By Rick Vacek | January 16, 2024
When Dr. Meghna Sabharwal arrived at The University of Texas at Dallas in 2009, she quickly saw the value of the Faculty Mentoring Program.
“It’s a very important element for new faculty,” she said. “When you start a new career, you have so many questions. You feel so lost. I benefited from that program when I started. I’ve learned so much. I’ve gained so much insight.”
Those memories made it impossible to say no when, several years later, she was asked to join the Committee on Faculty Mentoring. “It was time to give back,” she said. She later chaired the committee for four years.
The professor of public and nonprofit management in the School of Economic, Political and Policy Sciences is giving even more in her latest role: associate provost for faculty success for the Office of the Provost.
“While she’s new to the position, I don’t look at her as new to the role,” said Dr. Francesca Filbey, associate provost for faculty success and the Bert Moore Chair in BrainHealth. “I think from the viewpoint outside this office, nothing really has changed because they know who she is. It really has been seamless.”
Sabharwal credits Filbey’s leadership, which included creating procedures and handbooks, for taking the Faculty Mentoring Program to the next level.
“To really add wings to the program, for it to get institutionalized, for it to really do well, you need somebody in that role taking ownership of it,” Sabharwal said.
“With Francesca in that role and now expanding that role, I think that it sends a clear message that we are serious about mentoring, and we want to invest in our faculty and their success.”
The highlight of the Faculty Mentoring workshops in the fall semester was “The Road from Associate to Full Professor,” which featured a presentation by Dr. Joshua Summers, a professor of mechanical engineering and the interim associate dean for undergraduate studies. Summers’ mission was to explain to the nearly 25 associate professors in attendance the value of earning tenure as a professor – the “why.”
“I’m an engineer, and my focus is always on design,” he said later. “When you look at design, you always look at the end. What do you want to be your legacy? Now let’s roll back from that to figure out what type of evidence you want to be evaluated on as you go up for promotion. What are the steps that go from today to that?”
What sometimes happens, Summers added, is that faculty members focus on tenure without understanding its purpose and what they want to do with it.
“Some will say, ‘I’m going to focus on building out as big a research portfolio as I can. I’m going to get money. I’m going to go publish. I’m going to graduate students. I’m just going to keep doing the same thing I was doing, but more and better,’” he said.
“Other people might step back and ask, ‘Why am I faculty in the first place?’ I know that sounds like a silly thing to ask yourself, but it’s something that I think faculty need to ask themselves a lot more often.
“They may discover that their passion truly lies with building a new program. Or it may lie with really engaging undergraduates to bring them into research. Or it may really be about preparing future faculty. Or it may be about mentoring other faculty. Any number of different things. Once you figure out what that is, then you can start to find your own path.”
Sabharwal can draw from her own experience on the tenure track toward becoming a professor.
“Sometimes when you’re starting your research, you are so focused on getting published and getting tenure that you may not be able to do certain projects that maybe take more time and more resources,” she said. “Then, after you get tenure, you can take a little breather and think about, ‘OK, what is that next step? I want to make a true impact in my discipline.’ Tenure gives you that flexibility and that breathing space.
“From associate to full, you’re not on a clock – you may lose motivation, or you don’t know what to do. There are so many scenarios. We thought, ‘Let’s at least start a program for this group to help them see how to get to the next level.’ I think it’s important that the University help them in this process.”
Summers surveyed department heads and chairs who do annual faculty evaluations to find out what they think associate professors should be doing to grow their careers. It’s commonly believed that they should focus on service projects, but the answers he received indicated that they also should focus on earning grants and writing for academic publications while not forgetting about the importance of service.
An interesting exercise at the workshop he conducted fell in step with that advice. He divided the attendees into pairs, had each of them write down what they hoped their future will look like, and then had their partner share what they wrote.
“It’s easier to talk for someone else than yourself. It also forces you to listen,” Summers said. “From that, we heard that everyone wants to do good. No one shared that they want their legacy to be a new mathematical equation. I don’t remember anyone saying that their legacy was to have a best-selling history book. Everything was centered in and around helping, encouraging, growing, developing, teaching, which was very exciting.”
The session also fell in step with the overall mission of the program.
“This mentoring program is now more formal, and the University is investing resources into it,” Sabharwal said. “That sends a clear message that we want to create an environment where faculty feel like they belong and can have these open discussions. Every organization has issues. How do we work around them? Finding out the needs of our faculty – that’s the first step.”
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For more information, visit the Faculty Mentoring Schedule.