Expanding Your Mentoring Networks

Opportunities on Campus

The OFD offers faculty a range of activities year-round to promote involvement in mentoring networks on and off campus. For a full list of upcoming programming, please visit the OFD’s calendar. In addition, for full descriptions of the OFD’s offerings, please visit our web pages on Mentoring, Tenure Preparation, Scholarly Writing, and Work/Life.

Opportunities in the Five Colleges

UMass Amherst is also part of a local consortium of colleges that allows faculty members to expand their mentoring networks in the area. The Five Colleges, Inc. provides the following programs and activities to faculty from UMass Amherst, Amherst College, Hampshire College, Mount Holyoke College and Smith College:

• The Five College Lecture Fund
• Faculty Exchange
• Curriculum Development
• Residencies
• Joint Appointments
• Five College Faculty Seminar

Early-career faculty may be particularly interested in joining or initiating a Five College Seminar. Each year, Five Colleges supports approximately 30 seminars in which groups of faculty come together to share scholarly interests and discuss curricular issues in such areas as Afro-Luso-Brazilian, Environmental Studies, and Roundtable on Spirit and the Academy. Depending upon the level of activity being proposed, groups may receive funding in amounts of $250 up to $1,000. Additional information on academic collaborations is available online through the Five Colleges web site.

In addition, UMass Amherst is a member of the Academic Career Network, which provides local job information for dual-career couples. For more information, faculty members can visit the Academic Career Network website.