In the literature and in practice, new and underrepresented faculty often report the following “roadblocks” to their professional success and personal well-being:

• Getting started

• Excelling at teaching and research

• Navigating the tenure track

• Creating work/life balance

• Developing professional networks

Mutual Mentoring is a campus-wide faculty development initiative that seeks to address these challenges through mentoring – widely regarded as the key to successfully supporting, developing and retaining new and under-represented faculty. The Mutual Mentoring model encourages the development of a network of multiple, diverse mentors (peers, near peers, tenured faculty, chairs, administrators, librarians, students, etc.) who engage in a wide variety of mentoring approaches (one-on-one, group, online).  For more information about award-winning mentors on our campus, please visit our Profiles in Mentoring.

The Mutual Mentoring Initiative is funded by a generous three-year grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.  With this grant, the Provost’s Office and the Office of Faculty Development have established two grant programs for UMass Amherst faculty.  

• The Mellon Mutual Mentoring (M³) Grant Program
  M³ Grants are team mentoring grants designed to support faculty-driven, context-sensitive mentoring projects for early career or underrepresented faculty based at the departmental, school/college, interdisciplinary, or inter-institutional levels.  Starting in 2007-08, the Office of Faculty Development will award up to ten M3 Grants of up to $10,000 each per academic year.

• The Mellon Mutual Mentoring Micro-Grant (M⁴) Program
  M⁴ Grants are individual mentoring grants that are intended to encourage pre-tenure faculty to identify desirable areas for professional growth and opportunity, and to develop the necessary mentoring relationships to make such change(s) possible. Starting in 2007-08, the Office of Faculty Development will award up to fifteen M4 Grants of up to $1,200 each per academic year.

Please see the Mellon Mutual Mentoring Program Guide for more information and application materials.  The deadline for applications for the 2008-09 year is Monday, March 31, 2008 at 5:00 PM E.S.T.

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