CPAP Blacksburg: Doctoral Mentoring Program

Introduction

The goal of the Doctoral Mentoring Program (DMP) is to maximize the student learning experience by developing academic-collegial relationships within the CPAP community. The DMP satisfies the 3-credit Pro-seminar requirement for the Ph.D. degree program. Attendance is required at a minimum of 15 DMP meetings in order to satisfy the Doctoral Pro-seminar requirement for the Ph.D. degree. Students already enrolled in the Ph.D. program in Blacksburg who have not yet taken the PAPA 7994 proseminar will need to participate in the DMP. New students entering the doctoral program from January 2008 on will be assigned to mentoring groups upon entry.

The DMP is coordinated by a faculty DMP Manager, who is drawn from the CPAP core teaching faculty in Blacksburg on a rotating basis. The responsibilities of the DMP Manager are to:

• Convene and chair all Plenary Group sessions of the DMP
• Assign students to mentoring groups on a random basis and handle changes and requests for changes in mentoring group assignments
• Maintain mentoring group membership records
• Maintain records of student attendance/participation at DMP meetings
• Arrange facilities for DMP sessions
• Schedule sessions of the DMP
• Supervise staff assistance, as available
• Communicate with all faculty and student DMP participants by email and oversee and provide timely content for the DMP website (currently under construction as part of the general CPAP website overhaul)
• Convene and chair meetings of the DMP Planning Committee as necessary.

The development of the content and structure of the program will be facilitated by a DMP Planning Committee composed of:

• The DMP Manager and designated CPAP faculty Mentors;
• At least one elected student representative from each mentoring group; and
• A graduate assistant assigned to support the program if available.

Once fully operational, the Blacksburg DMP will hold six meetings per year (3 meetings per semester) in addition to an initial orientation/organizational meeting for new students at the start of each fall semester. Each regular meeting of the DMP will consist of two parts:

1. A Plenary Session involving all doctoral students who are participating in the DMP and in attendance, representing the collective membership of all mentoring groups; and
2. Mentoring Group meetings consisting of small groups of doctoral students assigned to a core faculty mentor. In the 2007-2008 academic year, Professors Dudley and Jensen will serve as faculty mentors; there will be two mentoring groups. In future years, when there are more faculty in Blacksburg, the number of groups is expected to increase somewhat

In addition to the six regular DMP meetings per year, students may add to or substitute for regular DMP sessions (as approved by the DMP faculty Manager) by attending the following:

• High Table - Counts for 1 Blacksburg DMP session
• Up to one course in the Future Professoriate Certificate program - Counts for 3 sessions
• Up to one Alexandria DMP session - Counts for 1 Blacksburg DMP session
• Special events to be determined at a later date. In the 2007-2008 academic year, Blacksburg DMP students may count attendance at one or two lectures by CPAP job candidates for one or two Blacksburg DMP sessions, respectively. (Maximum of 2.)

The responsibilities of each student in the DMP are as follows:

• Students are required to r.s.v.p. in advance to let the Manager know that they will be attending particular DMP meetings.
• Students must attend at least 4 of the 6 regular DMP meetings per academic year. In the Blacksburg DMP's inaugural year (2007-2008), students must attend at least 3 of 5 regular meetings (the organizational meeting on 10/29/07 will count).
• Students who elect to take an official Leave of Absence from the doctoral program should notify their faculty advisor and the DMP Manager and file the appropriate Leave of Absence Form with the Graduate School. Students who are on a Leave of Absence may continue to attend DMP sessions, at their discretion, in order to build up credit toward satisfaction of the Doctoral Pro-seminar requirement.
• When a doctoral student has completed or is near completion of the required 15 sessions, s/he should communicate this to the DMP Manager and register for 3 credits of PAPA 7994 in order to earn the appropriate Doctoral Pro-seminar academic credit.

Meeting Agendas/Topics

The agenda of activities of the DMP meetings will generally be determined by the students themselves, but ordinarily can be expected to include the following sorts of topics:

• Faculty and guest speakers on a range of intellectually stimulating topics, including examination of the research process;
• Ongoing discussion of student experiences in courses and the CPAP Program in general;
• Discussion of preliminary exams and the dissertation process, meeting with potential chairs from Blacksburg and Northern Virginia, as well as the development and review of potential concentration and dissertation topics;
• Professional socialization activities and training - such as how to write an academic vita, how to write a proposal for a conference paper and get on a conference program, etc.;
• Planning for different paths after the PhD
• Seminar topics related to academic writing, such as the differences in the voice used in various writing venues, norms of academic writing, etc.;
• Ongoing discussion of topics of intellectual identity and general concern to the life of the mind such as articles in journals like the New York Review of Books that would not normally be taken up in class sessions.

The CPAP Alexandria DMP ordinarily has three types of plenary sessions per semester: a talk by an outside speaker; a talk by a CPAP faculty member (from either campus), typically about their research; and a session related to the doctoral program or CPAP governance issues (e.g., a panel presented by advanced grad students on preparing for prelims). The Blacksburg DMP may choose to adopt this norm.

Mentoring Community Norms

A community such as the one we wish to establish requires two discrete sets of norms: "conduct of business" or structural norms that would govern the operation of the community and the groups that it comprises, and "process" norms that would refer to and regulate the texture of interpersonal relationships within each of the mentoring groups. The governing principle is that all of the individual groups are to follow a common and agreed upon set of operating norms, though it is inevitable that there will be some variation in the way specific mentoring groups develop.

Norms for Conduct of Mentoring Community Business Generally

1. Individual Mentoring Groups should hold to the schedule of the sessions as they have been set in the course schedule so that all groups meet in Plenary Session at the designated time and the possibility is kept open that plenary sessions can be held. Mentoring groups may, of course, hold additional meetings if they so wish at times and places they agree upon.
2. Conflict is okay. This is a community based on dialogue and discourse. We stay with conflict and work it through at least to the level of mutual understanding of the other's position.
3. Expression of feelings is okay.
4. Nothing that participants say or do in DMP sessions will be taken into account in any official academic evaluation procedure that participants might undergo in the remainder of the academic program of CPAP.
5. The DMP will rely upon a consensus decision making process.
6. DMP meeting dates/times will be published along with the normal semester course schedule announcement, and should, if possible, be available at least three months before the beginning of the semester.
7. All sessions will follow the standard norms for attendance and participation that are used for any class. Program activities will not be altered to accommodate late arrivals.
8. Confidentiality in the large group is to be respected.
9. Anyone can offer to invite an outside resource person to the meetings.

Norms for Conduct of Individual Mentoring Group Sessions

1. Any participant can enter an anonymous request to the current Mentoring Program Manager that an outside facilitator be brought in to conduct process consultation sessions with the Group when that member feels that the Mentoring Group has developed relationship issues that are impairing it from accomplishing the purposes of the DMP. Mentors will be allowed to bring in outside resource people when this seems appropriate.
2. Nothing that participants say or do in Mentoring Program sessions will be taken into account in any official academic evaluation procedure that participants might undergo in the remainder of the academic program of CPAP.
3. Conflict is okay. This is a community based on dialogue and discourse. We stay with conflict and work it through at least to the level of mutual understanding of the other position.
4. The Mentoring Groups will use a consensus decision making process.
5. Optional Mentoring Group meetings may be scheduled at the discretion of the group holding the meeting.
6. Confidentiality in each Mentoring Group is to be respected.
7. Anyone can offer to invite an outside resource person to the meetings.
8. Each mentoring group will choose at least one representative who will be a member of the DMP Planning Committee. In the 2007-2008 academic year, each group should choose two representatives.

Assignment of Students to Mentoring Groups

Students initially will be assigned to mentoring groups on a random basis at the first meeting of the Blacksburg DMP on 10/29/07. The assignment of students to DMP mentoring groups is distinct from ordinary faculty advisor assignment and/or choice. New students entering the Ph.D. program from January 2008 on will be assigned to mentoring groups by the DMP Manager. The Manager is responsible for assignment decisions and for advising students concerning changes in mentoring groups if they are deemed desirable or necessary. After 10/29/07, it is expected that changes in mentoring group membership will not occur except at the beginning or end of each academic year. Students wishing to make a change should contact the DMP Manager by the first week of the Fall Semester at the latest.

Doctoral Advising and Mentoring Groups

Again, the assignment of students to DMP mentoring groups is distinct from ordinary faculty advisor assignment and/or choice. Faculty advisors initially are assigned on a random basis unless a student expresses a preference for a specific advisor. A student wishing to change his/her faculty advisor assignment for any reason may certainly do so (and indeed is likely to do so as substantive interests are refined and the student moves toward the dissertation). However, barring conflicts, communication difficulties, or other problems (in which case they should consult the CPAP Chair), students wishing to change advisors are expected to discuss the matter with both the "gaining" and "losing" faculty member, both as a courtesy and to insure that the "gaining" advisor is willing and able to take on an additional advisee.

The initial discussion of a student’s doctoral program of study is to be done as part of an annual advising session during orientation week or, for students beginning the doctoral program in January, upon entry. This initial meeting should emphasize student interests, program plans and goals, and the transfer of credit where appropriate.

Subsequent advisory discussions are to occur on a one-on-one basis between the student and a faculty advisor, whether that advisor is one randomly assigned to the student upon program entry or a faculty advisor of their choosing. These subsequent discussions should emphasize long-term program planning, formal Program of Study (POS) development, and POS adjustments. Each doctoral student is responsible for communicating on a regular basis with their faculty advisor (at minimum, once each year) about the status of their progress in their academic program. The student is responsible for scheduling their regular annual advising session - ideally at mid-semester. The faculty advisor is responsible for periodic evaluation of student progress in the academic program.