By BRITTNEY FRENCH
Webster University faculty members are working on launching a faculty mentorship program that will help show newl professors how to become involved on campus.
The program was developed this semester as a result of WU hiring 24 full-time professors in August. It is being organized by three faculty members who serve as its task force, including associate professors Art Silverblatt, Robin Assner and Cheryl Breig-Allen.
“Because we had this huge number of new hires, we wanted to give them a warm welcome,” Assner said. “It’s always overwhelming coming to a new university and we didn’t want them to feel like they’re just a new face.”
The task force wanted to design the faculty mentorship program in order to retain new professors by helping them meet other staff members, both in and outside of their department, and providing useful information about WU, advising and promotions in information packets or DVDs.
“Since we’ve had a lot of new faculty members this semester, we wanted to create a way to pass along information about WU they might not get elsewhere, let them know which programs to participate in that are helpful for them,” Assner said. “We don’t really have a structured program as of yet, but we are just trying to create a support system for new professors so they know how to be successful here.”
Assner also said there weren’t any programs like this when she was hired at WU seven years ago.
“When I was I hired, we had a luncheon where administrators showed us around campus and that was it,” she said. “There was nothing like this, where mentors served as a resource by reiterating important information and discussing any problems that came up.”
In previous semesters, Silverblatt said WU staff and administrators developed faculty mentorship programs for new employees, but they never really served as a resource and lacked participation and interest.
“We’ve developed a new system this year from similar programs that have been created,” Silverblatt said. “In the past, there were a lot of issues with getting the program started, but we have a new process and we’re doing things a little different this time because we have coordinating efforts from faculty members.”
Silverblatt said there will be ongoing meetings between mentors and mentees and that the program was designed to be informal and casual.
Mentors can take their mentee out to lunch or coffee to sit down and talk about WU, rather than having mandatory meetings in uncomfortable settings.
When the program was created, the goal was to have 10-15 mentors who have been at WU for more than 10 years, so there could be one mentor with two or three new employees.
“We want to give each new staff member the opportunity to have a contact person,” Silverblatt said.
There are two full-time professors participating in the program because it is still being developed.
So far, associate communications professor Larry Baden and associate interdisciplinary studies professor Keith Welsh have volunteered to participate in the program.
“I think it’s a great resource to have,” Welsh said. “I plan on taking my (mentee) out to lunch or coffee, someplace that we can just sit down and talk in a really informal setting.”
