response to program review report - LSU School Of Veterinary ...

Faculty DevelopmentTenure and Promotion Criteria and Faculty MentoringExecutive Summary/General/#4/p5Expectations for P&T need to be more adequately conveyed to assistant professors. The largearray of appointment types in the School make this difficult for aspiring young faculty to fullyunderstand the criteria of achieving P&T. Mentoring of faculty should be more uniform across allareas, ensuring they know what they need for tenure.While there is variation between departments, in each instance, we believe thatjunior faculty members are mentored appropriately throughout the SVM.VCS has a three-tiered system: a peer review committee annually reviews eachmember of the department and provides guidance on progress toward P&T. Inaddition, the department head meets with each member of the faculty annually toprovide advice and guidance on the P&T process, gauge current facultystrengths and weaknesses, indentify challenges that are hampering progress,and discuss goals (developed by the faculty member) that would enhance facultyperformance to an acceptable standard. Finally, the departmental mentorshipcommittee assigns a more senior faculty mentor to each junior faculty member toprovide guidance as needed.In PBS, the mentoring committee is a promotion and tenure committee; however,as senior faculty numbers increase in PBS, the one large mentoring committeelikely will shift to smaller committees, with a small number of senior facultyassigned to each Assistant Professor.In CBS, the mentoring committee for each Assistant Professor is comprised ofthree senior faculty (not the same three for each committee). Although thementoring committee in CBS evaluates progress toward promotion and tenure(as required by PS-36), non-tenured faculty are encouraged to inform their givencommittee of any road blocks they are encountering that might be hamperingtheir academic progress, be it in research, teaching or service. Moreover, theycan meet with their committee more than the mandatory twice-a-year meetings.The new PS-36T and PS-36NT become effective summer 2009 and it isanticipated that this will improve clarity of the P&T process.Action: Consider adoption of “best mentoring practices” across the SVMResponsible: Representatives of the mentoring committees from eachdepartment.Time Line: July 2010.37