In the Senior Mentoring Program, second-year faculty, both tenure-track and those on long-term appointments, are assigned Senior Mentors to provide advice for improvement in the areas of teaching, scholarship, and community service, in preparation for the third-year review. The program runs from December of one academic year to February of the following academic year (14 months) and is purely formative, not evaluative.
Program Parameters:
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Each pair should meet two or three times during both winter quarter and spring quarter for coffee, a meal, a walk, a campus activity, etc.

- The mentor will observe and give feedback on one class taught by the mentee each of these two quarters.
- The mentor will assist the mentee during the autumn quarter in the preparation of his or her third-year review file.
- The pair will attend three dinner gatherings with all the Mentoring Program participants.
- Both mentor and mentee will complete a program evaluation at the conclusion of the mentee's third-year review.
Resources:
- Mentors can receive up to $150 for expenses related to mentoring, including reimbursements for meals, coffee, etc. Please turn in your original receipts to Anna Dufault for processing. Please remember that SPU does not provide reimbursements for alcohol.
Confidentiality:
- Senior Mentors will be tenured faculty members from a different department and will not be involved in the mentee’s evaluation process. (If the mentor is on Status, he or she will excuse himself or herself from discussion of the mentee’s application.)
- Information regarding the mentoring experience is “owned” by the mentee, who can choose whether or not to disclose the information during their third-year review. Mentees are free to request letters of support from their mentors, but there is no obligation to include such letters. Mentors may also choose to establish a policy from the outset of not writing such letters.
Timeline for 2008 Senior Mentors:
- Winter quarter:
- Meet 2-3 times
- Observe and give feedback on 1 class
- Winter quarter mentoring dinner: March 10
- Spring quarter:
- Meet 2-3 times
- Observe and give feedback on 1 class
- Spring quarter mentoring dinner: June 3
- Fall quarter
- Meet as needed to help prepare third year file
- Third-year review file due in Dean’s Office Feb. 15
- Fall quarter mentoring dinner: TBA in December