Mentoring for Faculty and Graduate Teaching Assistants
Mentoring Programs at CTE
The Center for Teaching Excellence works to facilitate peer mentoring relationships
in a variety of ways, such as workshops, end of semester wrapper events, celebrations,
and peer leadership opportunities. We also offer specific mentoring programs such
as our Near Peer Mentoring Exchange and the recurring Mentoring in Minutes micro-sessions. One of the primary goals of CTE is to make faculty and graduate students
feel like they belong to a community that values and supports the work they do in
teaching, research, and service. These mentoring programs are one small way that we
try to facilitate that feeling of community and collaboration at Duquesne.
CTE also runs a summer mentoring workshop series, Entering Mentoring, based on an established mentoring curriculum developed by the Wisconsin Program
for Scientific Teaching and was modified to work with Duquesne Faculty. The program
goal is to provide formal training on mentoring students in research by focusing on
(1) expectations of the mentor-mentee relationship, (2) the inclusion of scientific
teaching in laboratory mentoring, (3) developing local communities (e.g. departments)
that are focused on mentoring, and (4) the importance of thoughtful approaches to
address diversity, inclusion, and equity. For more information about Entering Mentoring,
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Near Peer Mentoring Exchange
The goal of the Near Peer program is to promote faculty success by addressing the
needs that incoming Duquesne faculty have expressed to us: make connections across
departments, understand the University better as a whole, navigate the various resources
available to them, and learn to balance personal and professional life.
Incoming full-time faculty and early-career faculty already at Duquesne are invited
to participate in groups of four people (2 + 2). A near-peer is someone who has succeeded
at the next steps for which incoming faculty are preparing (e.g., annual reviews,
third-year review). These cross-disciplinary groups do not replace the importance
of mentors within your department and field.
One early-career faculty member will organize the group, with guidance and resources
from CTE. Group members each contribute from their experience and ongoing learning.
Sample topics: engaging students in learning, navigating department and university
structures, understanding student evaluation of faculty, learning what research looks
like in different fields, and fostering work-life balance. Typically, tenure-track
faculty are grouped together, as are non-tenure track faculty.
Groups choose their own meeting time.
Those in the program are expected to have active participation in monthly, one-hour
small group meetings in October - March. There is an additional end of the year event
in early May.
Please contact Steven Hansen via email or call (412) 396-5177.
Mentoring in Minutes
Wondering how your colleagues navigate various aspects of the academic career? Have
questions about teaching, research, or other professional development areas? Over
the course of the last year and a half, CTE has witnessed more than ever the ways
in which our faculty learn from and support one another. As we navigate the ongoing
pandemic but also move forward, we wanted to create opportunities for continuing these
networks of learning and support.
As such, we're excited to pilot a new series that aims to provide space for intentional
but informal mentoring across disciplines in a variety of areas, such as balancing
teaching and research; publishing scholarship on teaching and learning; preparing
for promotion and/or tenure; dealing with difficult moments in the classroom; grading
efficiently; mentoring doctoral student projects; working with students beyond classroom
academics. Each session will feature a faculty or staff colleague who has been successful
within designated topic areas Mentors will offer strategies for success and provide
encouragement. We are grateful to Laura Engel (Professor, English) for the idea of
this mentoring network.
You can keep an eye out for upcoming Mentoring in Minutes events via our calendar.
"is the award-winning nonprofit e-mentoring network that addresses the retention and
success of those in engineering, science, and mathematics, particularly, but not exclusively,
women. Founded in 1997, MentorNet provides highly motivated protégés from many of
the world's top colleges and universities with positive, one-on-one, email-based mentoring
relationships with mentors from industry and academia."
Mentoring New Faculty: Advice to Department Chairs
This clear and concise article is geared specifically to department chairs, as it
offers suggestions about conveying expectations and criteria for promotion, facilitating
the acquisition of resources, and giving feedback on performance to new junior faculty.
Stanford Medicine's Teaching and Mentoring Academy provides a helpful breakdown of
mentoring skills along with workshops that focus on developing them.
