College of Humanities Mentoring

Adopted on August 29, 2019

The College of Humanities understands that mentoring fosters the development of personal and professional competence in a dynamic, collaborative, mutually respective relationship. The College recognizes that with effective mentoring practices, graduate students and faculty can become successful and have positive experience while studying and working at the University of Arizona.

While units may decide to assign an official mentor to junior faculty / graduate students, the unit’s faculty should also consider itself and be considered as mentors to all its junior faculty and graduate students.

Part 1: Mentoring in the College of Humanities

1.1. The College of Humanities requires every department or unit to develop and establish its own guidelines for mentoring graduate students, junior faculty, and associate professors. Each department or unit is expected to formalize specific procedures for mentoring practices. The finalized document should be filed with the Dean's Office and publicly made accessible by faculty and graduate students. 

1.2. The College’s website should include a section on mentoring, which includes links to relevant resources:

1.3. The College regularly sponsors workshops and/or colloquia as effective supplement or complement to traditional mentoring such as the COH Writing Group, or the COH Grants Writing Cohort, among others.  

Part 2: Best Practices to Be Considered by Each Department or Unit 

2.1. Defining mentoring expectations and goals at different levels (graduate students, junior faculty, and mid-career faculty)

2.2. Facilitating the establishment of mentoring networks

2.2.1. Building a mentoring network: Junior faculty with multiple mentors are more successful with their research productivity and report greater job satisfaction than those with one or no mentors. Whenever possible, it is important to have mentors both within and outside the department or unit. 

2.3. Considering different types of mentoring practices and strategies (adopted from "Faculty Mentoring Handbook" prepared by Dr. Laura Hunter, Associate Diversity Officer and Coordinator of Faculty Development, Office of the Provost, University of Arizona, in December 2014):

2.3.1. Formal or classic mentoring: This type of one-on-one mentoring pairs a senior faculty member with a junior faculty mentee, usually from the same department, for a specified time period. This approach assumes mentors accept responsibility for helping mentees grow and develop.

2.3.2. Informal mentoring: Voluntary mentoring relationships that are not assigned and lack structure about how mentors work with mentees constitute informal mentoring.

2.3.3. Peer mentoring: In peer mentoring, members with equal stature (e.g., rank, position, experience) from either the same or different departments develop supportive networks in which they meet regularly to discuss issues and challenges they’re facing, as well as share information and strategies to address challenges. Beyond career advice, peer networking can effectively address psychosocial needs, increase collegiality, normalize challenges, and reduce feelings of isolation. Notably, peer mentoring can be an effective form of mentoring for graduate students, junior faculty, and mid-career faculty.

2.3.4. Group or team mentoring: In group mentoring, senior faculty members serve as mentors for a group of junior mentees who meet regularly as a team.

2.4. Clarify a reward mechanism for mentoring practices. For example, this can be included in the unit's annual performance review mechanism.