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“Mentor” is a word that has been in the air lately. At Morton College on Sept. 18, Morton President Leslie Navarro said that Perry Buckley was a “mentor of college presidents.” That use of “mentor” caused a lot of ears to perk up. But the word has been actively used in one chapter every year for the last 10 years. The Harper College Faculty Chapter has been active with the administration in formulating the Harper College Mentoring Program for new faculty members.

 

Harper Faculty Chapter Chair Tom Dowd, who joined Harper College in 2000, went through an early form of the mentoring program. “The things that work well, we have kept in the program. The things that didn’t work as well, we have tried to improve,” Dowd says. 

 

Dowd sees the program as a way to give new faculty a chance for success.  As he notes, the expense of hiring faculty makes you want the process to be successful. In fact, Dowd and the New Faculty Committee Chair Roger House feel that the retention of new faculty has been an estimated 90 percent or better since the start of the program.  

 

Dowd points out each new faculty member is assigned a senior faculty mentor outside of the member’s teaching discipline. The mentor guides the newcomer to different facilities at the college outside a new professor’s department. She or he provides information on a relatively informal basis.

 

In addition to the free-flow of info from the mentor, the new faculty members meet as a group for eight programs during their first semester on Fridays. They have different instructors and specialists talking about issues of interest to them: their syllabi, academic services, personnel issues, union issues, board policies and shared governance, student services, classroom management and safety issues. Programs include special activities and independent assignments.

 

 Dowd breaks it down as follows. New faculty learn:

 

House, who went through the Mentoring Program in January 2004, says: “The mentor talks about campus life, when to get all of your forms in and answers questions on them too, and don’t forget the social aspect—maybe the most important aspect. You get to see the whole campus by walking with your mentor and talking to people outside of your department. This mentoring also gives you information to share with other new faculty members.”

 

Well, it sounds good, but does it work today? I asked that question of new faculty member Tara Mathien. “I like having different people at each session talking about new topics. You can candidly ask questions. My mentor is great—we have lunch, share emails, and have discussion in our offices. We get along well.”

 

The upbeat approach of the Harper College Mentoring Program is something that rings true, just like a half-full crystal wineglass when struck lightly by a spoon.