciences. Widen the playing field,  develop your network. We write our own life stories, but sometimes need ideas on how to start. Rather than a career counselor, step back to assess the situation. A cognitive therapist can help there.

Is there a career advisor affiliated with your department from graduate school? At ours, she placed lots and lots of masters students in jobs and was also pretty good at helping the PhD students who did not want to go into academia. She would also take meetings with alumni. Such a person was half counselor, half matchmaker.


text:
I expect much more commitment from my PhD-supervisor. How do I communicate this to him?
I am a doctoral student in economics and have problems with the progress of my doctoral thesis because my supervisor hardly cares about my work.
I currently need some feedback and comments from him, as I cannot publish my results before.
This problem is not a current problem, but has existed since the beginning of my PhD.
It seems that this is not only the case for me, but also for other doctoral candidates and students who are supervised by him.
During the semester I can go to his office if I have a question.
However, even at these meetings he almost never read my work before and told me that he had no time or had forgotten about it. Currently, these personal meetings are also not possible due to the coronavirus.
Therefore I have already sent him e-mails several times, but he hardly answers my messages.
So I would like to ask how I can politely express that I would like to see more commitment from him?
Otherwise he is very friendly and can also help me with technical problems (if he does this once).
I therefore do not want to burden the relationship with too negative criticism.
How can I get him to 1) read my current work in the near future and 2) generally pay more attention to my thesis.
Can anyone give me any recommendations on this?

"I currently need some feedback and comments from him, as I cannot publish my results before."—Can you elaborate on this? Is there a formal reason why you cannot publish before getting feedback from your supervisor?

@GregMartin probably the supervisor is a coauthor?

Things are different between fields. In many fields, you do not need your supervisor's approval to submit papers and get feed back from other professors.

Ask students who worked with him successfully for advice.  Each supervisor has their own quirks, and quirks often explain bad behaviors.

Maybe try to change supervisor if possible if he is genuinely bad, some PhD supervisors are poor and only take on students because they are required to.

Realise your own commitment first. As a PhD candidate, you are training to become an independent researcher. Ideally, you aim to reach the stage when you are able to tell good results from bad, proofread and edit your own writing, prepare the PhD thesis for publication and defence. Many PhD candidates struggle because their advisers are over-protective and micromanage every step, leaving them little chance for self-reflection and self-improvement. Embrace the freedom to do your research your way and to learn from your own mistakes in the process. Own your work and own responsibility for making it better.
Use others. Many questions can be answered by people other than your PhD supervisor. Use online resources, such as Stack Exchange, use other peers and colleagues, use support systems in your department. Ask questions, try to understand answers, find and use the relevant literature. Do not sit and passively wait  for your adviser to come back to you with suggestions - use this time to find the answer yourself.
Do not wait for your supervisor's approval of your work. Assume that silence  is a sign of approval and move on. If in doubt, show your work to someone else and ask for their advice. Politely cc your supervisor in the email.  It may work wonders.
Understand the process of submission and clearly distinguish the points when your supervisor is essential to move forward, from those when their advice is only desirable. Politely ask your supervisor to give you feedback by a particular date, but be prepared to move forward regardless of whether or not you receive the response. Depending on your University structure, you may even be able to submit your thesis without your PhD supervisor's approval. Know the people who are in charge of the PG education in your University - such as Research Office of Head of Department - and cc them in all really important emails (but only in really important ones). They may help to encourage your supervisor to find time to give you feedback or approval when it's critical.

I definitely agree with this. Understand and adapt to the format of the meeting. Assume nothing has been read before your meeting. Come with a verbal summary and a few key tables or equations for the supervisor to react to. Use external deadlines to get their attention. Arrange to present to the department and do a mock presentation to your advisor first. Ask for a “friendly review” in advance of submission or ask who among the department would be best to get a friendly review from (usually will be someone more junior but that is fine).

@Dmitry Savostyanov In fact, these are all valid points. However, I am still at the beginning of my doctorate and therefore have relatively many questions. The questions are also of a more technical nature, such as questions about the publication of my article.
He even offered me to publish it together. So I can demand that he read my very first article and answer my questions.

@Dawn Yes I will include your suggestions in my "strategy". However, I had made much better experiences with another professor in terms of supervising my bachelor thesis. I think he just needs to be better organized.

“Assume that silence is a sign of approval and move on.” This suggestion is super useful and awesome:D +1

Re: "Assume that silence is a sign of approval and move on.” -- I've found it helpful to make this explicit in communications; "Here's the abstract I intend to submit to the conference; let me know by Wednesday if there's any changes you want made"  / "Here's the final draft of the paper; if I haven't heard by you by next Tuesday, I'll submit it".

This does not answer the question at all and some of the advice is dangerous.

@user73076 this sounds a bit disrespectful to me (setting a deadline to your supervisor). Isn't there a more gentle tone?

You seem to be saying that this professor doesn't spend a lot of time with his students generally. There could be a lot of reasons (valid ones as well as invalid) for that. With a lot of students and his own research program he just may be too busy and expects students to be self motivated. Maybe it is an institutional problem, with too many students and too few professors. Maybe he is just lazy.
But, if you send me 40 pages or so and set up a meeting then I'm probably not going to be able to find the time to read them before the meeting, even if I have good intentions. And with five other students doing the same, it just doesn't work.
My suggestion, then, is to avoid flooding him with stuff to prepare for prior to any meeting. One way is to send only what is completely essential to read prior to the meeting and on which you will have question. An abstract of recent work.
But there is a way to make such things easy to communicate. Suppose you send me a 40 page pdf to review, but you have used some simple tech tool to highlight (just as with a highlighter pen) those few passages that have recently changed and, perhaps in a different color, those for which you need advice. Now I can quickly scan your document and the recent things and the important things jump out at me. I can review it in five minutes, perhaps even with the meeting in progress. And having the rest of the stuff without highlighting gives me context if needed.
Note that I used to do this with students who were developing large computer programs incrementally. They highlighted the changes for my review. And so I could give advice (by commenting on the typed pages) to the entire class in about an hour.
Another way to think of this is that you probably can't change his behavior, but you can make your interactions efficient enough that you get what you need.

Yes! Adapt your interactions and your presentation of info. Don’t expect them to change their behavior.

@Buffy I think he supervises relatively few students. Nor is he currently working on any major research project. I think he's just very disorganized. The point is that we publish my article together and he offered me to read it. But I've been waiting more than four months for it. I can't publish before then. But I also think that I can at least make the interaction more efficient.

You're going to have to let go of the idea that anything you do is going to change how your advisor acts.  Concentrate on the things you can control.  It's ok to feel frustrated, it's ok to think poorly of your advisor for this behavior, it's ok to decide to switch advisors or leave the PhD program if you'd prefer that to working with your advisor, but trying to change your advisor is just going to make you miserable and not accomplish anything.

That he cares little for my doctoral thesis is one thing. I think the main problem is that he doesn't keep the promises he makes to me.

"trying to change your advisor is just going to make you miserable and not accomplish anything."  Maybe, maybe not.  Sometimes these problems are caused by misunderstanding.

I strongly disagree with all the answers suggesting that it's your job to work around the problem. When you are a PhD student, and doing a PhD with a supervisor who agreed to serve that role for you, then you should be entitled to sufficient attention from the supervisor to do your job properly, and certainly to timely responses by email, especially in a situation like the current pandemic. To me what you say does not reflect well on your advisor at all. Here are some ideas:

Ask to set up regularly scheduled meetings with the advisor, like once every week, or every two weeks at most. (Of course, now these meetings would be remote.) This is an entirely reasonable thing to have during a PhD. Make sure that the time slot is either regular, or fixed from one meeting to the next. Of course, if the advisor starts postponing these meetings or forgets about them, that's more proof that they are failing at their job.
Try getting it touch with other PhD students of your advisor to understand better whether they are having similar problems or if it's just with you. This can be helpful to understand the situation, what works (e.g., your fellow PhD students know the advisor is unreliable by email but more reliable by phone, etc.), and if you are all having the same problem it makes your case stronger.
If your institution has some kind of doctoral school, support system for PhD students, ombudsperson, or evaluation for PhDs independent from the supervisor (which is common in Europe), try raising the issue with them. They can advise you better than we can, and then can get in touch with your advisor in the right way to make them understand, and in the most dire cases they can try to help you find another advisor.
Alternatively, raise your concerns with your advisor directly. Don't ask for vague things like attention, but for specifics (e.g., answers to your emails within some delay), using factual evidence (e.g., you didn't reply to emails X, Y and Z), and without being confrontational (framing this as "let's find a way to work together which works for us both"). But this is challenging because of the power dynamic, so I won't blame you if you prefer raising the point with some independent party (see previous point) -- this is the reason why these structures exist.

He gets extra money for supervising my PhD. Therefore I also think that more commitment on his part is necessary. But all of these are very good points!

I'm not sure what "entitled" means here.  On the one hand, OP deserves better treatment, but on the other hand there's no way to actually force the advisor to change.

Well, there are ways. If you go to the doctoral school or these kinds of structures with clear evidence that the supervisor is negligent in their duties, they can nudge the supervisor and pressure them to do their job. They can help sidestep the problem by finding another advisor. This has consequences for the negligent advisor's reputation (with their colleagues and collaborators), and can impact their career (e.g., the doctoral school or department no longer approving PhD theses with them). So yes, you can't force other people to change, but they may have to face the consequences.

This is not a full response, but just some suggestions. I had a supervisor who was very busy/disorganized and these tips helped:

More frequent, shorter meetings. Before each, I would email part of the paper a week in advance of the meeting (e.g., introduction). If they had not read it by the meeting, I would provide a paper copy that they could read in front of me (a bit awkward, but it worked - and provided incentive to read the next piece via email).
Giving "polite" deadlines with long periods of time for supervisor to plan to read your paper. For example, if it is April 1: "Hello all/supervisor; I've attached the recent draft of our paper. I plan to submit this to Journal XYZ on April 30. If you have any comments or suggested revisions, please provide them by that date. I'll send a reminder on April 20." This is a really reasonable amount of time for someone to get back to you. On April 20, you can send another email, "Hi ___, just a reminder that I'll be submitting the draft ms on April 30. If I don't hear back I'll assume you're ok to go ahead with the draft as-is".  This may seem pushy, but 30 days is more than enough time to read a paper and get back to you (unless it's over a holiday/supervisor has emergency family thing etc). Be clear and unapologetic.

Yes these are helpful points. It will be a good orientation!

This is making a big leap, but:  Consider if your advisor has attention deficit disorder.
In the comments, you said your advisor is very disorganized and does not keep his commitments.  These are common symptoms of attention deficit disorder.  The stereotype that only children get it is wrong.  Plenty of senior faculty have it.  Plenty of people of all types have it.

Avoid asking the supervisor to multitask
Request small blocks of the supervisor's time
Break the supervisor's work into small peices - give them one at a time
Use visuals
Structure your requests

Consider switching advisors, or if you have more than one, choose another to be the supervisor. This puts pressure on him. Number of theses chaired is one of the metrics that departments look at (a measure of 'service'). If he's tenured it won't have a job impact on him but most professors don't want to look bad among their peers. If you and other students limp along with a lack of guidance the problem likely won't get addressed. Of course that's dependent on finding another willing and able research sponsor.
You might also consider an anonymous and anonymized letter to the department chair, that summarizes the views of multiple students. Offer to give specific examples, metrics or stories, though that's higher risk. Create a separate gmail account for that so you can respond to questions.

anonymized letter ... that summarizes the views of multiple students -- Is not it an oxymoron?

Unfortunately, I only have one supervisor. My faculty is very small. So there's no one else in the same field. I think an anonymous letter is a last resort. I've already thought about talking to his secretary. She's been much more cooperative in that regard.

First paragraph might be good advice; second paragraph doesn't sound constructive.

Talking with the secretary is a good idea.  You can speak in generalities. Take the questions and answers and get feed back from secretary. Start with one and see how that goes. The secretary's unwritten job is to provide liaison between the students and the prof. An experienced secretary should be able to answer all these questions.


text:
Examples of successful push-backs against DEI (diversity, etc.) initiatives in academia?
Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) initiatives became an almost overnight transformational success in academia beginning one or two years ago (in the US and several other countries such as Canada and the UK). The most visible change is perhaps the introduction of Diversity Statements as a required document to be submitted by every applicant (faculty and graduate applications). See for example here for Berkeley's requirement from applicants to  describe past experience or background that made them "aware of challenges faced by historically underrepresented populations". This caused concerns (justified or not) by some academics who claim that diversity statements serve as a political litmus test for new faculty, while some other groups of scholars argued that DEI as a practice and as a goal in itself (e.g., equity) is essentially unethical because it treats individuals as part of a group (i.e., group-identity) instead of
individuals independent of their supposed group (e.g., women, ethnic groups, LGBT).
Question: Regardless of the arguments for or against DEI, has there been any example of initiative by academics that succeeded to revert DEI practices, and specifically in preventing the implementation of mandatory diversity statements?

Edit: I have decided to accept Ben's answer because it is the closest to a publicly known attempt (on legal basis) to tackle DEI initiatives. Other, more local and non-public successes in pushing back against DEI were mentioned by Paul Garrett, but these are as mentioned not public, and lack clear organization as it seems. Ian Sudbery also had a good example, but it seems it was unsuccessful eventually.

Comments are not for extended discussion; this conversation has been moved to chat. I think there are some good points for discussion in the comments here, and also some that are perhaps more likely to attract aggressive counter-responses; I've tried to move the more constructive ones to chat, where I'd encourage that discussion to take place, and removed the ones that were not specifically about improving the wording of this question from the comment feed.

Let us continue this discussion in chat.

Indeed, for any question that brings up controversial topics it might be virtually impossible to find the right balance between tone, context and sufficient references, and there's likely no way to make everyone happy.  I thus removed another series of comments, and I invite everyone to continue the discussion in one of the two above linked chats. Please read the post notice and this FAQ before posting another comment. We can only move comments to chat once, but you can use it as long as you wish keeping a respectful tone.

Just two recent news as of May 2024: (1) MIT no longer requires DEI statement because "They don't work". (2) UNC diverts some DEI fund to law enforcement. They may shed some light on some ongoing changes.

I am not aware of any major successful pushbacks against DEI initiatives, but I know where you might look for more information and some possible leads.  In 2020, philosophy professor Brian Leiter wrote an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education critiquing the requirement for diversity statements and mounting a philosophical/legal argument against it.  In the US context, various other commentators have argued that the practice is illegal (due to prohibitions on political discrimination from the First Amendment and/or labour laws) and some have speculated that this might lead to a class action lawsuit against one or more universities.  This is just one DEI initiative, but it is one that generates particularly severe issues.
Since Leiter's article on the subject does not mention any existing lawsuits, I assume that so far there have not been any; my own internet search on the topic also yielded no results, so if there is a present legal action on the matter I am not aware of it.  Nevertheless, it might be worth contacting Leiter directly to see if he is aware of any major campaigns against mandatory diversity statements or other DEI practices.  Given his past writings on the subject it is likely that he has his "finger on the pulse" on this issue.
One other thing to consider here is that "DEI initiatives" is a very broad category of actions, some of which are innocuous and some of which are highly controversial and of potentially dubious legal/ethical validity.  Consequently, you may have more success if you break down the particular kinds of actions that you are interested in and then search for information on narrower categories of action.  For example, you might want to keep an eye on the use of diversity statements, demographic targets, and institutional enforcement of cultural issues like pronoun usage.

UPDATE (18 April 2022): Shawnee State University just entered into a $400,000 legal settlement with one of its professors in relation to adverse treatment against him after he refused to use the preferred pronouns of a student (see report here).  The professor previously received a favourable court ruling from the US Court of Appeals (6th Circuit) in 2021 in relation to the matter (Case No. 20-3289).  The settlement apparently includes both the monetary compensation and a guarantee to the professor that he will not be required to use students' preferred pronouns in the future.

UPDATE (18 November 2023): In a suit against Bakersfield College, a US magistrate has made findings against the college in relation to use of DEI criteria to evaluate and promote its faculty.  Professor Daymon Johnson has sued the college for investigating and disciplining him over failure to adhere to DEI teaching requirements (see court report here).  The lawsuit is ongoing but there has been a preliminary ruling against the college by the magistrate.

"prohibitions on political discrimination"  I seriously doubt that any such prohibition applies to any university that requires a diversity statement.

Is bumping this pet project of yours every few months truly in the spirit of this site's core purpose? This latest update doesn't seem to have a final resolution, for instance.

Your calculation of time difference between dates appears to be off by about an order-of-magnitude.

For what it's worth, quite a few people in my own math department did a lot of "pushing-back" in 2019-20, while I was chair of the "Diversity Committee". The pushing-back was "successful" if the following means "success": in 2020-21 and in 2021-22, we have not required diversity statements from job candidates, and current faculty are not obliged in any way to comment on such things. For that matter, the committee itself was renamed to "Climate Committee" because "Diversity..." ... "upset people".
(Incidental to that push-back, I found myself vilified and yelled-at in various amazing-and-saddening ways by various colleagues whom I'd known for decades, had to my house for dinner, and so on. I suppose that that behavior is an indicator of their commitment to "push back"...)
Two years down the line, (happily, in my own opinion), currently it seems that quite a few people have recovered from their initial surprise and shock that human-society issues should be taken into account in faculty hiring and such, and there is a sort of quiet acknowledgement of the significance of these issues.
At the same time, I've had a few people continue to attempt to dismiss my input on department affairs by declaring it "a personal agenda". I gather that they are "successful", at least in their own minds, at finding adequate rationalizations ...

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I personally have had some limited success in pushing back against "DEI initiatives" with arguments such as:

This does not go far enough because it only helps "x minority" but doesn't help "y minority."  We need to amend this to also help "y minority."
This "DEI initiative" actually harms members of "x minority" because it requires them to do more paperwork and serve on more committees.  Unrewarded paperwork and committeework needs to be equitably distributed.
This "DEI initiative" is actually designed to prevent change by shifting responsibility to another organization, instead of helping people who have been harmed by discrimination.

Presumably this is not the sort of push-back intended by the asker, but diversity statements are about how you will do your job well, not who you are or what you believe in.

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The "decolonising the curriculum" program in a sister department to my own at our university was temporarily derailed by a campaign from a certain national newspaper not known for views friendly to the diversity agenda.
The program is back. Now as "contextualising the curriculum". This is partly a response to the newspaper campaign. But also a recognition that to believe that as a group of majority white, rich westerners at a majority white institution in a subject whose history is deeply connected to notions of "western culture" its impossible to remove colonialism from the whole field, and perhaps arrogant to propose that we can. The actual actions recommended havn't changed - recognising the cultural forces that led us to studying the subject the way we do, why certain questions are valued over others, highlighting problematic history and individuals where appropriate and highlighting the work and ideas of those often excluded from mainstream curriculums. But this is now framed as contextualising the mainstream curriculum, rather than decolonising it.
Oh, and all this is no longer available on the public facing website.
Whether you think thats a case of successful push back or not is open to debate.

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