By Rick Vacek | July 10, 2023
When Dr. Pumpki Lei Su served on a faculty hiring search committee last spring, she noticed that the applicants had a frequent question.
They wanted to know about the resources The University of Texas at Dallas offers to faculty.
“I always tell them about the Faculty Mentoring Program,” said the assistant professor in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences (BBS). “Not every university has that. I have friends at other universities who have to figure out resources.
“I always tell applicants that you still want to develop your own mentoring network because you need more than just one mentor for different aspects of career development, but this formal mentoring program provided us a head start on that by connecting us with a senior mentor. It really shows the support – it shows that UTD really cares about faculty development.”
Su speaks from experience. After she arrived at UT Dallas for the fall semester in 2022, she received an email about the Faculty Mentoring Program and quickly signed up.
Much to her delight, she was paired with a BBS professor, Dr. Pamela Rollins, who went far beyond providing helpful tips.
“More than colleagues, at this point we’re friends,” Su said. “I feel comfortable messaging her about anything. She’s really there for me. She helps me troubleshoot all kinds of logistical things, teaching-related topics, and certainly research development! She has read my grant proposal draft and brainstormed with me on recruitment strategies. She’s been a huge help.”
The Faculty Mentoring Program is a partnership of the Office of the Provost, the Committee on Faculty Mentoring and the Center for Teaching and Learning.
It pairs mentors with mentees for in-person workshops and meetings, such as the Monthly Mentor-Mentee Coffee and Chat, as well as impromptu get-togethers, emails and instant messages.
Dr. Carlos Busso, a professor in the Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science, had a simple reason for quickly saying yes when he was asked to become a mentor: He remembered what it was like for him when he arrived at UT Dallas in 2009.
“I was lucky to have a good mentor when I joined UT Dallas – it made a huge difference,” he said. “Many times, you’re not prepared for this job. You know how to do research. You know how to publish a paper. But how you manage the time, how you deal with students, how you deal with people in general, how you teach – you’re not particularly trained for that. So giving feedback on this part of the job is important.”
But he wanted to make sure he provided the right feedback about how to handle issues, such as dealing with students or writing a proposal. That’s why he made sure his mentee, Dr. Berrak Sisman, felt comfortable leading the discussion.
“For the most part, I wanted to answer questions that Berrak had,” he said. “I did have things I wanted to share with her, but I always started the meeting by asking her what things she would like to talk about. I can speak, speak, speak, but it’s more important to answer her questions.”
Often, the questions were simple, and Sisman just needed straight answers. Mentors are encouraged to attend the workshops – they’ll be better prepared to help their mentees.
“There are lots of online systems that I needed to learn, needed to navigate, from teaching to hiring to purchasing,” she said. “For those small details, I think it was really great to just approach him. In two minutes, he was sharing and the problem was solved.
“Normally, it would take a week for me to figure it out because there’s no manual. He saved me a lot of time and effort. I could just email him or message him.”
Mentor-mentee pairs are assigned before new faculty arrive on campus, which was pivotal for Sisman when her overseas journey was delayed and she was stuck in her native Turkey for a few days. With the clock ticking as her first class loomed, she contacted Busso.
“He helped me settle down,” she said.
Busso showed her how to share lecture slides and the course syllabus with students. Then, when she finally made it to Dallas just in time, he went with her to the classroom to make sure her laptop worked.
His actions were a way of paying back the help he received years earlier.
“Having someone to look at or someone to answer questions is crucial,” Busso said. “Many times, I found myself asking, ‘What do I do?’”
Any faculty member can sign up as a mentor or mentee by emailing ProvostFacultyMentoring@utdallas.edu.
The first step for faculty starting at UT Dallas in the fall semester is New Faculty Orientation, scheduled for Aug. 15 in the Davidson-Gundy Alumni Center (DGA).
And one of the messages at orientation will be to take advantage of the Faculty Mentoring Program.