P32 - Mutual Mentoring Groups for Teaching-Focused Faculty

Program Abstract: Mentoring is a critical aspect of faculty development at all career stages. Mutual mentoring is a network-based model of support, where faculty mutually benefit from their support relationships. Faculty job satisfaction data for non-tenure track (NTT) faculty at UMass Amherst show that NTT faculty highly value and benefit from mentoring, which national studies point to as key to faculty success. However, satisfaction levels with the departmental mentorship of NTT faculty and with support for faculty to be good mentors are notably low. Against this institutional backdrop, I describe the structure of two teaching-focused, STEM-departmental mutual mentoring groups that have been highly successful and enduring. The shared focus of the departmental groups is undergraduate education and student success, and the groups support NTT faculty at all career stages. In addition, I contrast the departmental MM groups (10+ years) with eleven campus-wide MM groups, most of which lasted up to one year.