The Department of Psychology will provide tenure-track junior faculty with the opportunity to participate in a faculty mentoring program. This opportunity will be available to junior faculty as soon as they join the Department of Psychology or at any time throughout the period of appointment before tenure. Junior faculty may choose to not participate in the mentoring program, to be linked with an individual mentor, or to be linked with a mentoring committee. The department chair will consult with those who wish to participate in the program in the selection of an individual mentor or members of a mentoring committee. Changes in participation and in mentors will similarly be made through discussion between the junior faculty member and the department chair. Mentors, typically senior psychology faculty, should be expected to provide informational and supportive advice to the junior faculty member in negotiating various expectations for faculty success in the context of a research university, and for developing a productive career in research and scholarship, teaching, and service. The relationship between the junior faculty member and the mentor or mentors shall be at all times a confidential relationship. Junior faculty are advised that participation provides no guarantee of success in attaining advancement and that lack of success cannot be blamed on the quality or nature of the mentoring relationship.

October 7, 1999