How colleges and regional campuses advance faculty mentoring
College and regional campus leaders at Ohio State are strongly committed to supporting faculty mentoring and are already advancing a wide range of impactful practices.
Across the university, mentoring takes many forms — reflecting the creativity, dedication and local strengths of colleges and campuses. Working in partnership with tenure‑initiating units (TIUs), colleges and regional campuses play a vital role in amplifying mentoring efforts, fostering connection and sustaining strong mentoring cultures over time.
Creating connection across units
Colleges and regional campuses are a vital resource for creating mentoring connections that extend across departments, schools and disciplines. By supporting mentoring beyond individual units, they expand faculty networks, strengthen interdisciplinary collaboration, and cultivate a broader sense of academic community across the university.
Mentoring guidelines for colleges and regional campuses
Complementary role to TIUs
Colleges and regional campuses partner with TIUs to strengthen and amplify mentoring cultures.
TIUs anchor faculty‑to‑faculty mentoring, while colleges and regional campuses actively advance this work by championing mentoring priorities, connecting faculty across units, and amplifying effective practices that align with TIU missions, honor disciplinary cultures and respond to local needs.
Cultivate a mentoring culture
Promote mentoring as a positive, affirming and collaborative practice.
Cultivate a mentoring culture that celebrates collaboration, reciprocity and mutual investment in faculty and unit success. Communicate mentoring as valued professional work and encourage diverse mentoring approaches and models that reflect local unit disciplinary cultures and faculty needs.
Provide resources and support
Offer resources that strengthen a range of mentoring approaches and models.
Strengthen mentoring cultures by supporting peer mentoring pods (such as affinity groups and interdisciplinary teams), facilitating access to external mentors, recognizing and resourcing faculty who take on substantial mentoring roles, and encouraging informal networking opportunities, such as coffee chats, lunches and colloquia that foster connection and community.
Develop programming
Create programming that supports faculty professional growth.
Expand learning and connection opportunities by offering faculty‑led workshops, panels and facilitated discussions that draw on college faculty expertise and address shared priorities across TIUs on topics such as career advancement, leadership development, community‑engaged scholarship and professional well‑being.
Support specific faculty groups
Provide targeted mentoring for faculty in specific ranks and appointment types.
Mentoring is valuable at every career stage, and cross‑unit opportunities can be especially supportive for tenured associate professors and Clinical, Teaching, and Practice (CTP) faculty. Interdisciplinary programs, such as peer‑based or hierarchical mentoring pods, are particularly effective when offered for an extended period, such as over a semester and ideally across the academic year.
Celebrate and recognize mentoring
Celebrate mentoring as valued professional work.
Elevate mentoring by acknowledging its contributions in annual reviews and promotion and tenure (P&T) processes. Celebrate mentoring excellence through awards and events that spotlight individual faculty mentors and TIUs, modeling strong, inclusive mentoring cultures.
Partner with TIUs
Collaborate with TIUs to strengthen mentoring cultures.
Partner with TIUs to strengthen mentoring practice by sharing effective approaches, co‑developing guidance on incorporating mentoring into evaluation processes, and supporting mentoring strategies that reflect disciplinary strengths, cultures and local needs.
Leadership and sustainability
Sustain mentoring through leadership and ongoing support.
Encourage tenured professors to play a collective leadership role in mentoring within their TIUs, while supporting department chairs and school directors as they elevate and embed effective mentoring practices across their units. Consistent communication, shared resources, and visible leadership support will help sustain strong mentoring cultures over time.