Mentorship and networking

Mentorship supports the success of new faculty, librarians and academic leaders. Experienced mentors can support integration into our academic community, provide guidance on navigating institutional expectations, and foster confidence and collaboration.

Mentor pairing

For mentorship connections, new faculty and librarians are encouraged to meet with their unit head (e.g., chair, director, supervising librarian) to discuss potential pairing options with senior colleagues. The terms of a mentorship relationship are unique to the individuals involved and based on personal preferences and needs. Learn more about establishing positive mentorship relationships.

Joint Faculty Mentorship Program

For 2024/25, as part of a phasing-out process, the Joint Faculty Mentorship Program limited its focus to Faculty Mentor Advisors who provided individualized support to faculty members. We thank our dedicated mentors who provided valuable advice to early and mid-career faculty throughout this program, and we look forward to acknowleding our current mentors whose terms ended on June 30, 2025.

In 2025, a working group will come together to explore a new mentorship program that aligns more closely with our institutional plans—including the Indigenous Plan and Equity Action Plan—and better responds to the needs of faculty, librarians and academic leaders in our evolving post-secondary landscape.

Supportive communities

VPAC’s New Faculty and Librarian Supportive Communities Program is designed to bring together new faculty and librarians with colleagues at all career stages to share their experiences and expertise.

The program’s guiding principles and structure create opportunities for faculty and librarians to connect, network, teach and learn from each other. The program provides opportunities for both new and established faculty and librarians to connect with each other through multilateral knowledge-sharing and networking opportunities, including group and peer support and both informal and formal networking activities.

New faculty and librarians interested in participating should fill out the Peer Support Welcome Questionnaire by the end of the second week of September to be included in that academic year's intake.

Communities of practice

LTSI coordinates several communities of practice for faculty and instructors:

• Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: engage in the systematic study of teaching and learning
• Accessible Teaching and Learning: enhance accessible pedagogy and expand accessibility and inclusive learning approaches in courses
• Instructors of First Year Courses: collaborate, develop and share instructional strategies and pedagogies to support student success

Online learning

Building Your Academic Record With Intention

This online course will explore how to manage your time, focus and commitments to ensure capacity to build your academic record towards successful tenure and promotion. Topics include: 

• Allocating efforts toward Research, Teaching and Service appropriately
• Evaluating the relative value of tasks in order to focus your time and energy
• When and how to say "no"
• Tools and strategies to balance your responsibilities and ensure a clear, synergistic, teaching/research trajectory that will get results 
• Making connections: networking events and resources (conferences, etc.), gathering feedback (internally and externally)