The Faculty Mentoring Program is designed to enhance professional development by assisting nontenured faculty to balance and improve their research, teaching, and service responsibilities. Mentors and mentees benefit by exchanging view-points and ideas as well as by sharing knowledge and experience.

GUIDELINES

The Faculty Mentoring Program is based on voluntary participation. Any nontenured faculty member may request a mentor and subsequently assume the role of a mentee. Any tenured faculty member may volunteer to serve as a mentor. The mentor and mentee participation in the Mentoring Program shall be considered a part of the individual's assigned duties. The Mentoring Program is available to newly hired faculty and current nontenured faculty. The role of the mentor is to supplement, not replace, the assistance provided by the appropriate administrator, colleagues, and the Assistant Director for Administrative Services. The mentor may serve to coach, encourage, advise, and critique the mentee's research and publication. Mentors may also meet with other faculty to obtain suggestions for improving the mentee's research and publication, if that is acceptable to the mentee. Mentors are advisorry and do not assist in the actual research or writing. It is the responsibility of the mentee to meet the OSU Libraries' promotion and tenure criteria. The mentor will not be responsible for the outcome of any personnel action involving the review, promotion, or tenure of the mentee.

New faculty will be informed about the mentoring program at the time of their interview and will be reminded of it periodically by the appropriate administrator. A nontenured faculty member may initiate the mentoring process at any time, but is encouraged to participate in the program during the early stages of appointment. New faculty may request mentoring assistance once they have become familiar with their work responsibilities, which typically occurs within the first three months of appointment. The relationship between the mentor and mentee will be informal, flexible and usually for a mutually agreeable duration of time.

BENEFITS

The mentors are provided with an opportunity to share their knowledge and expertise, shape the career of colleagues, and contribute to the service component of faculty responsibilities.

The mentees are given the opportunity to learn more about the university and community, meet new colleagues, and potentially be more successful in their career.

RESPONSIBILITIES

It is expected that the mentor and mentee will develop goals at the beginning of the mentoring relationship and will evaluate those goals periodically. It is voluntary whether the mentee accepts the mentor's advice or recommendations. However, the mentee should identify specific expectations of the mentor and make those clear to the mentor at the beginning of the process. All issues written and discussed by the mentor and mentee will be kept confidential. If a research project involving a coauthorship begins to develop between the mentor and mentee, the mentor is required to withdraw immediately from the formal mentoring relationship. Both participants are encouraged to contact the Mentoring Program Coordinator on a periodic basis to discuss their progress.

The Mentoring Program Coordinator will be a member of the AP&T Committee. The Coordinator is appointed by the Chair on an annual basis. The duties of the Coordinator include recruiting volunteers to serve as mentors; providing an orientation for new mentors; matching mentor with mentee; serving as a resource to mentors and mentees; and rearranging mentoring assignments of the mentor and mentee as requested. The Coordinator offers an oral report to the Committee from time to time on the progress of the Mentoring Program.