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The Mellon Mutual Mentoring Initiative
Program Overview and Proposal Guide
I. Introduction to the Mutual Mentoring Model
II. Faculty Development through Mutual Mentoring
III. Priority Mentoring Areas
IV. The Mellon Mutual Mentoring (M3) Team Grant Program
V. The Mellon Mutual Mentoring (M4) Micro-Grant Program
VI. Grant Requirements
VII. Criteria for Selection
VIII. Application Materials
I. Introduction to the Mutual Mentoring Model
In the literature of faculty development, mentoring is frequently cited as one of the few common characteristics of a successful academic career, particularly for women and faculty of color. Yet mentoring, as most of us now know it, has traditionally been defined by a top-down, one-on-one relationship in which an experienced faculty member guides and supports the career development of a new or early career faculty member.
“Mutual Mentoring” distinguishes itself from the traditional model by encouraging the development of a broader, more flexible network of support that mirrors the diversity of real-life mentoring in which no single person is required or expected to possess the expertise of many. Within this model, early career faculty build robust networks by engaging multiple “mentoring partners” in non-hierarchical, collaborative, cross-cultural partnerships to address specific areas of knowledge and experience, such as research, teaching, tenure, and work-life balance. These reciprocal partnerships benefit not only the person traditionally known as the “protégé,” but also the person traditionally known as the “mentor,” thus building on the idea that all members of an academic community have something to teach and learn from each other.
A typical Mutual Mentoring network may include any or all of the mentoring partners listed below:
- One-on-One Mentoring Partners
One-on-one mentoring partnerships with faculty peers, “near-peers” (such as a recently tenured faculty member), senior faculty members, department chairs, administrators, “hired” mentors such as professional editors, grant writers, or writing coaches; and staff from campus units such as Academic Computing, the Center for Teaching, the Offices of the Vice Provost for Research, and the Library.
- Group Mentoring Partners
Small groups of mentoring partners organized at the departmental, cross-departmental, school/college, or Five Colleges levels that might include peers or near-peers, or blended groups with mentoring partners at all stages of the academic career.
- Distance Mentoring Partners
Mentoring partnerships in which the primary mode of communication is technology-enabled, e.g., e-mail, video conferencing, discussion boards, listservs, and/or chat/IM.
II. Faculty Development through Mutual Mentoring
In 2007, the Provost’s Office and the Office of Faculty
Development (“OFD”) established two faculty grant programs and a new Five
Colleges professional network to encourage the creation of projects and
resources that support early career and underrepresented faculty through Mutual
Mentoring. These grant programs and the network, which were made possible by a
generous three-year grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, are described
briefly below. More detailed information on the guidelines and grant application
procedures can be found in sections IV and V.
- The Mellon Mutual Mentoring (M3) Grant Program
M3 Grants are team mentoring grants that are intended to support faculty-driven, context-sensitive projects based at the departmental, school/college, interdisciplinary, or inter-institutional levels. The core philosophy of the M3 Grant Program is that mentoring cannot be imposed from the top-down. Successful faculty mentoring projects must originate at the faculty ranks and be carried out by teams that conceive and carry out their own project plans. Examples of possible M3 projects include: establishing a departmental mentoring program that brings together new, underrepresented, early career, and/or tenured faculty as mentoring partners; creating an interdisciplinary mentoring network within a particular school or college; building a research mentoring roundtable of faculty across the Five Colleges; organizing a work-life mentoring series for dual-career couples, etc..
- The Mellon Mutual Mentoring Micro-Grant (M4) Program
M4 Grants are individual mentoring grants that are intended to encourage new and underrepresented faculty to identify desirable areas for professional growth and opportunity, and to develop the necessary mentoring partnership(s) to make such change(s) possible. M4 Grants are designed to promote purposeful career advancement, using mentoring as the medium to seek and exchange knowledge, resources, experiences, and opportunities across a small network. Examples of possible M4 projects include: organizing on-campus meetings of faculty to come together around a particular issue, such as research interests, effective teaching, tenure prep, work-life balance, etc.; creating a faculty writing group to peer review manuscripts or tenure dossier components; sharing travel expenses to co-present with a mentoring partner (or partners) at a professional conference, etc..
- The Mellon Five College (M5) Network
The M5 Network consists of several Five College-wide events that will be offered annually to encourage the development of professional networks, social connections, and Mutual Mentoring partnerships with faculty across the Five Colleges, especially early career and underrepresented faculty and Mellon Joint Appointees. Networking events will include a welcoming reception for new faculty from all five campuses at the beginning of each academic year and a mid-year Mutual Mentoring Mini-Conference to showcase Mutual Mentoring grant-funded projects for the purposes of encouraging dialogue, networking, and replication across the Five Colleges.
III. Priority Mentoring Areas
In the spring of 2006, staff from the Office of Faculty Development organized several focus groups comprised of early career faculty to better understand their interest in and need for mentoring. In the spring of 2007, the OFD also launched a comprehensive online survey about mentoring, which was distributed to all pre-tenure faculty and yielded a 74% response rate. In effect, OFD staff asked to be “mentored” on how best to proceed with their programmatic development.
According to the focus group participants and survey respondents, there are numerous challenges to professional success and personal well-being, the majority of which fall into five key categories that closely parallel the challenges identified in the literature of faculty development at large. These challenges have been designated as “Priority Mentoring Areas” at UMass Amherst.
- Getting to Know the Institution
Understanding the academic culture of departments, schools/colleges, and the institution; identifying resources to support research and teaching; creating a trusted network of junior and senior colleagues;
- Excelling at Research and Teaching
Finding support for research such as developing a research/writing plan, identifying sources of internal and external funding, soliciting feedback on manuscripts and grant proposals; and finding support for teaching such as advice on course design, assignments, grading, technology, and teaching strategies;
- Understanding Tenure and Evaluation
Better understanding the specific steps of the tenure process, learning more about the criteria for evaluating research and teaching performance, finding support in developing the tenure dossier, soliciting feedback on the quality and quantity of work through the annual faculty review;
- Creating Work-Life Balance
Prioritizing/balancing teaching, research, and service; finding support for goal setting; developing time management skills; attending to quality of life issues such as dual careers, childcare, and affordable housing.
- Developing Professional Networks
Establishing substantive, career-enhancing relationships with faculty who share similar interests in research and/or teaching. These faculty may be from other UMass Amherst departments and schools/colleges, and/or from other institutions, with particular emphasis on faculty from the Five Colleges consortium.
The Mutual Mentoring Initiative respects and responds to the voices of early career faculty, who have been exceptionally generous in sharing their insights, ideas, and experiences with OFD staff. As a result, M3 and M4 Grants will only be awarded to applicants whose projects clearly address one of more of the Priority Mentoring Areas outlined above.
IV. The Mellon Mutual Mentoring (M3) Grant Program
The M3 Grant Program provides
support of up to $10,000 to up to 10 departmental,
school/college, and interdisciplinary teams per year for a
Mutual Mentoring project of their own design. Please refer to
the lists of past grant-funded projects for information on the
range of teams we support.
All full-time tenure-track or tenured
faculty are eligible to submit applications for M3
Grants, which will be awarded for 1-year periods. At the
Selection Committee’s discretion, projects that demonstrate and
document extraordinary success or potential for success may be
invited to apply for an additional year of funding. No project
will be funded for more than 2 years. M3 Grants may
not be used for ad/comp time for faculty, hardware, software,
equipment, and/or capital improvements, and any outside
consultant paid with grant funds must be an approved UMass
Amherst vendor. In addition, M3 Grants cannot be used
to fund pre-existing programs unless significant changes are
made to align the program with the basic principles and
priorities of the Mutual Mentoring model.
V. The Mellon Mutual Mentoring Micro-Grant (M4) Program
The M4 Grant Program provides support of $1,200 to up to 15
pre-tenure faculty members per year for a Mutual Mentoring project of their own design. The following are examples of projects that can be funded by M4 Grants:
- On-campus meetings of faculty organized around a particular subject or issue, e.g., research interests, effective teaching, tenure prep, work-life balance, writing projects;
- Off-campus meetings to visit a
mentoring partner to learn or discuss a new research
or teaching method;
- Editing services to proofread, fine tune, or edit a scholarly manuscript for submission (please see www.umass.edu/ofd/localeditors.htm for a list of selected local editors);
- Coaching services to improve writing, productivity and/or time management skills;
- Travel expenses to co-present with a mentoring partner (or partners),
and/or meet new or existing mentoring partners at a professional conference;
- Modest honoraria to bring a recognized scholar and/or teacher in your field to UMass Amherst for a departmental or interdisciplinary event, such as a workshop.
Additional activities may be approved at the discretion of the Office of Faculty Development; however, M4 Grants may not be used for ad/comp time
for faculty, hardware, software, equipment, and/or capital improvements. Also, any outside consultant paid with grant funds must be an approved UMass Amherst vendor.
Please refer to the list of past grant-funded projects for
information on the range of M4 we support.
All pre-tenure faculty are eligible to submit applications for M4
Grants, which will be awarded for 1-year periods. No
project will be funded for more than 1 year.
VI. Grant Requirements
By applying for and accepting an M3 Grant, all team grant recipients agree to:
- Participate in a brief intake meeting with OFD staff at the beginning of the grant period to discuss their project goals and activities.
- Participate in a brief mid-semester assessment facilitated by OFD staff to provide formative data on the project.
- Attend the Mutual Mentoring Mini-Conference in Spring Semester of
their grant year and give a brief oral presentation on their project.
- Participate in an end-of-the-year summary meeting and complete an online evaluation to provide data back to the Mellon Foundation.
By applying for and accepting an M4 Grant, all individual grant recipients agree to:
- Participate in a brief intake meeting with OFD staff at the beginning of the grant period to discuss their project goals and activities.
- Attend the Mutual Mentoring Mini-Conference in Spring Semester of
their grant year and provide a brief oral presentation on their project.
- Complete an online evaluation of their project to provide data back to the Mellon Foundation.
VII. Criteria for Selection
A Mutual Mentoring Selection Committee will select the grant recipients for the M3 Grant Program and determine the appropriate grant amounts. Membership on this committee will consist of three faculty members across career stages and from different schools/colleges who will serve for one-year terms, plus two program administrators from the Office of Faculty Development. OFD staff will select the grant recipients for the M4 Grant Program.
Proposals for both programs will be evaluated based on the five key criteria below:
- Mission
Does the project build upon the Mutual Mentoring model to address one or more of the University’s five Priority Mentoring Areas?
- Innovation
Does the project introduce a fresh/innovative approach to mentoring and building mentoring networks? (This does not preclude replicating other successful projects.)
- Action
Does the project include a plan of action that is realistic, practicable, and fiscally responsible?
- Inclusion
Does the project bring faculty together in a way that respects, promotes, and encourages dialogue about diversity?
- Evaluation
Does the project have clear goals and outcomes, and can the success or impact of the project be measured?
Additional criteria that the Selection Committee will consider are as follows:
- Replication
Can the project serve as a model for mentoring in other individual, departmental, school/college, and interdisciplinary scenarios?
- Sustainability
Can the project continue after the grant period ends? Does the project have the support of the department and/or school/college in which it is located? (I.e., supporting or matching funds.)
VIII. Application Materials
Application for the Mellon Mutual Mentoring (M3) Team Grant
Application for the Mellon Mutual Mentoring Micro (M4) Grant
All applicants are strongly encouraged to
attend one of the following informational sessions for an
overview on preparing a complete proposal and budget. These
sessions will take place on the following dates/times at the
Office of Faculty Development, which is located in Goodell 301.
-
Wednesday, February 13, 11 AM-12 PM
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Thursday, February 14, 1 PM -2 PM
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Tuesday, February 19, 3 PM - 4 PM
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Tuesday, March 4, 4 PM - 5 PM
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Thursday, March 6, 1 PM - 2 PM
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Wednesday, March 12, 11 AM - 12 PM
Applicants with additional questions should
direct them to the Office of Faculty Development via
faculty@acad.umass.edu.
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