Center for Faculty Excellence

New Faculty Orientation (NFO) provides opportunities for new faculty to gather as a cohort to develop community, become familiar with faculty responsiblities, and learn more about the offices, programs, technology systems, and resources available to faculty at Loyola University Chicago. NFO consists of a 2-day NFO Kick-Off event at the start of the academic year, as well as NFO workshops that take place over the course of the academic year. View upcoming events and access recordings/materials from previous workshops on our New Faculty Orientation page.

Although created with new faculty in mind, all are welcome to attend NFO events!

See our 2023-2024 NFO Year-Long Programming agenda by clicking here: NFO 2023-2024 Agenda

The Faculty Pathway Series includes workshops for faculty at all stages of their careers. Although created with mid- to late-career faculty in mind, all are welcome to attend.

View upcoming events and access recordings/materials from previous workshops on our Faculty Pathway Series page.

How-To Series (also known as Structured Writing Groups) are led by faculty who serve as facilitators on various topics over 9 weeks via 1-hour virtual meetings.

The first 15 minutes of each session involves presentations on topics related to a certain topic (e.g., writing a research article, writing a grant proposal, etc.). The final 45 minutes of each session are devoted to writing time, and faculty can feel free to ask questions. To learn more, please visit the LUC-INSPIRED How-To Series webpage.

Coming soon in 2023-2024: Book Proposal Workshop. Stay tuned for more info!

Peer mentoring or "networked mentoring" creates a community of shared knowledges and experiences, meets the diverse needs of faculty mentees, and normalizes cultivating a support system of multiple mentors and sponsors. 

Peer mentoring circle create communities of shared knowledges and experiences, meet the diverse needs of faculty mentees, and normalize cultivating a support system of multiple mentors and sponsors. They discuss important topics such as promotion and tenure, teaching, and navigating and balancing the competing demands of faculty life.

Two types of Peer Mentoring Circles are available: affinity-based circles and non-specific circles. Affinity-based circles help address the specific and unique challenges faced by underrepresented faculty. Both types of Peer Mentoring Circles are open to full-time early career faculty.*

Peer Mentoring Circles will be facilitated by senior LUC faculty and comprise 4-6 early career faculty. Mentees attend a mandatory orientation in Fall 2023. The orientation covers topics such as maximizing your mentoring relationships and identifying areas of growth and opportunity.

To learn more, please visit the LUC-INSPIRED Peer Mentoring Circles webpage.

*full-time post-docs, NTT and TT faculty in their first four (4) years at LUC who did not participate in previous PMCs are eligible to participate. Faculty who have been at LUC for more than four (4) years are not eligible. If you are not eligible but are looking for a group to support you in your scholarship, consider joining a Structured Writing Group (SWG) in Fall 2023 and/or Spring 2024. SWGs are open to all faculty.

Research shows that women and underrepresented minority faculty are less likely to be promoted by men, and that they take longer to apply for promotion to full professor. Service/administrative works tends to slow the progress of women and underrepresented faculty. They receive 1:1 guidance, feedback, and advice about every aspect of the promotion process from a Faculty Advocate. If you are considering applying for promotion to Full Professor within the next two years, and want to work with a Faculty Advocate, please visit the LUC-INSPIRED Faculty Advocates webpage.

Good mentoring is often cited as a key factor in the professional advancement and career satisfaction of faculty members. Each stage of the faculty lifecycle requirements the development of new skills. New faculty can benefit from mentoring by learning how to transition and acclimate to their new institution (and, in some cases, new city) and how to navigate the balance between research, service, and teaching.

Traditional 1:1 mentoring can provide a useful relationship for some faculty. However, this conventional mentoring style can have some limitations. Many people have different ideas of what it means to be a mentor, which can result in an uneven mentoring experience for mentees. In addition, traditional 1:1 mentoring is based on a "guru" model that assumes one person can meet the diverse needs of a faculty mentee (research, teaching, navigating departmental/disciplinary politics, personal issues, etc.).

Faculty Mentoring Handbook

The National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD) is an organization dedicated to "supporting faculty, postdocs, and graduate students in making successful transitions at every stage of their academic career."

NCFDD offers great resources on topics relevant to faculty life. There are workshops on topics ranging from "How to Develop a Daily Writing Practice" to "Moving from Resistance to Writing" to "Mastering Academic Time Management."

Loyola University Chicago holds an institutional membership which means that ALL faculty, graduate students, and postdocs have full access to all NCFDD resources. To activate your membership, simply do the following:

1. Go to www.facultydiversity.org
2. Click on "Become a Member" at the top
3. On the Institutional Member page, click on the pull-down menu
4. Select Loyola University Chicago, click Continue
5. Click on Activate My Membership
6. Complete the 3-step registration process (*must use your @luc.edu email address)
7. You will receive a welcome email at your LUC email address within 24 business hours confirming that your account is now active and you can begin fully using your new NCFDD membership.