Retention

The University has had a multi-level mentoring program since 2008. Mentees are divided into peer groups based on their school, with smaller schools combined. This approach helps build community, peer friendships, accountability and a sense of cohort among the new assistant professors. The expectation is that the peer groups meet outside the formal events at least once a month to share their experiences and discuss research, teaching, and/or other opportunities and challenges they face as assistant professors. At the second level, assistant professors are matched with mentors recommended by their department/program head. Finally, the mentoring committee organizes three workshops each semester (six per academic year). The workshops are centered around topics related to research and publications, strategies to get a quick start, grant writing tips, work/life balance, and guidance on promotion and tenure.

We will leverage ASPIRE² resources to make the following improvements to our mentoring program:

• Develop a new faculty checklist, similar to the University of North Carolina at Charlotte toolkit developed for new faculty hires, to help with onboarding and to ease the transition process to UT Dallas. While individual programs at UT Dallas might have such a checklist, nothing exists across the University.
• Offer 10 competitive mentoring grants ($1,500 each) for faculty from STEM disciplines who are often left out of important networks and can demonstrate difficulty in finding mentorship. This will help faculty engage a mentor outside the University. This initiative is similar to the Mentoring Program for New Faculty at VT. The Internal Steering Committee will manage the application and selection process. Recipients will be expected to provide a report summarizing their use of funds.
• Extend the current mentoring program for junior faculty from one year to six years, covering their entire probationary period. The University of Texas at San Antonio mentoring program, which covers the tenure-track years, found that an extended mentoring program builds community and support for junior faculty.

The ASPIRE² mentoring grant program is designed to provide mentoring support activities for STEM faculty at all career stages who are often left out of important networks and can demonstrate difficulty in finding mentorship. Each faculty member is eligible to receive up to $1,500 to implement a project of their own design that engages at least one mentor, external to The University of Texas at Dallas, and represents a career development opportunity not otherwise possible without this funding.

Eligibility: Full-time tenure-track/tenured faculty members from an NSF-defined STEM field or research area are eligible to apply. Faculty are not eligible to apply if they received a grant in the previous cycle. If you have questions about your eligibility, please email Dr. Sheryl Skaggs at slskaggs@utdallas.edu.

Learn more information and submit the application along with your proposal by May 31, 2024. Send questions to facultymentoring@utdallas.edu.

ASPIRE² Mentoring Grant Recipients – Spring 2023

Name	Rank	Department/School	Project Title
Sheena D’Arcy	Associate Professor	Chemistry and Biochemistry/NSM	Mentoring Mentors – A Multipurpose Excursion
Pumpki Lei Su	Assistant Professor	Language Interaction and Language Acquisition in Children (LILAC) Lab/BBS	Overcoming the Double Bind: Developing Connections, Research, and Mentorship Skills for Women Faculty of Color
Erica L. Sanchez	Assistant Professor	Biological Sciences/NSM	Building Mentor-Mentee Relationships and Networking As an Early Career Investigator
Brenda Gambol	Assistant Professor	Sociology/EPPS	Broadening My Network: Mentorship from a Prominent Scholar

ASPIRE² Mentoring Grant Recipients – Fall 2022

Name	Rank	Department/School	Project Title
Melanie Spence	Professor and Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education	Psychology/ Behavioral and Brain Sciences	Developmental Science Research Connections
Monica Evans	Associate Professor	Animations & Games/Arts, Humanities and Technology	Conversations With Women in Solo and Small-Team Game Development
Purna Joshi	Assistant Professor	Biological Sciences/Natural Sciences and Mathematics	One Size Doesn’t Fit All: A Resonant Mentoring Model for Women Faculty of Color
Hui Ouyang	Assistant Professor	Mechanical Engineering/Erik Jonsson School of Engineering and Computer Science	Building Connections through Collaborative Review Report Writing: A Mentorship Initiative

ASPIRE² Mentoring Grant Recipients – Spring 2022

Name	Rank	Department/School	Project Title
Mary L. Urquhart	Associate Professor	Science/Mathematics Education, NS&M	Mentoring in Qualitative and Mixed Methods Data Acquisition and Analysis
Caroline N. Jones	Assistant Professor	Bioengineering, Erik Jonsson School of Engineering & Computer Science	Enhancing STEM education with storytelling in immersive virtual reality
Lindsay King	Associate Professor	Physics, NS&M
Nikki Delk	Associate Professor	Biological Sciences, NS&M	Pathway to academic administration
Shuang (Cynthia) Cui	Assistant Professor	Mechanical Engineering, Erik Jonsson School of Engineering & Computer Science	MIND: Mentoring in New Dimensions

In response to positive feedback from a 2016 campus climate survey (70% of employees who responded supported the establishment of ERGs), approximately 10 ERGs were created at UT Dallas. ERGs serve as an important resource and support for employees with similar interests and/or demographics. They enhance recruitment and retention efforts and build a sense of community on and off campus (MacGillivray & Golden, 2007). When a group’s numerical representation is low, ERGs provide social support and organizational information (i.e., informal and formal policies, practices and resource knowledge) essential for employee retention (Friedman & Holtom, 2002). Additionally, ERGs provide professional benefits related to leadership development (Catalyst, 2012) and other important skills. The current ERG policy allows for paid time off to participate and for leaders to plan and organize, which promotes staff participation but is unlikely to directly benefit faculty. Using resources from ASPIRE², we will provide funds to support an ERG for STEM faculty at all career stages to host speakers, organize networking events, offer writing workshops and coordinate leadership and professional training, all essential for fostering a sense of community and retention. 

Also modeled on a program launched under AdvanceVT, we propose to host workshops for faculty to share information on key metrics for successful promotion in the home school and to field questions from attendees. AdvanceVT found a lack of clarity in expectations for promotion to full professor among many faculty. The absence of a regular climate survey makes it difficult to quantify this problem at UT Dallas, but anecdotal evidence indicates faculty have the same experience. Thus, we propose that our ASPIRE² Liaisons will hold sessions every year, with one year focused on promotion to full professor and the next year focused on tenure and promotion to associate professor. The workshop will feature a panel including a department/program head, a recently promoted faculty member, a representative from the school Faculty Personnel Review Committee, and the school representative to the Committee on Qualifications. VT found their workshops were particularly effective in adding clarity not only to the expectations for successful promotion (such as journal paper production, research funding, PhD student advising, etc.), but also to the process. Additionally, sharing this evidence-based data with faculty empowers them to advocate for themselves.