Mentoring Your Faculty

Ideas from the 2014 Heads and Chairs Workshop discussion

Scenario 1: A new faculty member in your department is ready to start the job! What specific actions can you take as chair that will ensure a successful start?

• Share written rules/policies
• Ask someone with expertise to help new faculty members
• Explain the merit review process
• Make sure that everything is ready for new faculty members when they arrive
• Share unwritten expectations, too
• Refute any myths new faculty might have
• Have a clear discussion of service expectations, in addition to teaching and research expectations
• Clarify college-level and department-level expectations
• Point faculty toward available resources on campus
• Point faculty toward "On the Cutting Edge" and other workshops
• Help new faculty navigate external service opportunities
• Just "stop by" the new faculty member's office every once in a while -- engage them in informal conversations to see how things are going for them ("What questions do you have?" rather than "Do you have any questions?" to encourage questions)
• Encourage interactions with other new faculty at the institution

Scenario 2: A faculty member's third year review didn't go so well. What specific actions can you take as chair to help get them back on track?

• Don't soft-pedal the bad news.
• Put someone who agrees with the review in charge of helping the new person.
• Make sure the faculty member understands the expectations at the college level.
• Tailor your help to their area of weakness; recommend resources (workshops, etc.)
• Identify the root of the problem (is it research productivity or family circumstances or ??)
• If teaching is not going well, encourage the faculty member to get informal feedback early in the semester and/or to get peer review of teaching
• Assess whether they need extra time (change the tenure clock)
• Set intermediate benchmarks from now until tenure
• Decide whether the faculty member is really a good fit for your institution and department
• Help your institution to recognize when policies work against the faculty. For example, not all institutions have parental leave.
• Send them to the Faculty Success Program ("Faculty Bootcamp")
• Give them teaching release, pre-tenure
• Encourage them to publish, even if they don't have external funding for future work.
• Consider the external reviews of declined proposals; do they indicate strong potential but low funding rates?
• Encourage faculty members to visit funding agencies (and offer to pay their expenses for the trip)
• Encourage faculty members to collaborate with successful researchers
• Ask senior faculty members to include junior faculty members in proposals, when their expertise fits
• Encourage faculty members to broaden their search for funding
• Encourage faculty members to serve as proposal reviewer
• Ask for seed funding from the institution -- a small investment can lead to a large return
• Adjust the tenure clock (to give junior faculty members longer to pursue funding before their "3rd year" review