College of Design Faculty Support and Mentoring

The College of Design promotes a range of mentoring opportunities to support all of our faculty at all stages of their career. Faculty are encouraged to seek out a range of opportunities based on their needs and issues. Please feel free to contact Rich Margerum if you have any questions rdm@uoregon.edu

Why is Mentoring Important?

  • Improves retention of all faculty navigating the career ladder
  • Helps reduce attrition, which occurs at higher rates for women and faculty of color
  • Help with sense of belonging and overcome exclusion from informal collegial networks
  • Closes the “information gap” often experienced by women and underrepresented minority faculty

Departmental Individual Mentoring: Department heads are encouraged to work with faculty to develop a mentoring strategy based on individual needs. However, this may not address all mentoring needs.

College Group Mentoring: The College has organized mentor groups to help extend faculty mentoring networks with senior faculty and peers. Groups meet 1-2 times per term on selected topics through in-person and virtual modes. Faculty are encouraged to participate in a group, but ongoing participation is not required.

College of Design 2024-25 Mentoring

November 14 and 15, 2024: Major Review Workshops

Presentation by Rich Margerum and Renee Irvin

  • Tuesday November 14: 4-5 pm
    • Dean’s Conference Room (Lawrence Hall) with sodas and snacks!
    • Zoom Option
  • Friday November 15:  11am to Noon
  • DSGN Resource: Onboarding Manual3 (titled on boarding, but relevant to all reviews)

October 2024: DSGN Research Symposium

Archived Meetings and Workshops

May 2024: Preparing a Teaching Portfolio

April 2024:  Inclusive Curriculum Workshop

January 2024: Workshop on Foundation Funding with Arts Organizations

October 2023: Panel on Research Grant and Award applications

  • Dean’s Awards Process and Tips (Powerpoint) Rich Margerum, Associate Dean
  • Resources and Support for External Funding (Powerpoint) Kate Petcosky-Kulkarni, Research Development Services
  • Recording
    Passcode: 65+Sh$v9

September 2023: Reviews (Annual, MTR, P&T, PTR3, PTR6)

February 2023 Workshop: Managing Student Interaction Workshop

March 2023: Working with Journals

Associate Professors Lunch (June 2 and 8)

One-on-One Discussions

One-on-one discussions: Email Camie Foos clfo@uoregon.edu to schedule a time with Rich Margerum

  • Discuss review processes
  • Review materials, statements, or strategies
  • Discuss resources

University Group Mentoring Programs: See more information here

New Faculty Group Mentorship Program: New tenure-track or career faculty in their first, second or third year at UO are invited to participate a group mentoring program. Each group will include three new faculty and two seasoned faculty. We will meet six times per year, and each 1.5-hour meeting will begin with a specific topic intended to help faculty thrive in the academy such as culturally responsive mentorship, early preparation for tenure or promotion, inclusive teaching strategies, equitable service, leading and mentoring others etc.

Associate Professors Peer Mentorship Program: Faculty tenured in the last three years are invited to participate. We will meet six times per year, and each 1.5-hour meeting will begin with tangible information on a topic that the group has identified as helpful and important. The remainder of the 1.5-hour meeting will include semi-structured conversations with a trio of peers to integrate the topic more personally. Trios will also be encouraged to meet one additional time each term on their own for more informal conversation and network building.

Career Faculty Peer Mentorship Program: Career faculty who have achieved their first promotional step in the last three years are invited to participate. We will meet six times per year, and each 1.5-hour meeting will begin with tangible information on a topic that the group has identified as helpful and important. The remainder of the 1.5-hour meeting will include semi-structured conversations with a trio of peers to integrate the topic more personally. Trios will also be encouraged to meet one additional time each term on their own for more informal conversation and network building.

UO External Mentoring Program

The university has developed an external mentoring program for early career and under-represented faculty. The program provides funding to support an external mentor. See this link: https://inclusion.uoregon.edu/facultyexternal-mentor-program

UO Faculty Writing Circle Program

The Center on Diversity and Community (CoDaC) offers writing circles that draw on evidence-based practices that have been proven to build productivity and comfort with writing. These circles support faculty to meet goals for article and book publication, applications for grants and fellowships, and all other necessary writing tasks. Writing circles teach planning and drafting methods that can yield the steady, incremental progress that minimizes negative writing experiences and maximizes success. At the same time, the circles build relationships among faculty who are often otherwise separated by disciplinary or unit boundaries and position types. Drawing on each other’s expertise, faculty writing circle participants learn from each other’s strategies for research, writing, and managing time and knowledge of university resources. New faculty will find circles a great way to meet additional friends and mentors far from their home unit and to learn about ways to flourish at UO.

How to sign up:  Click >> here << to sign up for a winter writing circle. In the scheduling poll, include your full name and email. Click on all times in the left column that would work well for you. This helps get everyone into a circle convenient to them. You should also indicate times that could work in the right column. However, don’t click on times that you wouldn’t be able to protect and attend consistently, outside of research/conference travel and other necessary absences. Please note that in some time slots we offer two different kinds of writing circle, e.g. an in-person and a virtual circle.Feel free to email me with questions about scheduling. For more information contact Lara Bovilsky, Faculty Associate for the Faculty Writing Circle Program.

National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity

All UO faculty have free access to many resources from the National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity (NCFDD) www.facultydiversity.org. NCFDD’s mission is to support academics in making successful transitions through their careers. They support faculty, postdocs and graduate students in finding the mentoring, professional development training and supportive community they are looking for. The NCFDD offers a “bootcamp”, also called the NCFDD Faculty Success Program. This program does have a cost associated with it. It is a 12-week online program designed to teach tenure-track and tenured faculty the skills to increase research and writing productivity while maintaining a healthy work-life balance. It includes a supportive community, time tracking, individual coaching sessions, weekly training and accountability class. Talk to your Dean’s office about available cost sharing for your participation in this program. Thanks to UO’s institutional membership funded through the Vice President for Equity and Inclusion, the following are available at no cost to you

Other Resources