New Program for New Faculty Mentoring at California State University, Chico

CSU, Chico is a comprehensive university with high expectations for both teaching (4 courses per semester) and scholarly work. In an attempt to introduce faculty to their new positions, a two-day New Faculty Orientation has been offered for the last two decades. In AY 2014-15, in an attempt to improve the first year experience for new faculty, the Office of Faculty Affairs established and assessed a New Faculty Mentoring program. Eight college-based mentors were selected based on recommendations by College Deans who suggested successful teachers and scholars who could provide the social and leadership skills to effectively guide others. Based on a needs-assessment survey new faculty completed during orientation, mentors met with their new faculty cohort at least monthly to discuss campus resources, host workshops and provide other support in areas of time management, work-life balance, teaching pedagogies, discipline-specific internal and external funding resources, student support resources, and the preparation of Review/Retention documents. Mentors were paid a small stipend for their work and met twice each semester to discuss readings on mentoring best practices, their mentoring activities with new faculty and to compare the needs of their mentees. Survey results from 28 of 37 new faculty respondents indicate they valued Review/Retention workshops, mentor reviews of teaching and the opportunity to visit mentor classrooms for examples of good teaching practices. Social events helped establish cohorts, although some mentees indicated that some cohorts were too large. An unforeseen outcome was recognition that mid-year hires need to also be included in new faculty cohort groups. Moving forward, mentors will continue to work with their original mentees for a 2nd year. A new group of mentors will be identified for faculty starting in fall 2015 who will work with smaller first-year faculty cohorts and will coordinate with the first generation mentors for peer support.