1.6: Mentoring
Develop leadership skills in tenured faculty through mentoring Other Information:
The university seeks to have and develop skilled intellectual leaders and to engender an environment in which faculty who
are capable of becoming such leaders actually do so. This depends, in part, on mentoring. The university has recently launched
a new university-wide Mentoring Initiative that articulates best practices for faculty members, chairs, deans, and central
administrators along a continuum. This initiative places emphasis on the role of the chair in creating a local environment
in which mentoring can flourish and the roles of the dean and the provost in promoting and monitoring a climate and mentoring
culture supportive of all faculty members. While schools, institutes, and departments currently provide an array of mentoring
programs for assistant professors, the same is not true for associate and full professors. Moreover, associate professors
are at a point in their careers that is particularly conducive for developing campus leadership, both through scholarship
and service opportunities. Increased attention to mentoring of this cohort would enhance continued productivity and greater
engagement in the institution. In addition, mentoring full professors may help maintain their peak momentum, support their
scholarly and educational activities, and encourage them to collaborate in new and strategic ways. Responding to the recognized
need for greater faculty mentoring, the university will require review of all associate professors as part of the annual salary
evaluation. This review will entail a meeting with department chair, or in the smaller schools the appropriate representatives
from the Dean's office, so that faculty can receive feedback enabling them to better achieve their maximum potential in research,
teaching and service. Moreover, part of this evaluation must address prospects for promotion, thereby enabling schools and
the administration either to mentor faculty in areas that could be strengthened or to proactively promote faculty on steep
positive trajectories. As is the case at other universities, Duke struggles with the proper balance of reward and recognition
for research, teaching and service. It remains imperative to recognize, however, that faculty can - and do - contribute to
the university through a variety of efforts. In recent years, young faculty have tended to place a large emphasis on research,
reflecting their experiences as graduate students or postdoctoral researchers. It is our collective obligation to help young
faculty develop a balanced portfolio, and this requires mentoring by peers, department chairs, and deans. For those more advanced
in their careers, the administration should encourage those whose research activities are less productive to strengthen their
university contributions through teaching and service, accompanied by proper institutional recognition and support for excellence
in these efforts.
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