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New Grad School Award to Honor Top Faculty Mentors

Faculty, students emphasize importance of mentoring in the Graduate School experience

Graduate students will tell you good faculty mentoring can be the difference between a swiftly completed dissertation and a long, unsatisfying struggle. Now the Graduate School is stepping forward to recognize the faculty who do it best.

A Dean's Award for Excellence in Mentoring, established this year by Graduate School Dean Lewis Siegel, will honor faculty members nominated by graduate students. Three awards will be presented at the annual Distinguished Teachers' Award banquet in April.

"Mentoring is clearly a major issue in all graduate programs," Siegel said. "In our internal studies on how to reduce the attrition rate among Ph.D. students, the issue of mentoring has been a very dominant one. In talking with the students, we all felt that a program recognizing outstanding mentoring would be a good thing. Not only would it reward the faculty members who do it well, but it would publicly set forth criteria defining what good mentoring was, and get some discussion going on the issue."

Siegel said good mentoring is a "flexible thing. You know it when you see it." He expects the nominations to include faculty who have helped students in a variety of ways and who take different approaches to mentoring.

But Jacqueline Looney, associate dean for student affairs, said part of the value of the project has been getting faculty and students together to discuss what constitutes good mentoring. The award organizers settled on some key points. A good mentor: monitors students' progress and provides constructive feedback; commits to advancing students' long-term professional developments; encourages the development of good teaching and other professional skills; provides a supportive environment for research and scholarship; and connects students with the necessary resources for their scholarship.

"To be fair, there are some faculty members who already do this," Looney said. "This is something Graduate Schools across the nation struggle with. You can't tell faculty members 'here are some guidelines. Mentor your students!' It simply won't work. But we do believe we need to give some kind of guidance for some and recognition for others who are doing it well. And then I hope over time it will become a real part of what the Graduate School culture is."

"We can see how departments are approaching mentoring," said Leigh DeNeef, associate dean, "and we can see which ones are not doing it well. This is our way of saying, 'Look, this is an important component of graduate education at Duke, and we want faculty to take responsibility for this.'"

The Graduate School isn't alone in its focus on mentoring, nor is it an issue limited to students. Dr. Ann Brown, the new associate dean for women in medicine, said she'll make the promotion of faculty mentoring a key aspect of her new duties. Several initiatives on undergraduate research promote closer working relationships between faculty and undergraduate students. Meanwhile, the recent Women's Initiative cited mentoring as an issue for staff as well.

While it's not clear that less mentoring is occurring today, Siegel said it is obvious that it is more difficult today because of the increased time commitments faculty have. However, he says most faculty members do care about mentoring.

"They realize it is in their self-interest," Siegel said. "There's nothing fancy about it. Good mentors get more graduate students. With more graduate students, they can do more work, get more grants and do more teaching. It's why they want to be here at Duke in the first place."

Students played a significant role in organizing the award. Heather Dean, a graduate student in neurobiology, said the award underscores one of the key issues raised by students in the Women's Initiative. "Mentoring plays a key role in maintaining the confidence and motivation of graduate students, and without strong support, many who might otherwise flourish in higher education may find themselves unable to finish a degree," she said.

"I hope that earning this award will become a goal for all faculty members at Duke, encouraging them to examine their own practices in labs or classrooms. Additionally, those professors chosen to receive the reward will discuss their mentoring philosophies, providing an example for everyone at Duke and hopefully improving the climate for graduate and professional students across the university."

Deadline for the nominations is March 15. Nomination forms and additional information can be found at www.gradschool.duke.edu/gsa/mentoraward.htm or by calling 681-3257.