American University of Beirut

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• ​1. Objective 
  
• ​2. Overview
• 3. Responsibilities of Mentees
• 4. Responsibilities of Mentors
• ​5. Responsibilities of Department Chairs
• 6. Responsibilities of the Dean's Office
• Appendix 1: Suggested Areas of Mentorship and Topics of Discussion between Mentor and Mentee and Chairperson and Mentee
• ​Appendix 2: Flowcharts of FAS Annual Faculty Mentoring Act​ivities
• Appendix 3: FAS Mentee-Mentor Annual Report
  
  

This program's objective is to establish a rigorous mentoring framework to guide and support junior faculty in building long and productive careers at the university.

To meet the stated objective, a clear structure and a detailed guideline are essential for this program. This document outlines the responsibilities of the mentee, the mentor, the department chair, and FAS Dean's O​​ffice. It describes the reporting hierarchy and its frequency. This document was adapted from existing programs at AUB (mainly MSFEA) and other universities in North America (University of Pennsylvania, Michigan State University, Northern Illinois University, University of Maryland, and MIT).

    Figure 1: Suggested timeline for the mentorship program until the submission of the first Mentor-Mentee report.​

Mentees are responsible for the following:

I.  Interaction with Mentor and Department Chair

• Select a mentor from your or related department in consultation with the department chair

• Meet regularly with the mentor and with the department chair

• Ask the mentor for guidance and assistance whenever needed and listen with an open mind

• Maintain confidentiality of your discussions with your mentor

• Let the department chair know when a mentoring relationship needs to be modified

• Prepare together with your mentor an annual mentoring report of the annual mentoring activities provided to you by your mentor, and submit it to the department chair.
  

II.  Policies and Procedures

• Be informed of documented policies and procedures in the AUB Faculty Manual (https://www.aub.edu.lb/provost/Pages/manualupdated.aspx), especially regarding the requirements for tenure and promotion and your progress toward meeting those requirements
  

Mentors are mainly responsible for providing developmental mentoring consisting of support, information, advice, and feedback to the mentee but not official evaluation. The short-term and long-term goals of their mentoring relationships with their mentees include the following:

I. Short-Term Goals

• Take the initiative for contacting your mentees and stay in touch with them

• Clarify mutual expectations about the frequency of contact and your accessibility; devote time to the relationship and be available when requested, yet be clear about how much time and guidance you can offer and in which areas you can support the mentee

• Direct the mentee to available resources at institutional, Faculty, and departmental levels

• Assist the mentee in networking and introduction to colleagues

• Help the mentee develop awareness and understanding of relevant policies and procedures and of the "system" such as AUB's policies for promotion and tenure, and what they must accomplish in a specific period to advance academically

• Help the mentee develop understanding of and integrate within the departmental culture

• Help the mentee sort out priorities for balancing research, teaching, and service and set clear objectives

• Provide developmental mentoring in research, teaching, and service by sharing your knowledge and experience. A detailed list of possible topics of mentoring is provided in Appendix 1​.

• On research, be available to review grant proposals and manuscripts, provide advice about extramural funding sources and journals to target for paper submission, point out potential collaborations, help the faculty member define relevant areas of research and build and sustain a leading research program, etc.

• On teaching, give advice on the teaching of existing courses and the development of new courses and on various aspects of teaching (grading, dealing with students, etc.). Direct the faculty member towards existing resources on campus for teaching excellence and volunteer to observe the faculty member teaching.

• On service, provide advice about the amount and type of service to do.

• Assist the mentee with his/her various questions and needs and provide advice on how to deal with difficulties (staff support, access to students, etc.)

• Maintain confidentiality of your discussions with your mentees

• Let the department chair know when a mentoring relationship needs to be changed

• For each of your mentees, prepare jointly with your mentee an annual report that describes the mentoring activities provided in that year, to be submitted to the department Chair

II. Long-Term Goals

• Provide the mentee with constructive criticism and feedback on progress towards promotion (without evaluating the mentee, which is left to the department chair)

• Provide guidance on how to achieve career advancement and develop visibility and prominence within the profession

• Encourage professional independence

• Be an advocate for your mentee: argue in support of the mentee for funds, students, space, etc.
  
  

The department chair should assume responsibility for the entire mentoring process at the departmental level, with responsibilities involving information provision and resourcing for new faculty before and at the beginning of the appointment, evaluative mentoring, oversight of the mentoring program at the departmental level, and reporting to the Dean's Office​​​ and developing/implementing guidelines for junior faculty support. The specific responsibilities are described below.

I. Information Provision and Resourcing

•  Act as the new faculty member's mentor from the moment the offer is accepted and work with the new faculty member to choose a mentor by the end of the first semester after the appointment. When the offer is accepted, the chair should communicate with the new faculty member to (i) inform them of teaching load/course release policy and agree on types of courses they will teach in the first year (required and elective courses), (ii) ensure that adequate resources are made available with the first year of appointment and are budgeted for (office space, lab space, equipment, software, etc.), and (iii) answer any questions they may have or help direct them to resources and written information.

• Participate in organizing an orientation session for new and other junior faculty members to explain policies and procedures at the university, Faculty, and department levels (in the second month of the fall semester annually). It is suggested that the Dean's Office organize this orientation as part of a FAS-wide orientation for junior faculty since many of the topics of concern to junior faculty members are common across departments.

II. Evaluative Mentoring

•  Mentor junior faculty on evaluative aspects including reappointment/promotion/tenure issues on an as-needed basis

•  Conduct the annual performance review of every faculty member and provide substantive feedback in writing and a personal meeting with the faculty member

After the contract renewal evaluation and the promotion/tenure evaluation, the chair is responsible for providing substantive feedback about the faculty member's performance and/or progress toward promotion, including excerpts from external reviewers' letters.

III.  Oversight and Reporting

•  Maintain an updated list of assigned mentor-mentee pairs in the department and share it with the Dean's Office annually (at the time of the annual performance reviews when mentors may be changed) or whenever it is updated (e.g. at the end of the first semester on campus of new faculty members when mentors are assigned)

•  Encourage the active participation of senior faculty in mentoring, prepare them for their mentoring role to overcome possible biases, and clearly communicate to mentors' expectations about their responsibilities and time commitment (e.g. effort to be spent in reviewing grant proposals or giving advice about manuscripts, willingness to give honest feedback and interest in their mentees' professional growth)

•  Protect junior faculty from situations that may make them vulnerable: such as demands from senior faculty that may take excessively from their time, or being exploited in group grants or facilities

• Document and evaluate the mentoring activities at the department level, ensure that mentoring is taking place in the department, and send an annual report of mentoring activities for every mentor-mentee pair in the department to the Dean's Office.

IV. Guidelines for Junior Faculty Support

•  Ensure that there are favorable departmental guidelines in place for junior faculty support and that these guidelines are applied as much as possible:

• Service: Avoid burdening junior faculty with excessive service obligations, including committee load. Keep service to a minimum in the first few years, for example, by involving the faculty member in at most two committees (especially those involving a visible payoff for the time invested) and preferably at the departmental level and not at the expense of research and teaching.

• Teaching: Balance the number of new start-up courses for junior faculty, try not to give them a new course to teach every semester (e.g. the course taught in the fall of the first year can be repeated in the spring of the first year), and try to avoid assigning them teaching overload; provide the opportunity for the new faculty member to teach a graduate class in his/her area of research, potentially attracting students who may become research students.

• Resources: Give priority access of junior faculty to good graduate students (as the first few graduate students have an influence on the faculty member's advancement towards promotion) and to resources that support research and professional development (equipment, space, RA supplements, and travel/workshop support funds).

• Encourage the practice of peer observation of teaching and class​room visitations for new faculty members especially in their first year after appointment (to be conducted by the mentors, senior faculty members in the department who are willing to do so, or peers of the junior faculty member), as well as co-teaching courses between junior and senior faculty.
  
  

It is suggested that an Associate or Assistant Dean for Faculty Development play the role of lead coordinator of mentoring and faculty development efforts at the Faculty level who would provide oversight to departments' faculty mentoring programs or activities, reinforce existing guidelines, or develop new ones for junior faculty support, organize mentorship and faculty development activities at the Faculty level, and act as a liaison with other units in AUB, such as the Provost Office, the Office of Grants and Contracts, etc. More specifically, the following responsibilities are envisioned for the Dean's Office in terms of the junior faculty mentoring program:

1. Oversight

• Ensure that mentoring is taking place (by mentors and by chairs)

• Analyze mentoring reports from departments, evaluate the mentoring program, develop strategies for improvement, and document the mentoring process at the Faculty level

• Ensure that departments have guidelines in place to prioritize junior faculty members' access to resources