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APPENDIX D 71 apprenticeship-style programs as a top priority in his report âPutting People First. â I feel that this program offers an excellent opportunity for the scientific community to reach out and help those who are disadvantage. In turn, the program will benefit science by increasing diversity in the work force and creating links to new communities. STATEMENT BY THOMAS J. MEYER, Ph.D.3 I am a research health psychologist currently in the second year of an NIMH-funded two-year post-doctoral fellowship in Mental Health Statistics at Columbia University. From my personal frustrations in attempting to develop as a researcher, I originally had three comments relevant to your question regarding the challenges in maintaining an adequate supply of scientists. I have added two additional comments with suggestions for improving conditions for lesbian and gay scientists, so that we may better focus on making our scientific contributions. 1. Funding levels for fellows are humiliatingly low, especially for city dwellers. As I celebrated my 40th birthday in the 7â by 11â dormitory room I lived in for my first 16 months as a postdoc, I had doubts about whether going back to school had been worthwhile. It struck me that my devotion to science was probably excessive to be sharing a bathroom with dozens of others at my age. Finances were so tight after I later moved into an apartment that until I started doing some consulting on the side, being able to afford groceries was a problem. Funding was even worse as a graduate student, but the problems were masked by the availability of student loans, which will soon be burdensome to repay. 2. The imbalance between the number of studies recommended for federal funding and the actual funds available has negative effects on budding researchers. Seeing many prominent scientists fail to get government grant funding so that they chase dollars from pharmaceutical firms of even the Tobacco Institute is not pleasant. Although fellows are supposed to be learning to compete for grants, the lesson we are learning may instead be that grant-funded research is a shakyenterprise, even if you have a constant stream of projects that your peers think have merit. Although my research skills are well-suited to a medical school, I am looking for more stable teaching jobs in psychology departments. 3. Social changes (and the lack of change in some locations) require reconsideration of the ideal that the scientist can move anywhere in the country to pursue âhisâ profession. Many of us who have suffered through the isolation of being a minority at a rural campus will not consider going to even the most prestigious institution where we would be separated from our reference group. Also, the rise of two- career couples restricts the options for many of us. In my case, I have not applied for any of the professionally enticing jobs my dissertation advisor has recommended me for in such gay-phobic locations as Memphis. Instead I will stay with my partner and risk the likelihood that I will be underemployed for some time, given the heavy competition for jobs in the New York metropolitan area. Since the cost of living is so high in the New York area, it is clear that even when I do get an appropriate academic job, I will need to moonlight, which will take away from my ability to focus on research projects of my own. 4. Enactment and enforcement of a federal civil rights law for lesbian and gay people and equal legal recognition of lesbian and gay relationships would help free us to focus more on our work and less on protecting ourselves from harassment and discrimination. I personally know of closeted scientists at a number of institutions, people who hear anti-gay jokes, fear dismissal, and feel the burden of hiding their lives. One of the first issues of the newsletter I received after joining the American Statistical Association last year included a notice about a group of anti-gay statisticians organizing to keep that society from passing a statement against job discrimination. Those universities that include sexual orientation in their published nondiscrimination policies have a recruiting advantage; we can tell where we are officially welcome and where we are not. Pending the extension of marriage laws to include us, it would also be helpful for departments to make it clear that same-sex partners are welcome at any social event for families. We could more easily relocate if our partners were included in family health benefits and if the job placement 3 Thomas J. Meyer, Ph.D., is currently with the Department of Environmental and Community Medicine, University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey, Robert Wood Medical School, Piscataway, New Jersey.
