This document summarizes discussions from a retreat on promoting mentoring at USC. It addresses mentoring needs for undergraduate students, graduate students, and faculty at various career stages. For undergraduates, it recommends a multi-layered mentoring program involving staff, faculty, and alumni to provide academic and career guidance. For graduate students and faculty, it suggests training mentors and developing formal and informal mentoring programs tailored to fields and career stages. Overall, it emphasizes the need for a culture that rewards mentoring through recognition, resources for information sharing, and spaces promoting interactions.

1. A preliminary reportonAcademic Senate/Provost Retreat February 11-12, 2011 Promoting The Culture of Mentoring at USC Sandeep Guptaon behalf of the Executive Board of the Academic Senate

3. BackgroundOver 75 attendeesThe Provost and many from her officeAcademic Senate, entire EB and many membersSeveral schools administratorsSeveral from CET, CER, ALD, and this forum

4. BackgroundFour panels,Faculty Mentoring UndergraduatesFaculty Mentoring Graduate Students & PostdocsFaculty Mentoring Faculty (Teaching & Career Development)Faculty Mentoring Faculty (Scholarship) Format: Presentations -> Breakouts -> Reports from breakouts

5. A short report

6. Undergraduate studentsVery wide range of needsAcademic and career developmentSome overwhelmed; others insufficiently challengedIntrinsic passion vs. external factors determine program choiceMismatch between passion and capabilitiesPersonal: Psychological, financial, …Pre-professional students face special challengesLarge numbers of students concentrated in a few programsTypically enrolled in programs that are not in their target schools

7. Undergraduate studentsIn most schoolsStudent services staff is strong and builds relationships with each studentMentoring much more than academic advisingRecognize strengths and weaknesses and help them succeedIncrease availability of faculty mentorsTo improve academic guidance and/or letters of recommendationsTo increase opportunities for involvement in research, scholarly, or creative projectsAlso peer-mentoring programs

8. Graduate and post-doctoral scholars Train doctoral students for a wide range of careers: professional, teaching, research, …Provide opportunities to gain teaching experienceProvide transferrable skills: Problem solving, writing, quantitative and computing skillsOpportunities to network with professionalsPartnership between career center and schoolsAlumni as professional mentors

9. Junior facultyObjective: Career developmentEspecially research/scholarship/creativeLearning to translate passions into academic idiomLearning to mentor graduate studentsLearning to excel in teachingBy observing great teachersBy being observed and receiving constructive feedbackModes: Senior to junior; peer-groups

10. Mid-career facultyObjectivesChanging research focusBeginning the transition from innovator to leaderMaintaining passion; updating research topic/areas or styleGreater emphasis on service (after being protected from excessive service in junior ranks)

11. Senior facultyObjectivesLeadership developmentResearch, service, and administrationUSC and globalUpdating teaching: Curriculum and methodsJunior mentors for senior faculty?

12. Basic questions and challengesDefinition and purpose of mentoring?Advocate, coach, well wisher, …?Focus on mentee or USC?Will asking for help considered a sign of weakness?Infringement of academic freedom?How intrusive?

13. StructuralInformation Unawareness of practices, programs, and resourcesDo all senior faculty know the prevailing standards (e.g., at UCAPT)?Matching mentors and menteesAssignment, changes, self-selectionSingle mentor or multipleWhen: Offer letter, when they arrive at USC, …Separation between mentor and mentee: authorship, collaboration, …Changes with a mentee’s progression

14. StructuralTraining programs/seminarsBest practices in teachingChanging teachingChanging studentsExploit emerging techniques and technologyChanging researchPractices in fieldsFunding prioritiesTrain mentors: University rules and practices, effective mentoring approaches, inter-personal skills

15. StructuralRecognizing and rewarding mentoringCourse releaseFinancial incentiveAFRPersonal and professional satisfactionImprove opportunities for casual conversations leading to mentoring, collaborations, …SpacesCulture

16. StructuralProblems of scale: Difficult to assignindividual faculty mentors to UG and masters studentsindividual senior researcher mentors to junior facultyDevelop multi-layered approachesPrograms for general issues, individual mentoring for specific ones

17. Undergraduate studentsDevelop a multi-layered programAugment existing resources with a pool of faculty mentorsIdentify particular issues at points of one-on-one interactionsFaculty and TAs who have one-on-one interactionsStudent services staffWhen appropriate, bring in a faculty mentor

18. Programs, policies, culture

20. Culture and policiesEmphasize and reward mentoringAppreciation and awardsExplicit parts of annual reviews and UCAPTResources: Information exchange and expertsPromote interactions: Culture, spaces, …

21. ProgramsMentoring the complete undergraduate: A multi-layered mentoring program thatInvolves staff, front-line faculty and TAs, faculty mentors, and professionals from the field, especially alumniSpans academic advising, program placement optimization, involvement in projects and internships, networking and career advancementMentoring the complete graduate student

22. ProgramsTraining faculty mentorsGeneral plus field-specificFor various career tracks and for various stages of careerAssign explicit responsibility for effective mentoring of faculty in all tracksMentoring programs that combineGeneral with specifically tailored for field and career track/stageGroup and individualFormal as well as individual