Mentor guidelines

Faculty mentors

President's and Chancellor’s Postdoctoral Fellowship mentors must be tenured ladder-rank faculty (associate or full professor) who are expected to (1) take an active role in helping the fellow to plan and achieve his or her research goals, (2) assist the fellow in establishing a visible presence in the department, (3) facilitate opportunities for the fellow to participate in national and international research meetings, (4) encourage the fellow to focus full-time on research and avoid other commitments such as teaching or outside employment, (5) assist the fellow in seeking opportunities to present papers or to interview for faculty positions at the other campuses, and (6) attend the program professional development activities such as the Fall Meeting and the Academic Retreat.

The program encourages mentors to meet with their fellow at the beginning of the fellowship to discuss their working arrangements and consider appropriate long and short term goals for the term of the fellowship. The mentor should not expect to meet all of the fellow’s career development needs personally, but should provide an overall framework to ensure that the fellow has access to a broad academic network to support his or her work.

Mentors may also play an important role in advising fellows about the academic job market and making connections to related departments at other campuses that may be interested in the fellow for a faculty appointment. At the University of California, mentors should advise their department chairs about the hiring incentive for UC President's and Chancellor's Postdoctoral Fellows. At the University of Michigan, mentors should advise departments that are interested in considering fellows for faculty appointments to contact the fellowship program office (ADV-Michigan-Postdoc@umich.edu). For the University of Colorado, the expectation is that the departments will consider applicants for faculty appointments, and should contact the Associate Vice Chancellor for Faculty Affairs for information about process (facultyaffairs@colorado.edu).

Host departments

Host departments are encouraged to welcome the fellow into the department and make every effort to ensure that the fellow is included in communications about departmental colloquia, seminars and social events. Host departments are expected to provide the fellow with information about salary and benefits and administer the fellow’s research and professional travel funds. Host departments are expected to provide the fellow with access to appropriate office space and routine administrative support such as telephone lines, departmental mail services, libraries and technical support.