ACA Graduate Student Ethics Awards for Doctoral Students

Sandy is a doctoral-level graduate student in a counselor education and supervision program. She recently completed her final course and is ABD. She is teaching two master’s level counseling courses for a CACREP-accredited program as she finishes her dissertation. Her teaching is being supervised by one of her current professors, Dr. Z.  Sandy is well-liked by her students, and she typically gets outstanding evaluations by the students in her courses.

Jill, one of Sandy’s students in a current class, invites Sandy to join her socials as a “friend”. At first, Sandy is reluctant to join Jill’s social media invite, but after discussing the situation with another doctoral student, decides it will be ok because they are both still students. After a few weeks, Sandy notices that Jill is engaging in “too familiar” conversations with her during class and citing conversations they had over social media.  Sandy notices that other students in the class are also noticing the dynamic between Sandy and Jill.  Sandy decides to speak with Jill privately after class to address the issue.

Sandy lets Jill know that she is feeling uncomfortable with how Jill is speaking to her during class. Jill is shocked by what Sandy is saying because Jill thought she and Sandy were friends. Jill says, “I didn’t realize we couldn’t be friends in class…and only on social media.”  Sandy lets Jill know that they are not really “friends” and that being added to someone’s socials is not the same as having a real friendship and that she is Jill’s professor and therefore, cannot be her friend.  Jill becomes visibly upset and leaves.

Jill decides to post on one of her socials that Sandy has decided to “end their friendship” and she is upset that a professor would act that way towards a student. Upon seeing Jill’s post, Sandy decides to respond to Jill’s post publicly and says, “Jill, I am sorry you are upset with me, but we were never friends because I am your professor. I agreed to be “friends” with you on social media platforms as an additional way to be supportive of you as one counseling student to another.” Jill does not respond further to Sandy’s post.

During the next class, Jill ignores Sandy during class discussions and on her phone during lecture. When Jill’s classmates ask her what is wrong, Jill states, “Sandy has decided that we are no longer friends, and I don’t know how I am going to get through this class.  I just hope she does not give me a failing grade because she no longer likes me.” Jill’s classmates are confused because Sandy has not “friended” them on their socials, and they are wondering why Jill is “friends” with Sandy on her socials. Jill becomes increasingly worried that she has done something wrong in her relationship with Sandy. Jill starts to have high anxiety over how the friendship on social media ended with Sandy. Jill decides she should speak with her faculty advisor about the situation because she does not want this incident to jeopardize her standing in the counseling program.

Sandy is scheduled to meet with Dr. Z for their bi-weekly supervision meeting and she is unsure of how to proceed. She is not sure this is something that should be brought up in supervision.