Mentoring Program for Tenure Track Faculty

The Ohio State's College of Engineering's mentoring program provides new faculty with outstanding foundations for future success. The focus is on the whole career - research, teaching and service before and beyond tenure, as well as guidance on how to be engaged members of the community at the department, college and university levels. Group mentoring creates space for consensus, brainstorming and strategy development.

This program is based on research that shows that team mentoring is more effective than an individual mentor approach. The mentoring program supports junior faculty in the development of:

  • An understanding of the tenure process and expectations for promotion
  • A supportive mentoring team who provides guidance and feedback on a regular basis
  • An individualized research plan
  • An individualized teaching plan
  • An individualized service plan
  • An individualized visibility plan
  • Professional skills

How it works:

  • Mentoring committee selection and meetings are managed centrally. New faculty will meet individually with Dr. Kaletunc to brainstorm the formation of a mentoring committee.
  • Each mentoring committee will have 4 senior members (3 senior faculty and department chair)
    • A senior faculty member in the department with research interests aligned with the new faculty member
    • A senior faculty member outside the department in a related field
    • A senior faculty member outside the college or university
    • Department chair
  • New faculty will select the committee members and discuss with Dr. Kaletunc
  • Committee will meet once a semester for 1.5 hours (1 hour minimum)
  • Committee meetings will continue until tenure.

Information for Mentors

Mentoring committee responsibilities:

  • Provide scientific and strategic approach to research, teaching, service, advocacy and regular, candid and encouraging feedback
  • Follow up on lab space and equipment needs of the new faculty
  • Provide recommendation on graduate student selection and management
  • Feedback on funding efforts, resources, directions, proposal ideas
  • Feedback on teaching plans and management of course loads
  • Suggesting collaborations and introducing the new faculty to collaborators
  • Facilitating connections with funding program directors and journal editors
  • Suggestions for external evaluators
  • Feedback on manuscripts
  • Guidance on professional skills including leadership and networking

Information for Mentees

Meetings will be managed by new faculty and are recommended to be informal. The new faculty shares research interests with some specific ideas for discussion and feedback. The recommended format:

  • New faculty will present information in the format of a tenure and promotion dossier about research, teaching and service activities
    • Briefly present scientific background and research interests
    • Present Research Vision
      • Short term (up to 2-3 years)
      • Mid-term (2-5 years)
      • Long term (>5 years)
      • Specific objectives with timeline until tenure review including plans for publications and proposals
      • Collaborations
  • Present teaching plans for undergraduate and graduate courses
    • Teaching philosophy
    • Provide a list of past courses and potential future courses
    • Peer and student evaluations
    • Use of technology
  • Present plans for advising undergraduate and graduate students for research, course selection and preparation of projected plans until graduation
  • Present service plans in divisions related to their research in professional organizations, organize sessions in scientific meetings, become involved in department committees
  • Present visibility plan: Activities to develop visibility in your research communities, department, college and university
    • Organize seminars with invited speakers
    • Serve in Professional communities
    • Organize sessions in conferences
    • Develop research website and news releases
    • Visit other universities and research labs.

Mentoring Links