Mentoring works best when there is give and take, with mentors offering advice or letting mentees know they are there for them and mentees asking questions when they have them. The following list contains some examples of how department mentors have helped tenure-track faculty in the past. Tenure-track faculty are encouraged to use the English Department website (http://depts.uwc.edu/english/) and to ask questions of their department colleagues, whether they are official or unofficial mentors to them.
Possible Activities for Department Mentors
· Explain and encourage the use of available financial resources for Professional Development.
· Discuss service with tenure-track faculty, making suggestions for appropriate service in the department in particular.
· Discuss community service, making suggestions for opportunities if any are known.
· Be an ice-breaker for tenure-track faculty at meetings, helping them to become engaged socially with their colleagues from other campuses.
· Take on the difficult role of critic; when problems arise, the tenure-track faculty member should be made aware of them quickly and given the chance to work on them. For example, if the Executive Committee expresses concerns in a retention letter or if student evaluations indicate an issue, the mentor, if asked by the tenure-track faculty member or by the Executive Committee, may need to further explain the concern and help strategize for improvement.
· Take an active role. Take the initiative in questions, advice, etc.
· Remind tenure-track faculty member of deadlines for Activity Reports and Retention Dossiers. Ask if there are questions about said documents.
· Share teaching ideas or handouts.
· Read materials about teaching and share ideas/engage in a discussion about them.
· Connect the tenure-track faculty member with others in the department who may be able to share such materials as recent dossiers from their given year in the process, information about a particular field, ideas about community service, etc.