Since our latest posts on APA’s Independent Review (better known as the Hoffman Report), here is where we’ve been focusing our energies:
1. APAGS created a dedicated page (gradpsychblog.org/ir) where we’ve attempted to compile requests from students who came forward with specific concerns and questions. The list will be frequently updated, and we hope you find it useful.
2. APAGS members have assembled a student-focused town hall at APA’s Convention this coming week in Toronto. On Friday 8/7 from 2 to 2:50pm, come to room 707 in the Convention Centre to share your concerns, discuss potential solutions, and hear from your peers. The dialogue will intentionally be structured in a safe and constructive way.
3. Finally, we are asking all students to fill out a feedback survey from APAGS Chair Emily Voelkel. The survey will be open for a week following Convention. YOUR feedback will help guide the ways that APAGS leaders advocate to APA’s Board of Directors and membership council, and it will inform how APAGS sets its own course as a committee and constituency. A summary of results will be posted on this blog. The following word cloud shows common reactions to the findings of the Hoffman Report, as reported by the first three hundred responders.
Thank you for being a part of APAGS during this difficult time. Please keep bringing your opinions to the forefront.
Eddy, thank you for keeping the communication lines open around the Hoffman report. I’m looking forward to the student town hall and intend to take Emily’s survey after convention as I imagine my opinion will evolve.
I’m so glad to hear that, Joy! I look forward to meeting you. Also, just FYI, the survey will close about a week after Convention. So, please do fill it out soon after the Convention.
I appreciate everyone’s leadership here.
Anyone interested in participating in a respectful discussion of APA, ethics, conflicts of interest, social justice, and torture is invited to link to a new Facebook page on APA and torture:
https://www.facebook.com/apatorture
Eddy and APAGS,
Thank you for considering the student perspective. As a student who cannot attend the convention, I would ask that someone please post a summary of the points made in the Town Hall meeting. I have read large chunks of the Hoffman Report, but I imagine that we are at a disadvantage as students. We have to balance our course work while finding time to read this massive document! It would help me to process if I could understand all of the prevalent opinions on the matter.
Thanks again!
Kristy
We are working on having note-takers there, Kristy. Stay tuned to the blog later this week and next! Thank you for relaying your concerns.
I will be unable to attend. However, I would submit that while many areas of ethics may have been compromised in the interrogations, the actions of a few do not serve to represent the entire APA body. Our nation was going through a very difficult time, and many ethical conventions other than those of the APA were compromised. We must take into consideration the events at the time before we pass judgment on the APA or its members and administration.
Bravo to the APA for disengaging from this horrific situation. But Psychologists and Students must also read the torture manuals so they can help survivors of torture move on with their lives. Go to: transatlantictransadvocates.wordpress.com and search [Prisoner Abuse].