Objectives

• To provide one-on-one assistance in helping new academic staff members integrate into the CoE and the UW.

• To orient new staff members to the processes, policies and personnel of the College.

• To build relationships among academic staff members in CoE.

Why this program is needed beyond the mentoring program offered by the University?

• This program will help connect academic staff members in CoE.

• New CoE academic staff members need mentoring programs to get CoE specific information and contacts, and to get the campus-wide interactions and perspectives.

• The University-wide mentoring program is organized around the academic year calendar. The hiring pattern in the College is not tied to this calendar. The mentoring process should begin within thirty days of starting work for it to be most effective.

• Participation by CoE academic staff in the university-wide program is minimal.

New Academic Staff Members

• The program will be for new, permanent academic staff members.

• Members will be individually contacted by the mentoring program coordinator shortly after their hire date.

• Members will be introduced by their mentor to key people in the department or center, and the College.

• An evaluation of the experience will be conducted at the end of the member-mentor interaction.

Mentors

• Mentors will be selected from CoE academic staff volunteers who provide a good match with the mentee. What makes a good match will be based on the perceived needs of the new employee.

• Mentors will generally not be from the new academic staff member’s department or center.

• The mentoring will be expected to last not more than six months.

• Mentors will be given a short training session, lasting no more than 30 minutes, in which they will be provided with a set of written materials. These materials will be taken in part from the university-wide mentoring program materials.

• Mentors will be given a short description of the expectations for them as a mentor. This information will be provided when potential mentors are contacted.

Process

• A volunteer CoE academic staff member will serve as the mentoring program coordinator. This staff member will likely be a current CASI member. The coordinator will be responsible for

  • assuring materials are current,

  • checking to see that the mentor assignments, training, and initial contacts of mentees are completed according to the proposed timetable,

  • finding potential mentors,

  • training mentors, and

  • designing and conducting evaluations after the end of each mentor-member experience.

• Initially, a mentor pool will be formed by solicitation of all CoE academic staff members. This will ease the program start-up by providing an initial resource of mentor volunteers.

• New hire information will be provided by the Dean’s office to the mentoring program coordinator on a monthly basis. The mentoring program coordinator will then make first contact with the new academic staff members to invite them to participate in the mentoring program.

• Final selection of the mentor will be by an ad hoc team composed of Jeanne Hendricks, the mentoring program coordinator, and a member of the hiring department or center. The supervisor of the new staff member will not necessarily be consulted in selecting the mentor. The administrator of the new staff member’s department or center is the default member of this decision-making team in case another person is not found.

Copyright 2006 The Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System Date last modified: 12-Oct-2005 Date created: 12-Oct-2005 Content by: CASI Thank you for visiting http://www.engr.wisc.edu/staff/casi/mentoring.html