Mentorings of Faculty: Principles and Practices

At Duke University

March 7, 2006

HISTORY OF THIS DOCUMENT

Mentoring is an important topic in faculty development at Duke University, and has been a subject of discussion in many committees over the past two to three years. Judith Ruderman, Vice Provost for Academic and Administrative Services, prepared earlier drafts of this document for review by the Faculty Diversity Standing Committee in 2004 following conversations with Provost Lange, Dean of Social Sciences Susan Roth, a faculty group convened by the Provost for this purpose, dean’s cabinet, and interviews with a few individual faculty members. Drafts were circulated to the FDSC, the Faculty Women’s Network, and the faculty subcommittee of the President’s Commission on the Status of Women (PCSW), since “mentoring” is the major theme for PCSW in 2005-06. This version reflects input from all these sources and contains additional work by Nancy Allen, who serves as Special Assistant to the Provost for Faculty Diversity and Faculty Development in 2005-06, with a final review by the FDSC at a committee meeting on March 6, 2006.

FOUNDATIONAL PRINCIPLES

Mentoring is a critical component of the professional development of junior faculty and the well-being of the institution. Mentoring effectively across the institution will help us in our efforts to diversify our faculty through improved retention rates of women and under-represented minority faculty in certain fields. Mentoring is also an important component of a respectful, positive work environment. Thus, Duke University seeks to strengthen its mentoring “culture” by making mentoring a priority and by undertaking and/or regularizing sound mentoring practices, among faculty as well as across the generations of undergraduate students, graduate and professional students, post-doctoral fellows, and faculty. In this document, we will address the principles and best practices for mentorings of faculty only, taking care to note that all faculty have additional responsibilities to mentor undergraduates, graduate and/or professional students, post-doctoral fellows, trainees (in medicine), and even, K-12 students in our community.

Range of Mentoring Settings and Opportunities. Mentoring is a multi-faceted endeavor, with many elements, and we recognize that there is no single approach that works in all situations. Even the word “mentoring” is interpreted differently in different situations or in the same situation by different people. The concept of mentoring encompasses the proffering of information, advice, support, encouragement, honest feedback, problem-solving, referrals, networking opportunities, and advocacy. Mentoring can be implicit, in the form of role modeling, as well as explicit. Faculty members need mentoring to do their jobs most effectively, but what each individual needs varies with the person and his or her circumstances at the time. As well, faculty members need different kinds of mentoring as they advance through their careers and/or through the institution. There are, thus, highly articulated and evolutionary aspects to mentoring. There is not a “one-size-fits-all” approach to this topic. Particular attention needs to be paid to the mentorings of faculty of color and women faculty, and efforts at all levels are needed to sustain and enhance the momentum we have in these areas across all schools. The 2005 Faculty Survey highlights the need for effective mentoring for junior faculty and for women, particularly women in the sciences.

Mentorings, Not Just Mentoring. Not every mentor will provide all possible benefits, and, as noted, not every mentee needs them all, or needs them from one person. Indeed, it is more exact to refer to “mentorings” rather than the singular, mentoring. For example, a faculty member might seek a role model in a person who balances work, family, and community responsibilities while looking to a second person for advice on journal publications and a third for a take on departmental politics or how to become involved at the national level in their field.

Diversity Concerns. Although research, teaching, and service are at the heart of mentoring relationships, mentors should be attuned to specific issues that junior faculty may confront within their everyday lives. For example, faculty of color and gay faculty may have unique demands placed on them by students who identify with them, faculty with young children may have difficulty balancing competing demands, or perceived language barriers may create prejudice in the classroom. There are myriads of unique yet salient issues that mentors need to approach in a delicate but professional manner. There is evidence that women benefit from having female mentors, but not exclusively. African Americans faculty gain skills from other African Americans, thus they are in higher demand, because of numbers, as mentors for the range of mentees.

The Broad Range of Mentors, Within and Outside of Duke University. Sometimes a departmental team or committee approach works well; in other cases, the mentee may benefit from the mentorship of different but “unrelated” mentors, including those from another Duke department or school. For broader professional development, mentors from beyond Duke, including former advisors at other institutions, can be helpful. Finally, we need not think of mentoring as totally hierarchical or “vertical.” Mentoring of junior faculty need not be done only by senior faculty; indeed, some senior faculty members are not well-suited for this responsibility. Mentoring can also be done by peers. Importantly, administrative staff personnel within the unit are often in possession of much useful information and experience that can be transmitted in a mentoring relationship.

Tenure and Promotion Decisions and the Mentoring Relationship. Another faculty member in the same department who has voting rights on tenure decisions may mentor junior faculty. However, any dual commitments of a mentor, such as to the individual and to the department, must be fully explored, agreed upon, and understood by both parties. In general, mentors must have clarity on what is expected of them and mentees need to know what they can expect from any given mentoring relationship. Mediation between colleagueship and advocacy, judgment and collaboration may require specific institutional, school or departmental policies.

Formats for Mentoring. Just as mentoring can take place within varied relationships, so too it occurs in multiple formats, including but not limited to groups of peers, seminars, workshops on particular topics of interest and need (grant writing, negotiation skills, communication, enhancing teaching skills), panel discussions, one-on-one sit-downs with another faculty member, annual review sessions with the division chief (in the School of Medicine), chair and/or dean, and tenure meetings and panels with the dean and/or provost. Planning and advertising these sessions to appropriate audiences is key to participation and education of faculty.

Offer Letters –Initiating the Mentoring Practice. Mentoring begins even before the faculty member arrives on campus, with an emphasis in the offer letter (and subsequently in reappointment letters) on such issues as expectations for success and resources available to help meet them. Responsibilities for research, teaching, and service should be clearly stated there, as elsewhere. Strategies for negotiating these often competing demands should be communicated explicitly throughout the pre-tenure years.

New Faculty Hires. Once the faculty member arrives on campus, mentors can be both assigned and chosen. The department, division or school leadership should provide mentors, perhaps on short-term assignments for a year, while the brand new faculty member gets his or her sea legs; as well, Duke should provide appropriate training sessions for mentors. Opportunities to see and hear about successful mentoring relationships will inspire others to seek out what may work best for her/him. Young scholars should also be encouraged to claim agency in seeking and constructing the mentoring relationships they deem appropriate to their own circumstances and needs. They also should learn when and how to disengage from a mentoring relationship.

Mentoring Through the Ranks. Mentoring can and should take different forms across departments and schools, with junior faculty as well as with graduate students and more senior faculty, too. A “mentoring hole,” particularly for women, may exist between tenure and full professorship and between full professorship and named chair. Increased attention to mentoring the associate professor with tenure to ensure continued productivity and increased involvement at the institutional level is clearly an opportunity that is often forgotten, and if done deliberately and well, will enhance excellence in our faculty. Mentoring of full professors to maintain momentum at the peak of their academic careers, to support their activities and to encourage collaboration in strategic ways, will pay off in the long run.

BEST PRACTICES

Whatever forms mentoring takes, the provostial imprimatur is important and “best practices” should govern. We begin with the responsibilities of the faculty member, followed by the chair, who plays a critical role in creating a local environment in which mentoring can flourish. The chair should be supported by and accountable to his/her dean, who is ultimately responsible to inform the provost on the status of mentoring in his/her school. We are not interested in lip-service only, but in real results, tangible effects on the climate and culture within departments, which will foster a healthy and supportive environment for all faculty members. Implicit in this culture of mentoring is the cornerstone of communication of the mission, goals, and strategic plans Duke is pursuing and in which we want everyone’s participation. Duke University’s reputation for innovation, interdisciplinarity, and vibrant intellectual collaborations will be strengthened by proper attention to mentoring in all units.

Faculty Members:

• assume the responsibility to be actively aware of mentoring possibilities, and to accept the request for formal or informal mentoring when asked
• help the chair to persuade appropriate faculty in the department to serve as mentors
• assist the chair in developing and discussing mentoring practices
• acquaint the chair with any factors in the departmental climate that encourage—or hinder—a faculty member’s progress
• track your own professional progress as a mentor and mentee; share your success with others
• embrace opportunities to serve as mentor for undergraduate, graduate and professional students, post-doctoral fellows, as well as K-12 students in our community

Chairs (and/or Division Chiefs in the School of Medicine):

· make mentoring a priority in the department and discuss mentoring practices collectively

· in offer and reappointment letters: set clear expectations for success and resources available for assistance in achieving it

· orient new faculty to the departmental culture and procedures, both formal and informal

· in annual review letters, especially the first one, give clarity about the progress toward tenure: expectations, achievements, and areas for improvement

· enlist leading senior faculty to undertake explicitly the role of mentor and to persuade others to join the initiative

· assist faculty in finding appropriate mentors and providing appropriate mentorings to others

· monitor closely committee and other service assignments of junior faculty to assure they are not being asked to do extraordinary service (e.g., only in the rarest of circumstances and with the Dean’s approval should they be asked to undertake formal departmental roles such as DUS: Director of Undergraduate Studies) or assignments that unduly burden their progress in teaching and research

· be aware of the factors in the departmental climate that encourage—or hinder—a faculty member’s progress

· hold faculty in the department accountable for effective mentorship and make part of the annual performance review – including mentoring as a line item in annual reports from each faculty member

· reward faculty and staff for effective mentoring

Deans

· ensure that there is a mentoring plan in place for the school

· ensure the training of chairs/unit heads in best practices for mentoring

· provide oversight of chairs in matters of mentoring, with one-on-one conversations

· hold chairs accountable for their departmental culture, climate, and for implementing mentoring practices and charting results

· orient new faculty to expectations for promotion, tenure and University citizenship

· meet with junior faculty and assure that their service assignments are appropriate

· be mindful of the extra service burdens often placed on women and underrepresented minorities when nominating them for committee work

Provost

· hold deans accountable for the culture and climate of their schools

· convene new faculty in the fall and spring of their first year at Duke University for a conversation with the provost

· provide training or coaching to chairs and deans whose leadership and management skills need enhancement

· ensure that training programs for faculty in leadership positions contain training elements on good mentoring practices

· support networks of peer mentors

· assure that reappointment files/letters contain appropriate advice regarding progress toward tenure, expectations for tenure and advice about how to improve performance as a faculty member and preparation for the tenure decision

· address ways to modulate the tension between collaboration between faculty members and arms’ length evaluation in the promotion and tenure process

· support space and facilities for social opportunities; fully exploit the Faculty Commons for mentoring purposes

· promote communication tools that make information more transparent and widespread

· be mindful of the extra service burdens often placed on women and minorities when nominating them for committee work; at the same time, be mindful that certain university committees provide especially effective forums for networking and learning

· in concert with the Faculty Diversity Standing Committee and the deans, address special needs of minority men and women and women in general

· promote collective experiences that serve a mentoring function, such as forums on such topics as managing teaching obligations, with both senior and junior faculty in attendance

· recognize and reward those who mentor exceptionally well, particularly in the areas of identified strategic goals of the institution, such as diversity, interdisciplinarity, internationalization

Respectfully Submitted,

Faculty Diversity Standing Committee

March 7, 2006

Nancy B. Allen (Medicine), Chair

Lee Baker (Cultural Anthropology)

Ann Brown (Medicine)

April Brown (Electrical and Computer Engineering)

John Clum (Theater Studies)

Wagner Kamakura (Fuqua)

Ken Kreuzer (Biochemistry)

Michael Reed (Mathematics)

William “Monty” Reichert (Biomedical Engineering)

Laura Svetkey (Medicine)

Ex Officio

Ben Reese – Vice President, Institutional Equity

Susan Roth – Dean of Social Sciences

Judith Ruderman – Vice Provost for Academic and Administrative Services

Presented to Provost Peter Lange, March 7, 2006

Discussed at Deans’ Cabinet, April 17, 2006

Placed on Provost’s website, September 19, 2006