1. AdvanceVT Mentoring

2. Let’s Benchmark: Who Does Mentoring Well? 2008 Faculty Worklife Survey, 700 tenure- track faculty responses (53% RR); College RRs varied from 42%-70% Mean responses to Question q2f: “I have received effective mentoring in my department,” 4-point agreement scale 4=strongly agree

3. Does CALS Really Do It Well Across the Whole College? There is large variability across Departments in this College in perceptions of mentoring

4. Which Departments Seem to Have Effective Mentoring? Department response rates varied from 22%-84%; 90% of Departments had ~35% or higher Strongly Agree Somewhat Agree Somewhat Disagree Strongly Disagree What do THESE Departments do and how do they do it?

5. Does Size of College or Department Seem to Make a Difference?

6. Formal or Informal Mentoring Program? “The formal mentoring program is formally set up to be “informal.” We do not have a written document of expectations of mentors and mentees.. I try to see that each untenured faculty member has 1-2 faculty who work with them on an as- needed basis. The feedback I have received is that people prefer a more informal approach to this versus having lots of procedures.” -- Dept Head

7. Are We Benchmarking the Right Departments? Strongly Agree Somewhat Agree Somewhat Disagree Strongly Disagree

8. Themes Across Successful Mentoring Programs Most common themes:  Formally assigned/selected mentor (at least one)  Role of department head as additional mentor  P&T Committee feedback – structured and frequent  Alignment of performance evaluation process with P&T process Additional characteristics of effective mentoring programs:  Defined mentor role expectations  Defined mentoring process (topics, minimum frequency of meetings, timeline) in addition to informal activities  Systematic way to orient new faculty to department policies, resources, etc.  Evaluation of mentors

9. Defining Mentoring Process  Be readily accessible  Facilitate development of a network of persons with mutual interests  Discuss specific problems and assist in making contacts  Encourage the development of a career plan  Discuss peer evaluations of teaching Mentor should:  To clarify job expectations so that career advancement is predictable  To facilitate the entry of new faculty into the faculty culture and interpersonal climate of the college  To instill the qualities and expectations of professionalism in new faculty  Increase sensitivity to issues of gender, culture, and diversity  To provide a time-line marker to achieve key academic accomplishments Program Goals:

10. Defining Mentoring Process  Authorship etiquette  Relative importance of journal papers, conference papers, book chapters  Support for assisting with grant preparation  Defining research “niche”  Time spent in teaching (line between sufficient and over- preparation)  Degree of freedom in defining course content  Documentation need to keep related to teaching  Time to spent in committees  Importance of external professional service Topics for discussion with mentor:  Through structured, albeit informal, interaction with senior colleagues, it is anticipated that (i) areas in need of improvement are identified early; (ii) junior faculty do not isolate themselves from the rest of the faculty; (iii) junior faculty can operate more efficiently by drawing on knowledge and expertise; and (iv) collaborations develop naturally. Vision:

11. Issues Faced by Post-Tenure Faculty Working session March 2009 with ~40 post-tenure women faculty across VT Pre-session survey to identify obstacles & contributors, (n=29, organized into themes and ranked by frequency) Session attended by ~40 women faculty, voted on top issues for further discussion “No process in place for providing mentoring to post- tenured faculty!” “Little guidance for getting promotion to full” “No real mentoring as ‘what to do next’ with my career… towards full professorship.”

12. Examples of Mentoring Programs at Other Universities Stanford School of Medicine http://facultymentoring.stanford.edu/ University of California – San Diego http://academicaffairs.ucsd.edu/faculty/programs/fmp/default.htm University of British Columbia Faculty of Medicine http://www.med.ubc.ca/faculty_staff/mentoring.htm Northern Illinois University: http://www.niu.edu/facdev/services/newfacmentoring.shtml University of Wisconsin-Oshkosh: http://www.uwosh.edu/mentoring/ Washington State University: http://provost.wsu.edu/faculty_mentoring/ University of Michigan: http://www.provost.umich.edu/mentoring/index.html Giving and Getting Career Advice: A Guide for Junior and Senior Faculty: http://www.umich.edu/~advproj/career%20advising.pdf