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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