(Updated by VPAP/CAP August 2023)
CAP and VPAP, in consultation with the Council on Equity and Inclusion and the 2022-23 Inclusive Excellence Professors, wish to provide guidance for all faculty in documenting mentoring efforts with an understanding that faculty need flexibility in describing the full range of their activities.
CAP and VPAP recognize that, in addition to formal mentoring, faculty members may be engaged in a significant amount of ongoing informal mentoring to support undergraduate students, graduate students, as well as early-career and other faculty, who may be experiencing academic, career, or personal challenges and seek out additional support and guidance.
Such informal mentoring is sometimes referred to as “emotional labor” and “invisible” or “ghost” mentoring due to the added emotional tax and extra effort required, and because the faculty member often does not otherwise have a formal advising role with the mentee; therefore, their support goes beyond what is normally expected of mentors or advisors or in developing collegial relationships.
Some examples of this kind of mentoring include but are not limited to:
- academic and career advising for graduate or undergraduate students with whom the faculty does not have a formal mentoring relationship;
- supporting graduate or undergraduate students as they grapple with difficult personal, structural, and societal issues;
- providing professional development or personal support to students or faculty with whom they have a shared identity or background (e.g., race/ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, or first-generation status);
- providing substantial informal mentoring of early career faculty around teaching improvement, research, career advising, or preparation of personnel review materials.
This guidance aims to clarify the following:
- Faculty can include not only formal mentoring activities but also invisible or informal mentoring activities in their merit and promotion files by describing their efforts, activities, time commitment, and contributions, along with their impact and outcomes when possible.
- Faculty have the flexibility to determine which self-statement would be most suitable for such descriptions—some faculty members may find teaching or service statements to be more applicable, while others (e.g., faculty who dedicate significant effort to informal mentoring of underrepresented graduate students or early career faculty, contributing to their success) may want to utilize the inclusive excellence activities statement.
- Faculty should take care to maintain the confidentiality of mentees and thus exclude their names and identifying characteristics.
Furthermore, we encourage chairs, deans, and other faculty members who wish to recognize colleagues for excellent mentoring, including those who take on a disproportionate share of invisible or informal mentoring activities, to comment in their respective letters on the impact of these activities and help to contextualize them.
As a campus, we strive for high standards of mentoring for all faculty in furtherance of UCI’s educational mission and continued commitment to inclusive excellence. We hope you find this guidance helpful.