Faculty Success

Mentoring can take a wide range of forms and should be supported at both the college and departmental levels, across career stages. A primary goal should be to build sustainable relationships that advance careers.

Faculty, including unit leaders, are encouraged to consult the Faculty Mentoring Toolkit developed by the Office of the Provost. It provides resources on topics including designing and evaluating different types of mentoring programs and areas for conversation that might be considered as mentors and mentees work together. Many additional resources on faculty mentoring exist online. For examples, see materials from Michigan State University and from Columbia University (the two sets of suggestions immediately below were adapted from the latter).

To facilitate the advancement of mentoring within CLAS, the College plans to offer an Introduction to Mentoring workshop each year. In addition, based on feedback from faculty during mentoring sessions the College hosted in the past, two programs will also be piloted during the 2022-23 academic year for the group and more individualized mentoring across CLAS units.

This program is designed to provide information for faculty on what mentoring is and why it is important, as well as strategies for developing and maintaining mentoring networks and setting and evaluating goals to facilitate the mentoring process. The session will involve a presentation by the dean’s office and a panel discussion.

With the goals of connecting junior faculty across CLAS units, creating a greater sense of community among colleagues, and exchanging information to facilitate success, cohorts of faculty will engage in a series of conversations on topics of interest. Hosted by experienced CLAS faculty members, groups will meet monthly for approximately one hour from October through April.

For the 2022-2023 academic year, three mentoring groups will be led by:

1. Michael Finiguerra, Associate Professor-in-Residence of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, and Natalia Smirnova, Associate Professor-in-Residence of Economics
2. Inge-Marie Eigsti, Professor of Psychological Sciences, and Jane Gordon, Professor of Political Science
3. Francoise Dussart, Professor of Anthropology, and Rachel Theodore, Associate Professor of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences

Nearly 40 assistant professors, across the in-residence and tenure tracks and a wide range of CLAS units, are participating in the program this year.

The College plans to host four sessions each academic year designed to help faculty understand factors and strategies that will facilitate success to advance to the next career stage, including integrating individual aspirations with departmental, college, and university priorities. These workshops are not designed to explain the mechanics of the Promotion, Tenure, and Reappointment (PTR) or Promotion and Reappointment (PR) processes, which are handled by sessions organized through the Office of the Provost. Instead, the goal of the CLAS programs is to address broader issues of how to have productive, rewarding experiences, recognizing that responsibilities differ across appointment types and career stages. Each workshop will include material presented by the Dean’s Office, a panel discussion, and breakout sessions.  

The College will host a series of virtual teaching and research conversations that meet monthly throughout the academic year. These conversations are an opportunity to discuss and explore specific topics of interest across the College. Examples of past teaching conversations include working with the Dean of Students and the Center for Students with Disabilities, and research conversations have explored funding opportunities in the humanities and social sciences. Topics will be more fully identified and Webex links will be provided as the dates approach.