Evaluating Faculty Mentoring Programs and Relationships

Michigan State University adopted a university-wide faculty mentoring policy in 2011 that requires each college to have a formal mentoring program. Colleges may also require that each department or school develop its own unit-level mentoring program. The University policy states that all college programs must incorporate nine basic principles, two of which are related to evaluation: "1] formative evaluation to maximize the benefit to each individual being mentored and 2] assessments of effectiveness on a cycle not to exceed five years."

Evaluation is crucial to determining whether or not a program has merit, its strengths and weaknesses, and where resources need to be targeted. However, the best way in which to evaluate mentoring is not always clear. This program will provide an overview of existing strategies for evaluating the quality of formal faculty mentoring programs as well as the quality of individual mentor/mentee relationships. Specific session goals include: 1) increasing understanding of the ways in which formal mentoring can be evaluated,

2) reviewing types of outcomes and levels of measurement , 3) sharing examples of evaluation instruments, and 4) discerning the evaluation methods that are best suited to your individual units and needs. A panel of faculty and administrators will share how they evaluate mentoring programs in their units, including the measures and instruments that they are using. Time will be devoted to developing participant plans and Q and A.

This program is intended for academic administrators, ADAPP ADVANCE Grant Faculty Excellence Advocates (FEAs), those who have been asked to design unit-based programs of faculty mentoring and members of unit personnel and advisory committees.

This program is co-sponsored by F&OD and the NSF ADAPP ADVANCE grant (#0811205).