A model for mentoring university faculty

Operational characteristics for successful mentoring programs of new university faculty include clarity of purpose of the program, methods for matching mentors and protégés, mentor training, mentor-protégé relationship building, and program effectiveness assessment. Strengths of formal, informal, peer, group or consortia, intra-departmental, inter-departmental, and research mentoring approaches to mentoring from the literature are presented. Using characteristics and outcomes from successful programs, a proposed four-stage model of conceptualization, design and development, implementation, and evaluation can lead to the benefi ts of socialization into the culture, emotional support, networking, and increased job performance.