Preparing New Faculty Members To Be Successful: A No Brainer And Yet A Radical Concept

A multifa ceted program at North Carolina State University involving workshops and mentorships helps prepare new faculty members and graduate students for successful academic careers. This paper describes the elements of the program, reviews assessment data for each element, and offers recommendations to engineering schools wishing to establish their own programs for new and future faculty members. I. Introduction The default preparation for a faculty career is none at all. Graduate students may get some training on tutoring, grading papers, the importance of laboratory safety, and the undesirability of sexual harassment, and new faculty members may hear about their benefit options, the importance of laboratory safety, and the undesirability of sexual harassment, but that’s about it for academic career preparation at most universities.