Snowbird Mentoring Panel Nurturing Young Faculty Careers
Errol Lloyd
University of Delaware
What
is the goal of mentoring?
Long term career success
Research, teaching and service
Success in the tenure process
What is mentoring?
Essential
Leadership by example
Advice and counsel
Nice
Working together
Who is a mentor?
** All faculty **
An individual faculty member
- An honest friend
- A very successful faculty member
- Could be a more senior assistant professor
- Need not be in the same research area (but it
helps)
The Chair
- Different role from "the mentor"
- Evaluation aspect
Outside faculty: their PhD advisor
When does mentoring begin?
At the interview
- provide copy of P&T document to read
- discuss what makes a successful faculty career:
excellent research (publication, funding, working with students, professional
activity; excellent teaching (preparation, interactions with students, being
demanding)
- discuss
the particulars of tenure
In their first week
- discuss their plans for the year wrt research,
publications, funding, students, teaching
- suggest they make a list of tenure case reviewer
names
- provide a faculty contact for the course(s) they are
teaching -- answer questions, give advice, etc
- provide a detailed memo on "things you should
be aware of" related to the administrative aspects of teaching --trying to
avoid hassles and frustration
- get some current faculty (individually/pairs)
to lunch with the new person -- try to establish personal contacts (research,
racquetball,kids, ...)
What is the role of the
mentor?
- Leadership by example
- Advice and counsel
- Working together
Junior faculty
need to be comfortable with this person so as to ask questions, float crazy idea
s,
have a sounding board for complaints,etc.
What is the role of the
chair?
Be positive!
Encourage mentoring relationships via the junior
and senior faculty, including joint proposal work
Monitor and assist with proposals (read and
comment) as appropriate
Teaching evaluations - visit their classroom
Limit their service activities (especially true for
women and minorities)
Provide funding for conferences (even if they do
not have a paper)
Provide teaching assignments that allow them
to meet first and second year grad students
Annual evaluation - success in all areas,
but with a clear emphasis on research
Pitfalls
Failure of the mentor to follow through
Junior faculty feel taken advantage of in joint
activities
Junior faculty works exclusively with their
mentor: joint papers,
proposals, students