The Faculty Mentoring program offers junior faculty concrete advice on scholarship, teaching, and service to the profession and community through one-on-one mentoring and an annual Faculty Development Workshop, jointly held with LatCrit.

SALT offers young faculty a support network comprised of other public-interest minded law teachers and practitioners from across the country, tenured and untenured.

SALT’s Faculty Mentoring programs introduce new faculty to what a good article looks like and what good teaching means. Through the annual Faculty Development Workshop, doctrinal and clinical faculty get roadmaps for how to conceive of, research, draft, finalize, and market an article. Those who attend the Workshop are urged to bring in drafts of works-in-progress for constructive criticism from more seasoned faculty.

Teaching skills are also examined, with practical advice about how to devise sessions that are comprehensive, insightful, and accessible, while anticipating how to deal with students who might challenge progressive ideas and outsider faculty.

In addition to the written rules—scholarship, teaching, and service—SALT’s Faculty Mentoring program opens the way to understanding some of the unwritten rules of academia, helping novice professors navigate the pitfalls of achieving tenure. Included within the unwritten rules is an understanding of how to balance professional demands with family responsibilities and personal interests. The unwritten rules also include how to pursue leadership roles, navigate divisions within a faculty, and how to develop a progressive agenda within a school with like-minded faculty.

SALT’s Faculty Mentoring program and annual Workshop also offer the opportunity for junior faculty to network with fellow progressives. With access to seasoned professors as well as a cohort group of junior colleagues, these networks provide support and answers to the many questions that arise.

Mark your calendars for Thursday, October 2, 2008!  The Sixth Annual Junior Faculty Development Workshop, sponsored jointly by SALT and LatCrit, begins at 9:00 am, the day before the LatCrit XIII conference begins. 

For a recent bibliography of literature on progressive teaching and writing, download the document listed in attachments.

For more information about how to become a mentor or how to locate a mentor, contact Ruben Garcia.