Mentor Information
Associates Information
As indicated in the Call for Summer Curriculum, departments are again being asked to identify faculty mentors for Teaching Associates teaching in the Summer term. Each department is asked to provide the name of at least one faculty mentor. This document clarifies the structure, operation, and goals of the mentoring program.
As part of the ongoing commitment to offer Summer Sessions courses in line with the recognized excellence of the UCSB curriculum, this mentoring program is intended to provide planning and pedagogical support to Teaching Associates throughout the session in which they teach and to contribute to the professional development of graduate students as university instructors.
All Teaching Associates must have available mentors who are either regular rank faculty or Continuing Lecturers. Ideally, the mentors should be:
- teaching during the same summer session as the associates they are mentoring;
- experienced in teaching during the compressed sessions of summer; and
- familiar with the subject matter or program area being taught.
Mentors do not need to be the dissertation directors of the concerned graduate students. If your department does not have many Teaching Associates, you may arrange to have a faculty member in a cognate department serve as a mentor.
As a participation incentive, mentors will receive $900 for a full group of 6-8 Associates (4-5 @ $800; 2-3 @ $650; 1 @ $500). Faculty mentors may request the stipend as a cash payment or as a transfer into a research fund. In no case shall the stipend exceed $900.
Mentors will be asked to:
- review course syllabi of associates;
- meet with their group of up to 8 Associates once before the term and 2 times during the term (these are intended to be group discussions rather than one-on-one consultations).
Please submit your faculty mentor list to Summer Sessions, via Martin Stokes (m.stokes@summer.ucsb.edu) by May 1st. If you have already provided this information, please disregard; however, please do provide us updated information if your mentor list changes.
Summer Sessions mentors will have available for support Dr. Mindy Colin, Instructional Consultant from Instructional Development. Some additional information to assist mentors with their responsibilities can be found here.
Common Questions:
How does a Teaching Associate seek out a mentor?
Most mentoring relationships occur because of an already established relationship between an Associate and the faculty member. In the case that a Teaching Associate is seeking a new mentor, or does not have an established relationship, each department is responsible for providing at least one faculty summer mentor. Associates and mentors are responsible for setting up meeting times and an agenda.
How does a faculty member receive her/his stipend?
At the end of all summer sessions (end of Sept.), an email will be sent to each faculty mentor requesting the following information:
1. Names of each associate that was mentored.
2. How the mentor would like to receive payment (either via standard paycheck or submitted to a research account).
Upon receiving this information the faculty mentor will receive the stipend paycheck on the next available paycheck, or as soon as possible a transfer of funds will be made to the research account.