By Annette Finley-Croswhite
At Â鶹¹ú²úAV the Faculty Handbook states: "Mentoring of faculty colleagues should be considered important service that promotes faculty advancement."
Mentoring is ultimately about meeting faculty needs in order to help them be successful. Most of the literature on mentoring is focused on junior faculty seeking tenure, with some attention devoted to associate professors seeking the rank of full. It should be stressed, however, that faculty at other ranks also need mentoring. Lecturers should not be overlooked, and even senior faculty who are often isolated late in their careers can benefit from mentoring as well.
New faculty have specific needs:
- To understand the university and its culture
- To connect with people across campus
- To align work habits with goals
- To become effective teachers/researchers
- To write/conduct research/pursue creative work weekly if not daily
- To participate in service, but not to the detriment of teaching and research
- To identify mentors
- To recognize accountability
- To establish a healthy work/life balance
Once a new faculty member walks on campus, the chair should discuss mentoring with the person. A mentoring map is an effective tool for all faculty because it helps them to visualize the mentoring network they should develop over their career. (See the devised by the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity.) Good mentorship can empower mentees to establish rewarding and successful careers.
There are multiple kinds of mentoring models. Most departments pursue one-on-one mentoring of faculty where a senior faculty member is paired with a junior faculty member. Often this type of mentoring creates lifelong relationships that are beneficial for both mentor and mentee. There are inherit problems with this model, however, and if it is used, departments should guard against pitfalls. Not all faculty have the necessary training or desire to fulfill the role of "mentor," and all mentors need mentorship training. One-on-one mentoring can establish situations where some faculty are mentored better than others. It is a best practice for chairs to meet with senior faculty as a group and discuss the expectations and obligations of mentoring. Chairs need to especially consider best mentorship practices in departments where women and minorities are underrepresented.
Ideally, faculty should develop a mentoring plan that includes the participation of many faculty members to give each new member a circle of mentors. Such broader mentoring is important at tenure time because one-on-one mentoring can lead to negative ramifications should the relationship not work out or should it be the only relationship a junior faculty member establishes in a department. Kerry Ann Rockquemore, founder of the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity, and Milton Cox, a noted academic authority on mentoring, challenge standard mentoring models because both believe that mentors should not be persons who vote on the mentee's tenure. Rockquemore argues that faculty need sponsors within their departments who will support them at tenure time but that mentors should not come from those who fulfill supervisory roles in annual evaluations or assessment for tenure. Clearly not everyone will agree with Rockquemore and Cox, although there is a good deal of research to support their advice. As a best practice, mentees should find mentors inside and outside of their colleges and universities.
New faculty should be provided with opportunities for group mentorship in workshops tied to time management, effective teaching, publication and/or creative work, grant-writing, and meeting tenure expectations. Peer mentoring is also encouraged and is often the most effective form, as all hierarchical barriers are removed. Junior faculty often form their own mentorship groups and promote and encourage each member's scholarly productivity. Chairs and colleges should work with internal divisions that promote mentorship opportunities beyond departments. At Â鶹¹ú²úAV, the Office of Research, the Center for Faculty Development, and the Women's Caucus are three important entities offering mentorship resources, but there are many others. Â鶹¹ú²úAV also retains a membership in the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity, , and all faculty should be encouraged to join.
Finally, it is also stressed that a congenial departmental climate is critical for mentoring to be effective, far more critical than mentoring charts or committal forms. A healthy department climate promotes greater faculty productivity by reducing stress and biases within the environment. Junior faculty need to believe that tenured faculty want them to succeed, and civility within the department is vital to faculty well-being. Mutual respect between mentors and mentees, whether in one-on-one relationships or in group mentoring environments, is only effective if a civil code of conduct is maintained.
Developed and adapted from mentorship guidelines and best practices established by the State University of New York at Albany, and Susan L. Phillips and Susan T. Dennison, Faculty Mentoring: A Practical Manual for Mentors, Mentees, Administrators, and Faculty Developers. Sterling, Virginia: Stylus Publishing, 2015.