VCU Faculty Mentoring Program

The Model¹

VCU’s Faculty Mentoring Program integrates two parts: a vertical dyadic approach of a mentor-mentee and knowledge groups of faculty to provide comprehensive support in the areas of research, teaching & learning, and in navigating academia. See figure 1. The program is open to assistant and associate professors (tenure-eligible/tenured and term). The program includes activities such as regular mentors’ café.

Figure 1: Structure of Mentoring Program

Description

An assistant or associate professor can select one full professor from the list of mentors provided. A mentor can work with a maximum of two mentees. The program suggests that mentees select mentors who are not in their department and school/college. This is the vertical dyad part of the mentoring program.

Additionally, the Mentoring Program includes three knowledge groups for all mentees. The knowledge groups will comprise 3 to 4 faculty members.

Research and Scholarship: This knowledge group will provide information and guidance to enhance your research and creative endeavors.  Examples: pointing to potential collaborators, strategies for writing and publishing and building creative art, writing grants and securing external funding; providing tips about these topics by sharing experiences.

Teaching and Learning: This knowledge group will support teaching and learning. Additionally, the programs/sessions/tools provided by the Center for Teaching & Learning Excellence may be accessed.  Examples: scholarship of teaching and learning; sharing syllabi information, ways to engage students, ideas for curricular innovation.

Navigating Academia: This knowledge group will assist with thinking through academic expectations, managing workloads, navigating challenges, identifying resources, balancing life-work and assessing goals – short and long term - periodically.

In the first-year pilot, each knowledge group will hold one session a semester that will be open to all the mentees in the program.

Benefits

The program is intended to offer the following benefits to the mentees:

• Candid conversations from one-to-one advice and support
• Guidance to navigate academia
• Enable retention and increased productivity
• Develop a career plan
• Build community and networks
• Awareness of and access to resources through knowledge groups
• Expanded professional community

Expectations of Mentors & Mentees: Vertical Dyads 

All mentors will be required to attend a workshop offered by the Office of the Provost-Faculty Affairs prior to starting to meet with mentees.  A refresher workshop will be offered at the start of each academic year. Additionally, mentors must meet with their mentees at least twice a semester. The mentors should also be accessible in the event the mentee has an unanticipated concern. 

The mentors will attend one Mentor’s Café each semester. The café will be a space for mentors to share issues, concerns, and accomplishments, and advice tips. These interactions will enable administration to respond to and address recurring concerns and disseminate accomplishments.

Assistant and associate professors may seek assistance from Faculty Affairs to select their mentor. Each mentee will meet with their mentor at least twice a semester, and additionally if there is a pressing issue. The mentees are expected to attend the meetings with the knowledge groups and share professional successes with Faculty Affairs.

Both mentors and mentees are expected to participate in the assessment of the effectiveness of the program.

Expectations of Knowledge Groups

The knowledge groups are intended to provide additional mentoring support to assistant and associate professors. To do this, the Office of the Provost - Faculty Affairs will identify topics of interest and host sessions through the knowledge groups to support the mentees. Each knowledge group will contribute to at least one session each semester for all the mentees. The session will be structured in consultation with Faculty Affairs.

Pilot Initiative

The mentoring program will launch as a pilot in spring 2025. The pilot will be open to all faculty.  We will begin with 10 mentors that will provide 20 mentee spots (vertical dyad) and additional faculty mentors for each knowledge group. The announcement of the initial one-year pilot program will be made before the end of spring 2025. The program will start with a workshop held in spring 2025.  This pilot program includes assessments designed to identify areas of growth, opportunities for revision, and expansion.

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¹ The foundations of the VCU Faculty Mentoring program are drawn from the CRN model adopted and implemented by Mangala Subramaniam at Purdue University which remains as her intellectual property. Reference: Subramaniam. Mangala. “Doing the ‘Work’ of Creating Transformative Structures for Faculty Success: Model for Mentoring across Gender and Race.” Unpublished paper.