Mentoring

The Graduate College offers Mentoring Workshops based on the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER) curriculum. The workshop’s goals are to improve the research mentoring relationships for mentees and mentors through the implementation of evidence-based interventions and strategies. This  mentoring curriculum is used at 130 institutions and been around for over 10 years with many peer-reviewed publications demonstrating its effectiveness and is the same one offered by the Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS) at UIC, but tailored for a more general faculty audience. This workshop series will transform good mentors into great mentors! In addition, you will build community with other faculty at UIC.

We offer GC 520: Mentoring Up, which is a 1 credit hour 8 week course for graduate students. Topics covered include maintaining effective communication, aligning expectations, addressing equity and inclusion, building research self-efficacy, achieving independence, and how to seek professional development.

Mentoring resources at UIC collected by the Provost’s Mentoring Taskforce.

• Mentoring Taskforce Resources

The Individual Development Plan (IDP) concept is used to help students define and pursue their career goals. The IDP should be used to guide conversations around career goals between students and advisors.

• MyIPD, an IDP for STEM
• Imagine PhD, an IDP for Arts, Humanities, and Social Science or non-traditional STEM career planning

Mentor-mentee agreements articulate expectations between mentors and mentees and make invisible expectations visible. These documents should be part of the graduate program’s handbook and can cover topics such as research productivity, authorship guidelines, working hours, communication methods, respect and team expectations, how to seek professional development, and how to resolve conflicts.

• Example Mentor Mentee Agreements from UIC doctoral programs

I. Policy Statement

The Graduate College at the University of Illinois Chicago (UIC) is committed to providing and maintaining a safe and effective learning environment in which graduate students and faculty work together to both educate and learn in a manner that promotes the highest level of excellence. As an institution preparing the leaders of tomorrow, we expect members of our community to foster an academic environment that encourages mutually respectful relationships, is conducive to learning and working, and is free of mistreatment, discrimination, harassment, and threats of retaliation. All members of the graduate education community have a shared responsibility to protect the integrity of the learning environment and to report any incident in which the positive learning environment has been compromised.

A graduate faculty member’s failure to uphold this policy could result in the initiation of the graduate faculty status review process after significant violations (severe or pattern of behavior). When instances of discrimination or harassment are reported, they will be directed to the Office for Access and Equity.

This policy is adapted from the UI COM Student Positive Learning Environment Policy which is based on the Mistreatment Guidelines of the Group on Student Affairs of the Association of American Medical Colleges.

II. Applicability

This policy applies to all graduate students enrolled in, all faculty employed by, and all other teachers holding appointments with UIC who interact with graduate students. This policy shall supplement prior UIC statements, policies, procedures, guidelines and compacts relating to the UIC learning environment and, to the extent there is conflict, this Policy shall govern.

III. Characteristics of a Positive Learning Environment

The learning environment of graduate programs should be conducive to the ongoing development of explicit and appropriate professional behaviors in students and faculty at all training locations, whether in the classroom, studio, laboratory, or community-based settings, and should be one in which all individuals are treated with respect. As such, UIC recognizes that each member of the graduate school community should be accepted as an autonomous individual and treated with civility and respect.

The learning environment is expected to facilitate students’ acquisition of the professional and collegial attitudes necessary for effective scholarship. The development and nurturing of these attitudes are enhanced by and based on the presence of mutual respect between teacher and student. Characteristic of this respect is the expectation that all participants in the educational program assume their responsibilities in a manner that enriches the quality of the learning process.

It is, therefore, unacceptable for instructors to fail to adhere to applicable college, campus and university-wide policies, procedures, and guidelines that establish standards for professionalism and conduct, as well as those principles of professionalism and ethics generally accepted within disciplinary norms. Furthermore, it is unacceptable for instructors (e.g., a faculty member or an individual acting in a teaching role) to engage in mistreatment of students.

IV. Code of Professional Conduct for Teacher-Student Relationships

1. The role of the teacher is to create an environment that facilitates learning by:
   1. Ensuring responsibility and accountability;
   2. Demonstrating respect for students as individuals and adhering to their proper roles as intellectual and practice guides and mentors;
   3. Making every reasonable effort to foster honest academic and professional conduct while promoting open communication;
   4. Ensuring that their evaluations of students are timely and accurately reflect each student’s competence;
   5. Respecting the boundaries of the relationship between teacher and student; and
   6. Avoiding any exploitation, harassment, discrimination and/or mistreatment of the students.
2. As such, teachers are expected to:
   1. Maintain high standards for professionalism in all interactions with students, colleagues, and administrative staff, including industry-specific professional standards;
   2. Ensure the quality of all components of the student’s education programs;
   3. Nurture students’ intellectual, professional and personal development and achievement of academic excellence;
   4. Maintain awareness of issues potentially affecting students’ wellbeing;
   5. Respect students as individuals, without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, order of protection status, genetic information, marital status, disability status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or unfavorable discharge from the military or status as a protected veteran;
   6. Refuse to tolerate abuse or exploitation of students;
   7. Comply with the policies, procedures and guidelines related to claims of unlawful discrimination, harassment, mistreatment and retaliation, and understand how those claims may be reported;
   8. Refuse to engage in or tolerate reprisals or retaliation of any kind as a result of a good faith report of mistreatment;
   9. Take responsibility for students being advised or assigned to one’s course, and ensure a safe, fair, supportive, unbiased learning environment that respects each student’s physical and social boundaries and encourages their development as scholars and professionals;
   10. Provide supervision and appropriate remediation when students are not adequately prepared;
   11. Provide written and verbal feedback to students in a timely, professional, constructive, respectful, personalized, and unambiguous manner; and
   12. Encourage students who experience or witness mistreatment to report it;
3. Students also have a responsibility in creating and maintaining a positive learning environment by:
   1. Complying with all applicable policies, procedures, and guidelines establishing expectations for student professionalism and other standards of conduct;
   2. Attending, being prepared and on time for, and participating in all academic activities and learning experiences consistent with the expectations of the faculty member, laboratory, studio, department, College, and/or experiential site;
   3. Respecting teachers, staff, and fellow learners as individuals, without regard to race, color, religion, disability status, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, order of protection status, genetic information, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, or unfavorable discharge from the military or status as a protected veteran;
   4. Seeking out, accepting, and learning from feedback, in a timely, professional, respectful and receptive manner;
   5. Understanding and, when not certain, seeking clarification on what does and does not constitute student mistreatment;
   6. Refuse to engage in or tolerate reprisals or retaliation of any kind; and
   7. Reporting incidents of student mistreatment experienced to the Graduate College or the Dean of Students’ office.

V. Student Mistreatment

Mistreatment arises when behavior denigrates the dignity of others and/or unreasonably interferes with the learning process/environment, whether that behavior is experienced or observed. Unreasonable public humiliation, physically harming, exploiting and/or subjecting an individual to unwanted sexual advances are all examples of mistreatment and a detailed, but not exhaustive, list is found in section VI.

Note, however, that vigorous discourse and the conflict of ideas are integral to an academic environment of openness, so long as they are conducted in a civil and respectful way. Asking and answering questions as a means to stimulate critical thinking and draw out ideas and underlying assumptions is also critical to teaching, but can and should be done in a respectful manner. In addition, constructive feedback about performance is crucial to students’ educational progress and professional development. Some feedback may be critical, harsh, or even discouraging. Students may, at times, feel embarrassed or uncomfortable when they make mistakes, answer questions incorrectly, or are not adequately prepared for a required activity. However, not every behavior or action to which the student responds with stress or emotional discomfort is considered mistreatment.

The actions of the teacher/staff must be evaluated in light of the circumstances and the possible teaching objectives of the experience. In general, actions taken in good faith and done in a respectful and constructive manner to assess or develop knowledge/skill, and/or to correct unacceptable performance/behavior are not considered mistreatment.

VI. Examples of Mistreatment

1. Unreasonable and egregious public embarrassment or humiliation;
2. Use of obscenities, profanity or pejorative (e.g., racially/culturally-derived/gender-based) terms or names directed at a student;
3. Verbally intimidating, abusing, attacking, and/or harassing a student in a manner that fails to respect the student’s dignity, whether in public or private, in jest or to reinforce learning;
4. Physically harming or threatening with physical harm;
5. Committing an act of physical abuse or violence of any kind (e.g. throwing objects, tearing up work, or aggressive violation of personal space);
6. Exploitation of students in any manner (e.g. by asking students to perform personal errands or by taking credit for work performed by the student);
7. Assigning duties as punishment rather than education;
8. Unwarranted exclusion from reasonable learning opportunities;
9. Unfairly singling out a student for adherence to higher expectations than others in that student’s cohort;
10. Intentional neglect or lack of communication;
11. Endangering a student’s professional development by instructing the student to ignore institutional policies, or by inviting/encouraging students to do something unethical or illegal;
12. Engaging in unlawful discrimination or harassment;
13. Threatening to grade or actually grading, promoting, or otherwise evaluating a student on any basis other than that student’s academic performance or competency (e.g., based on the student’s race, color, religion/religious beliefs, sex, national origin, ancestry, age, order of protection status, genetic information, marital status, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or unfavorable discharge from the military or status as a protected veteran);
14. Engaging in unlawful sexual harassment, discrimination or misconduct, including but not limited to making unwelcome sexual advances, sexual comments or remarks, jokes, or taunting remarks about another’s body, attire, appearance, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, or marital status;
15. Inviting students to engage in or actually engaging in a romantic or sexual relationship with the student over which a teacher has supervisory or evaluative authority; and
16. Allowing students to witness the behavior described as “mistreatment” above, directed toward fellow students or others over whom the teacher has authority.

VII. Reporting Mistreatment & Other Learning Environment Concerns

Anyone who experiences or witnesses an incident of student mistreatment is encouraged to make a report utilizing the online Graduate College’s Graduate Student Mistreatment Report Form. Reports may also be made through other campus resources, including the Dean of Students’ Student Assistance and Support Referral Report form or the campus Bias Reporting Tool.

Anyone with general graduate student learning environment concerns may consult with the Associate Deans in the Graduate College. The Associate Deans of the Graduate College will collaborate with faculty/teachers and others in conducting inquiries, attempting resolution, and generally discussing learning environment concerns. Appropriate notifications will be made and actions taken in accordance with applicable University, campus, college, departmental and/or site policies and procedures.

• Graduate College’s Graduate Student Mistreatment Report Form
• Dean of Students’ Student Assistance and Support Referral Report Form
• UIC Bias Reporting Tool