ABSTRACT
On some campuses, the offices of the provost and/or dean of the faculty assign a two-or three-person mentoring committee to each faculty newcomer, whether minority or majority. I applaud this practice. All of the mentors are senior professors; one is drawn from the newcomer’s own department, but the other two are from outside that department. A typical campus-wide mentoring program for new hires can be organized this way: Senior faculty in various departments volunteer or are nominated to be mentors; they receive cross-cultural and cross-gender coaching to improve their skills. (In chapter 6, I provide pointers and caveats for mentors as well as their mentees.) The mentoring committee and its mentee agree to meet informally at least once per month, with lunch perhaps paid for by the provost’s office. The once-per-month meeting requirement must be rigid, according to faculty-development expert Boice (2000), or else the new faculty hire will probably become a no-show when s/he succumbs to the frenetic and overwhelming busyness of the first year.
