External Mentorship Program
This program enables UMaine faculty to build and benefit from a relationship with an external mentor. The program’s chief purpose is to prepare the faculty member to submit a competitive application for promotion-and-tenure (assistant professors) or promotion (associate professors). Eligibility is therefore limited to: (1) early career, tenure-track faculty currently in their 2nd, 3rd year, or 4th year at UMaine; and (2) tenured associate professors who are four or more years post-tenure.
An external mentoring relationship can serve an essential professional development function. An external mentor can supplement the guidance offered by departmental and university colleagues. They provide feedback on and advice concerning the faculty member’s scholarship and future trajectory from the perspective of a prominent, well-established disciplinary colleague. External mentors are well positioned to offer a dispassionate assessment of the mentee’s achievements, work-in-progress, and professional visibility/service.
The following resources will be made available to faculty selected to participate in this program:
- A $1,000 stipend paid to the external mentor each year for two years;
- A further $1,000 over the cost of 2 years to support meetings, travel, and/or other activities associated with the mentoring relationship.
Application Instructions
Faculty members who wish to apply for external mentoring support should submit a one-page letter describing their interest in working with an external mentor, along with the name and CV of the proposed individual, to Associate Provost Gabe Paquette. Questions about the program may be directed to um.apfaafd@maine.edu .
- External mentors should be experts in the faculty member’s field(s) of research.
- Faculty members seeking an external mentor are responsible for identifying a non-UMaine colleague to serve in that capacity and should indicate whether that individual has agreed to serve as a mentor. Applications cannot be approved without the external mentor’s agreement to serve. Evidence of this willingness (e.g., e-mail) should be submitted with the one-page letter.
- UMaine will provide a stipend of $1,000 annually to the external mentor for a period of up to two years. The stipend will be paid at the end of the academic year in which the faculty member has worked with the mentor.
- An additional $1,000 will be made available during the two-year period to support meetings, travel, and/or other activities associated with the mentoring relationship.