UIC Campus-Wide Mentoring Taskforce completes its work

Introduction

Dear faculty, staff and students,

Happy summer 2025! I hope this message finds you enjoying the start of the summer months.

In September 2024, I announced the formation of the UIC Campus-Wide Mentoring Taskforce which was charged to formulate recommendations for a campus-wide mentor professional development program based on 1) a comprehensive inventory of existing mentoring resources and opportunities, 2) research on effective mentor programs and 3) a needs assessment with key stakeholders before the end of the 2024-2025 academic year.

Assembled to address the need for centralized mentoring activities; to help promote a mentor mindset in our faculty, students and researchers; to support workforce development; and to foster a climate that encourages collaboration and thriving outcomes across campus in a central and strategically unified effort, I am pleased to announce that the task force has masterfully and comprehensively fulfilled its charge.

During the 2024-25 academic year, the members of the task force, supported by a stellar research assistant and doctoral student of educational psychology, So Jung Lee, organized a series of meetings with and conducted an in-depth survey of an array of stakeholder groups to assess their needs and develop a comprehensive inventory of existing mentoring resources and opportunities on campus. Those resources and opportunities are now available for your use and reference on the UIC Campus-Wide Mentoring Taskforce webpage. In addition to these efforts, the task force performed a thorough literature review, researching effective mentor programs and best practices in higher education, which is also available on the UIC Campus-Wide Mentoring Taskforce webpage.

The task force’s work culminated last month when co-chairs Miquel Gonzalez-Meler, associate vice provost for faculty affairs and professor of biological sciences; Nancy Freitag, professor and head of the pharmaceutical sciences department; and Lauren Woods, senior associate director, CATE and CIRTL@UIC in the Center for the Advancement of Teaching Excellence, met with myself, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs Mike Stieff and Dean of the Graduate College David Eddington, to share the task force’s recommendations for a campus mentor professional development program. In that meeting, it became evident that work to implement a number of the recommendations is already underway in several key areas as a direct extension of the task force’s work, but that additional strategic efforts will be required to identify opportunities through which to implement the remaining recommendations. I am pleased to share that these efforts will begin this summer and continue through the coming academic year in collaboration with my office.

I am deeply grateful both to the members of the task force for their time and energy in service of my charge as well as to all members of the UIC community who participated in the task force’s various stakeholder conversations and completed the survey disseminated in September.

Please join me in congratulating and thanking the members of the task force for their dedication and phenomenal contributions to advancing and improving mentoring relationships and activities across UIC.

Thank you,

Karen J. Colley
Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs