Frequently Asked Questions

• Who is eligible?

  ARA mentees are: 

  • All pre-tenure faculty from CNAS who are at least two years away from submitting their tenure file.
  • Tenure-track faculty in the Professorial title series, including Professors of Teaching, Extension, and Research and other Senate title equivalents within CNAS.
  • Faculty who have demonstrated a commitment to inclusive excellence.
  • All CNAS faculty (including Black/African American, Hispanic/Latinx, Native American, women, and members of the LGBTQ+ community) are strongly encouraged to apply, to ensure greater representation of individuals from all backgrounds in every part of the CNAS Community.
• How do I apply?

  In the winter/early spring, all CNAS assistant professors will receive an email inviting them to submit an ARA Mentee application. Interested applicants fill out a Google form application that requests the following information:

  General Personal Information

  • Name

  • Department

  • Month and year that you joined UCR

  • Expected year for filing tenure (Note: COVID and other ‘stop-the-clock’ actions may extend the period of time from appointment to submission of a tenure file.)

  • Provide a short synopsis (~250 words or less) of your research program

  • Demographic Information (Optional)

   

  Short Answer Questions

  • What are your Mentorship goals? What do you hope to gain or learn? (~400 words or less)

  • Challenges: What are some challenges you have faced that have impacted your confidence in being able to succeed at UCR. These can be issues faced at any stage in your academic career (i.e. graduate school, post-doc) that have impacted or may impact your path to tenure or issues that you are currently facing as a faculty member. (~400 words or less)

   

  Mentee Preferences

  • What would you like your mentor to know about you?

  • What qualities are you looking for in a mentor? This is an opportunity for you to identify qualities such as career stage, personality traits, or affinity preferences of your mentor.

  • Identify potential UCR Mentors: List up to three UCR faculty members from a STEM field outside your own department whom you believe would be effective faculty career mentors. Mentors are usually appointed from CNAS. However, BCOE, SOM, CHASS, or SOE faculty may be considered.

  • Current mentors: Who are your current formal and informal mentors at UCR or at other institutions? As the ARA program seeks to complement other mentoring initiatives, this information will be used to find an ARA mentor.

  • For assistant professors of teaching, please indicate if your ARA mentor should be an associate/full professor of teaching or research.

  • For assistant professors of extension, please indicate if your ARA mentor should be an associate/full professor of extension or research.

• How are mentees selected?

  ARA Mentees will be selected based on eligibility and the availability of appropriate mentors. Every effort is made to make a successful pairing.

  Due to CNAS’s financial commitment to the ARA Faculty Mentoring Program, all eligible CNAS assistant professors can become an ARA Mentee. ARA Mentees should be at least two years away from submitting their tenure files.

• Who is eligible to be a mentor?

  ARA Mentors will be faculty:

  • in the associate and full ranks of professorial title series including: Professors of Teaching, Extension, and Research and other Senate title equivalents within CNAS.
    • It is noteworthy that some ARA Mentees prefer an associate professor as a Mentor, as they are closer to the experiences of early-career faculty
  • who are committed to participating in the ARA Mentor Train the Mentors Workshops I-II-III.
  • who have a commitment to mentoring and enabling the success of others.
  • interested in sharing mentoring lessons and tips and helping to build a CNAS mentoring community.
  • who may or may not have experience in mentoring other faculty. The Train the Mentors workshops should help fill the experience gap.
  • who have a commitment to inclusive excellence.

   

  To ensure greater representation of individuals from all backgrounds in every part of the CNAS Community, all CNAS faculty are encouraged to apply, including Black/African American, Hispanic/Latinx, Native American, women, and members of the LGBTQ+ community.

• How are mentors selected?

  Mentors are selected based on eligibility and a "match" with the needs of an ARA mentee. Mentee-Mentor pairs are chosen by the ARA selection committee. After selection, ARA mentees approve their committee-selected mentor. The mentee will have the opportunity to review mentor applications and determine if another mentor better matches their needs. Mentors approve the pairing to ensure there is no conflict of interest. Final matching will be based on mentor and mentee preferences, mentor rankings, and mentee goals. ARA makes every effort to match mentees with one of their top choices. Occasionally, none of the mentor applicants meet the needs of an ARA Mentee; in this case, ARA identifies and invites a faculty member to become an ARA Mentor who is well-aligned with the mentee’s needs.

• How do mentors apply?

  A Call for ARA Mentors is sent out in late winter/early spring quarter (at the same time as ARA Mentee applications). Mentors will be asked to provide the following information:

  • Why are you interested in being an ARA mentor?
  • As mentoring is a two-way conversation, what do you hope to gain or learn from being an ARA mentor? (no more than ~250 words)
  • What is your experience in mentoring faculty? (Mentoring experience is not a pre-requisite for becoming an ARA Mentor).
  • Who are your current formal and informal mentees at UCR (indicate Dept)? at other institutions? (no more than ~250 words)
  • A very short synopsis of your research program (few sentences) and a web link.
  • Applicants are asked to rank the area that they feel most comfortable providing mentorship on.
    • Publishing
    • Merit & tenure review
    • Getting Grants
    • Mentoring students & trainees
    • Advancing inclusion, diversity, equity & belonging
    • Navigating departmental politics
    • Making professional contacts
    • Managing negotiations or conflicts
    • Leadership
    • Teaching
    • Campus Administration