III. MENTORING ACTIVITIES
The Department provides mentoring for faculty who have not yet reached their highest rank or tenure. The mentoring process provides a formal mechanism for early communication between the faculty member and the P&T Committee. The procedures are outlined below.
A. Professorial Faculty
1. The P&T Executive Committee meets with new professorial faculty members (who have not yet attained their highest rank) shortly after they begin their positions with the Department. The faculty member is given the Departmental P&T Guidelines and a template for curriculum vitae (CV) and Position Description. The P&T Executive Committee describes the role and procedures of the P&T Committee and the preparation and maintenance of the CV and dossier.
2. Mentoring Teams, consisting of two faculty members tenured in the Department and senior in rank to the faculty member being mentored, are appointed yearly by the P&T Executive Committee. To ensure continuity and diversity, one team member will repeat from the previous year, while a new individual will replace the second member.
3. Faculty members meet with their Mentoring Team annually until they are tenured and biannually until they become full professors.
4. Faculty members submit an up-to-date CV and Position Description to the Mentoring Team in the Fall of those years when they are mentored.
5. The Mentoring Team schedules a meeting with the faculty member in Winter Term to discuss the status and progress of the candidate toward achieving tenure or promotion in the Department and to advise on the format of the CV.
6. The Mentoring Team prepares a written report of that meeting. This report, addressed to the Chair of the P&T Executive Committee, is made available to the faculty member, the P&T Committee, and the Departmental Chairperson. The Department Chairperson reviews this report with the candidate. Mentoring reports become a part of the candidate's personnel file.
7. In Spring Term, the Mentoring Team presents an oral report to the appropriate group of the P&T Committee for discussion. Each individual Mentoring Team then writes a summation of the discussion. This summation, which provides feedback from the Committee, is made available to the faculty member, the P&T Executive Committee and the Department Chairperson.
The faculty member should consider his or her assigned mentors as appropriate individuals from whom to seek advice, and to make sure that no important information has been overlooked throughout the process. Faculty members also are encouraged to seek counsel from other members of the faculty and not to rely entirely on their assigned mentors.
Note that mentoring does not replace the requirement for yearly evaluation by the Departmental Chairperson for faculty on annual tenure or for required periodic reviews of tenured faculty.
B. Faculty Research Assistants (FRAs)
1. The supervising faculty member has special responsibilities with regard to the mentoring of a FRA, starting at the time of hire. Newly hired FRAs should receive a copy of the FRA Handbook and a copy of the job description that clearly describes the responsibilities of the position. The job description, which should be reviewed at the time of annual review, serves as the basis for evaluation of achievement. Annual evaluations should include a discussion of performance and any expectations for position development or possible promotion.
2. A formal mentoring process is initiated in the spring of each year for FRAs who wish to be considered candidates for promotion to Senior FRA. To begin the mentoring process, the FRA must notify his or her supervisor and the chair of the P&T Executive Committee that they wish to be considered for promotion.
3. A Mentoring Team, composed of one tenured faculty member and one Senior FRA, is appointed by the P&T Executive Committee to advise the candidate on dossier preparation.
4. It is the responsibility of the Mentoring Team to schedule the initial meeting with the candidate and to provide advice and information concerning the preparation of the dossier.
5. It is the responsibility of the candidate to prepare his or her dossier and to keep the Mentoring Team informed of progress, to ask questions that may arise, and to request additional meetings as needed.