Academic Mentoring Initiative

The Academic Mentoring Initiative evidences our commitment to integrate, support, and retain assistant professors in the academic community at Columbia College Chicago. We do so through a series of programs that begins with onboarding and orientation to the college. We then sustain connection with new assistant professors throughout the academic year through peer goal-oriented group mentoring, one-on-one individualized senior faculty connections, and lunch events offering community connection and space for questions and feedback. Undergirding the initiative is the recognized need to support new faculty in the continued development of their teaching and teaching-related activities, creative and scholarly agendas, service, and the production and collection of materials associated with these areas that are needed for tenure and promotion dossiers. 

There are five components to the Initiative: 

New Faculty Orientation

New Faculty Orientation (NFO) introduces new faculty to the mission, culture, programs, information and communication systems, resources, and community of teaching and learning at Columbia College Chicago. New faculty receive training in Canvas, our learning management system (LMS). New full-time faculty are also introduced to tenure and promotion processes and evaluation software, and are placed into a Peer Mentoring group.

Faculty Mentors

Faculty Mentors are senior/junior faculty mentoring relationships for assistant professors intended to complement mentoring initiated at the department level. Following formal hiring, the associate provost for faculty research and development pairs the new junior faculty member with an associate or full professor who might offer current and relevant advice and/or feedback regarding teaching and teaching-related activity, creative and scholarly agenda, and service as junior faculty work toward earning tenure and/or promotion at the college. These individuals are not to be confused with a department mentor who may be assigned by the chair, or the department evaluator who reviews and evaluates the assistant professor’s work on an annual basis.

Classroom Observations

As a way of supporting faculty in the area most frequently cited as difficult for assistant professors, we have created a schedule by which new assistant professors can obtain documentation of their teaching and the learning evident in their classrooms. We also provide templates and resources for those unfamiliar with the developmental purposes of classroom observations.

The timeline and structure for teaching observations are as follows:

Year 1: New faculty conduct classroom observations for each other in their first year. Faculty are assigned to small peer groups during New Faculty Orientation and reminded of this work throughout the academic year. 

Year 2: Senior faculty mentors are responsible to provide classroom observation for their mentees. 

Year 3: Chair, associate chair, or relevant area coordinator provides classroom observation. 

Years 4/5: Assistant professor invites a faculty member/s on their own to provide classroom observation/s

FAAR, Comprehensive Mid-Track Review, Tenure and Promotion Workshops

To support faculty in preparing their comprehensive mid-track review and tenure applications, the Office of the Provost offers a series of information sessions and workshops each year.

FAAR Workshops

Each May, we offer a session for all faculty to offer assistance navigating and filling out the Faculty Annual Activity Report (FAAR)

Comprehensive Mid-Track Review

February/March—Assistant professors needing to submit a mid-track review the following academic year will be invited to attend an information session regarding the process and requirements.

April/May/June— Assistant professors needing to submit a comprehensive mid-track review in the fall will be invited to attend workshops focusing on questions about the dossier and models, formats, and rhetorical considerations for drafting the narrative.

August—Assistant professors will be invited to attend a writing workshop focusing on peer review of drafts of their dossier narratives.

Tenure Application

February—Assistant professors needing to submit a tenure application in the fall will be invited to attend an information session regarding the dossier and the digital submission process. 

June—Assistant professors needing to submit a tenure application in the fall will be invited to attend a workshop focusing on models, formats, and rhetorical considerations for drafting the narrative. 

August—Assistant professors needing to submit a tenure application in the fall will be invited to attend a writing workshop focusing on peer review of drafts of their dossier narratives.