The purpose of the Faculty Mentoring Program at Eastern is to support new faculty members by providing them with the option of having a mentor. Mentors offer guidance, support and information to new faculty members during their first year at Eastern. Mentoring relationships enhance the success of new faculty members as teachers, researchers, and members of the University community and provide mentors with new ideas, insights and inspiration.

PAIRINGS  

Pairings are made by the Director of the Center for Educational Excellence for all new faculty members who indicate by way of the Mentoring Program Application form that they wish to participate. The form is distributed to new faculty members at the end of August. Each new faculty member is paired with a mentor who is a faculty member from a different department.   

PROCEDURES
  
At the beginning of each academic year, after the pairings have been made, the Center for Educational Excellence will arrange an initial lunch meeting of all mentors and new faculty. Program guidelines and other information will be distributed at the meeting and mailed to faculty members who are not able to attend. After the initial meeting, each pair will plan for and arrange their own meetings as frequently as seems useful and practical. For mealtime meetings, the Center for Educational Excellence will provide a charge card that can be used at on-campus dining facilities. Arrangements for picking up the card for each meeting can be made by contacting the Center at x5-4567. At the end of the year, a follow-up meeting will be arranged at which mentors and new faculty members come together to discuss the year. Based on the discussion, the Center will make modifications to Orientation, the Mentoring Program, and other Center activities.

ROLE AND RESPONSIBILITIES OF THE MENTOR

Mentors provide support, encouragement and advice to new faculty members. The role of the mentor is to help the new faculty member adjust to the environment at Eastern. The mentor should contact the new faculty member periodically, arrange for meetings, and provide information, guidance, direction, and encouragement. Mentors are not expected to intercede on behalf of new faculty members, but instead can offer information about who can help deal with difficulties. Mentors do not provide written or verbal assessments of a new faculty member's performance to department chairs, deans or other administrators.

ROLE OF THE NEW FACULTY MEMBER

New faculty members should contact their mentors when issues or concerns arise between
meetings. They should feel free to discuss concerns and difficulties, as well as successes, keeping in mind that mentors will not provide written or verbal assessments of a new faculty member's performance to any department chair, dean or other administrator. The new faculty member may contact the mentor directly in order to arrange a meeting or, if preferred, may contact the Center (x5-4567) to request that a meeting be arranged with the mentor.    

DURATION OF MENTORING RELATIONSHIPS

Mentoring relationships last officially for only one year, but in recognition of the fact that both new faculty member and mentor may benefit from continued contact, the Center will continue to support mentoring relationships beyond the faculty member's first year.
   
ROLE OF CENTER FOR EDUCATIONAL EXCELLENCE    

• The role of the Center for Educational Excellence is to coordinate the Mentoring Program:
  
     • Identify appropriate mentors
     • Pair new faculty members with mentors
     • Arrange for September and May gatherings
     • Pay for meal time meetings of pairs and make arrangements for them, if necessary
     • Provide program guidelines
     • Provide other materials that the new faculty member and mentor feel would be helpful     
  
  If the mentor and/or new faculty member identify a resource or service that will be of help to the new faculty member, the Center will attempt to make appropriate arrangements.
  
  
              Click here for link to Mentoring Program Application