Faculty Mentoring
Purpose
To provide new faculty with opportunities for understanding expectations, for developing a successful presence on campus, and for better integration into the academic and non-academic environments.
For each new group of faculty members, the Dean will appoint a mentor for one year. Duties of the mentor would include:
- participating in a workshop for new faculty prior to the start of classes;
- meeting approximately once a month to discuss curricular and other issues and being available to answer questions as they arise; the mentor should be a major source of information on Plan sponsorships, book orders, grading policies, deadlines, incompletes, budgets, faculty resources, course descriptions, etc.;
- arranging for the faculty member to sit in as an observer in some senior orals;
- being available to sit in on classes occasionally, if requested, solely to offer support and friendly suggestions, and facilitating the new member's sitting in on others' classes, if appropriate;
- encouraging joint teaching, not only with the mentor but with other faculty, where appropriate, including full courses and occasional guest lectures;
- encouraging and providing opportunities for informal social interactions, e.g., dinners, parties.
For the first review, the mentor will not comment on performance unless requested to do so by the new faculty member.