MENTOR:
Setting up the relationship
Research
Research topic: this is related to maintaining a research focus and working on no more than 2-3 research tracks. Important here is how to establish new research thrusts that go beyond what has been done during Ph.D. work, finding a niche, and discussing whether the department understands the faculty member's research niche and how much they value it. The mentor can guide the mentee towards defining research topics and tracks that are reasonable given the availability of resources, data, etc.
Publishing: faculty members need advice particularly on publication venues, how much is expected, how quality is assessed in performance reviews, trade-off between quality and quantity of publications, what kinds of publications are valued (books, chapters, refereed journal articles, conference proceedings papers), whether it is useful to send publications or working papers to colleagues, and significance of publishing with graduate students.
Authorship: faculty members need mentorship on the importance/designation of first author and corresponding author, issues in collaborative research such as determining order of authorship.
Grants: securing grants is an area for which mentorship is essential for understanding the importance of grants, advice/assistance on writing, awareness about sources of grants and key requirements to successful external funding, assistance in external networking etc. Mentors' review of proposals of junior faculty members is quite important.
Collaborations: establishing research collaborations (within AUB and/or with international collaborators) while maintaining identity is another area that needs mentorship (e.g. in pointing out potential collaborators and in emphasizing the need to remain independent, discussing whether collaborative work is encouraged or discouraged).
Conferences and presentations: mentorship on which conferences to attend, how to obtain travel funds, what to do at meetings to get the kind of exposure that leads to good contacts and potential external referees during the tenure process, importance of presenting research at other universities/institutions/public settings and how to get invited to give these talks
Expectations for promotion and tenure: this refers to clear guidelines or mentorship about expected research output (publications and grants) for promotion and tenure and follow-up on how to best achieve these expectations. Also, expectations during the first few years should be defined.
Time management: this refers to advice on how to manage time across research and teaching, especially at the beginning when the effort spent on teaching is extensive.
Students: junior faculty would also benefit from advice on how to recruit graduate students, what to look for when recruiting them, how to manage and mentor them, how important it is to work with graduate students, and how many ones should expect to supervise.
Resources: information should be clearly conveyed to junior faculty about various resources available to them (access to labs, funding, equipment, etc.) and their needs should be accounted for with the first year of appointment. Procedures for ordering equipment and supplies are also useful information for junior faculty.
Relationships with senior faculty: it is important to empower junior faculty members such that they are not intimidated by senior faculty members and know their rights for instance in terms of order of authors in publications.
Teaching
Course preparation and design: this involves designing a syllabus and structuring the course, designing the course material, preparing exams and labs, determining the right difficulty for a course/exam and the workload level, the extent to which faculty members have the freedom to determine course content, etc. It is also important where possible for the mentor to make provisions for having old/existing course material shared with the new faculty member for existing courses. For new courses, in addition to the mentor's own input, the mentor may be able to provide contacts with faculty members from outside AUB to provide their input where possible.
Teaching methods: this refers to obtaining mentorship on teaching methods such as lecture delivery, handling large classes, establishing authority in a classroom, etc. Classroom visitations by mentors or other senior faculty to the mentee's class as well as observation by the mentee of senior faculty teaching are also helpful for providing feedback. Mentors should also guide their mentees towards teaching workshops and resources provided by the Center of Teaching and Learning at AUB.
Time management: new faculty members need advice on time allocation to teaching so as not to overdo it, and on the balance between time allocated to research vs. teaching.
Students: understanding AUB students and their expectations and ways to handle them in class and address issues related to misconduct, grades, or assistance (mental health, writing skills, learning disabilities, etc.) is also quite important for new faculty members.
Performance Reviews
Clear guidelines about annual performance evaluation, contract renewal and promotion/tenure requirements (including providing a template folder for promotion/tenure) and mentorship to plan for meeting these requirements as well as better understanding of the system and administration at AUB: how and when is feedback on progress given, what are the timeline and process for re-appointment and tenure reviews and what is involved in each, what materials are needed and when, who does the review and how's the outcome conveyed, how are external reviewers chosen, what should be included in a CV and in a personal statement, what should be included in annual performance reports, attitudes towards early promotion/tenure application, etc.
Personal
Assistance in developing professional networks
Information related to various policies: consulting work (and importance/drawbacks of being involved in consulting and at which stage in the career), tenure delay policy and the drawbacks of using it, Title IX bylaws, working from home, and any associated drawbacks, where can one go for help in case of a controversy or dispute, etc.
Information related to administrative rules and procedures
Information related to benefits, available services, responsibilities, privileges, etc.
Balancing work and personal life
CHAIRPERSON:
Department organization, resources, politics, and relationships
How the department is organized (e.g. areas, committees, etc.), how decisions are made, and what roles junior faculty play in decision-making
What support staff is available for junior faculty and what can be expected of them
What supplies and expenses are covered by the department and whether there are other internal resources available for research and teaching expenses
Teaching
Course selection and number: the number of start-up courses to teach, expected course load, selection of courses, and overload teaching have consequences for effort spent by new faculty members on teaching and away from research. Therefore, mentorship in this regard is essential. Faculty members also need to know how much say they have about course assignments and scheduling.
Expectations: as in the case of research, junior faculty members would like to know the expectations in terms of teaching performance and student advising, how teaching is evaluated, and whether the faculty member is expected to have a teaching portfolio and what goes into in.
Teaching assistants: this refers to what faculty members can expect from teaching assistants, how to select and manage them, and what the faculty member's responsibility is for evaluating their performance.
Policies: new faculty members need to be aware of common policies for teaching at AUB (evaluation and grading system, student code of conduct, scheduling exams, etc.). Mentors can provide advice on the distribution of course or exam grades in the class, absence of students from exams, etc.
Other: mentorship on what documentation related to a course to keep on records and for how long (e.g., for accreditation requirements), access to electronic resources to support teaching (e.g., Moodle), where to go for help if the faculty member needs assistance with teaching, etc.
Service
Overview of service/committees and importance: new faculty members must understand the diverse types of committees that exist, their functions, and workload. They also need to be aware of the importance of service and its assessment in promotion.
Type and amount of service: most importantly, mentorship needs to be provided on the number of committees to be involved in the first few years as an assistant professor and which committees to be involved in or to avoid so that a junior faculty member does a modest but not excessive amount of service. Moreover, the importance of service to the profession and community service needs to be discussed along with desirable service venues.
Importance of documentation: the mentor should point out to the junior faculty member the importance of documenting his/her service work in his/her record so that the university can go back and check what service the faculty member has done. This is to avoid down the line problems related to forgetting or not accounting for the service that a junior faculty has done.