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SUBJECT: Mentoring Guidelines
APPROVED BY
CASL Executive Committee 04/08/97
EFFECTIVE DATE: September 1, 1997 for Newly Hired Faculty (optional for current eligible faculty)

POLICY STATEMENT
Increasingly, faculty mentoring is advanced as a process that can address the preparation of new faculty in areas that lie outside subject matter expertise, areas such as teaching style, publishing, design of courses and course materials, assessment, governance, and even professional ethics.

All newly-hired tenure track faculty (and certain lecturers as identified by departments) who wish to participate in the College mentoring programs should have a mentor or group of mentors identified for them by the Department Chair. In making this identification, chairs should keep in mind issues such as area of specialization, gender, ethnicity, research and teaching records (in some cases, it might be advantageous and appropriate if one of the mentors were from a different discipline or department.)

Mentors should be encouraged to meet informally with the new faculty member. Appropriate responsibilities of the mentor include: keeping the new faculty member informed about responsibilities and providing advice in the key areas teaching, research, and service, Additionally, a mentor is someone who helps a new faculty member become acculturated to the University, who provides advice, guidance, and help as a new faculty member develops greater understanding of, and capabilities in, the role of a faculty member at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. These assignments are a part of the responsibilities of senior faculty, and are an expression of the College's commitment to providing an environment supportive of its faculty, especially new faculty.

As understandings and capabilities grow and change, it is to be expected that a new faculty member may see that another senior faculty member (or, indeed, another group of faculty) may be able to offer more suitable help, or a mentor may feel that he or she has nothing further to offer a new faculty member. Either the mentor(s) or the new faculty member should understand that such concerns or problems are a perfectly appropriate topic to be addressed with the Department Chair, who will, if requested, identify a new mentor or group of mentors in consultation with the new faculty member. Such an occasion is not a failure, but should be viewed as a natural consequence of maturing agendas as teachers and scholars.

Both mentors and mentees are encouraged to evaluate these activities in their usual annual reports to the Department Chair, in a separate section; the effectiveness of mentoring activities is an appropriate topic for discussion in annual review letters. Mentors may include their mentoring activities in reports of service activities.