Integrating mentoring with P&T processes: A case study from the School of Public Service at Boise State

ABSTRACT

In 2018, SPS began developing and implementing an integrated approach to mentoring that combined elements of promotion & tenure (P&T) reviews, annual performance evaluations, and workload policies. This approach has led to a high level of success for junior faculty in terms of following a clear trajectory toward tenure. It has also come with numerous transaction costs, such as increased service loads, inconsistencies in mentoring practices, and conflicts in expectations. In this paper, we describe the SPS Mentoring Policy and provide background on its motivations and history. Using our own auto-ethnographical reflections from our administrative roles organizing and coordinating the mentoring process, and data from focus groups of faculty participating in the process, we then examine the trade-offs of this policy in comparison to a more traditional P&T policy, discuss lessons learned over the last five years, and consider future opportunities.

KEYWORDS:

• Integration
• mentoring
• promotion and tenure

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1. We later expanded this mentoring process to include associate professors and non-tenure track faculty (i.e., assistant clinical and research faculty).

2. The first full Faculty Director term was filled by two people to help make the workload manageable as the School was developed and so there was representation for more than one program. After that three-year term was completed the Faculty Director position was filled by one person.

3. We obtained IRB approval prior to requesting faculty volunteers and followed all normal guidelines and standards for conducting this type of research.

4. Our sample includes all SPS faculty that went through this mentoring process. To date, only two faculty members that were under this process have left the university with one of those tenured. No faculty have failed to be promoted.

5. As the current Faculty Director, Luke Fowler plays an evaluative role for the participants, so Amanda Ashley and Lori Hausegger facilitated the focus groups and were the only ones with access to the focus group notes. All participant comments were anonymized before being shared with Fowler.

6. We should also note the possibility that our focus group results were affected by who conducted the groups. Although we did not include the current Faculty Director, the previous Faculty Directors did facilitate those focus groups, and they were responsible for implementing the mentoring policy for many of the faculty participants included.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Amanda Ashley

Amanda Ashley is a professor of urban studies in the School of Public Service and the inaugural Director of the School of Arts at Boise State University. She served as one of the inaugural Faculty Directors of the School of Public Service from 2018 to 2021. Dr. Ashley’s research explores urban revitalization through property-based economic development, public/private partnerships, and civic collaboration. She is the author of three books on urban planning and her work has appeared in Journal of Urban Affairs, Journal of the American Planning Association, Urban Affairs Review, and Journal of Urban History, among other journals.

Luke Fowler

Luke Fowler is an associate professor of public policy and administration in the School of Public at Boise State, and currently serves as Faculty Director. Dr. Fowler’s research interests include policy implementation, environmental policy, and state and local government. He is the author of two books on environmental federalism and policy implementation, and his work has appeared in the Public Administration, Policy Studies Journal, Review of Policy Research, and Administration & Society, among other journals.

Lori Hausegger

Lori Hausegger is a professor of political science in the School of Public Service at Boise State. She served as one of the inaugural Faculty Directors from 2018 and 2021. Her research interests include comparative courts, judicial selection, judicial decision-making, and court-Congress relations. She is the author a textbook on Canadian courts and her work has appeared American Journal of Political Science, Canadian Journal of Political Science, and Law & Society Review, among other journals.