Service (e.g., peer review, committee leadership, mentorship, etc.) and contributions to creating learning and research environments where all individuals can develop a sense of belonging are core tenets of academic engagement. These efforts sustain the academic enterprise by expanding access for scholars from different backgrounds and with different lived experiences as well as by advancing knowledge through diverse perspectives.

Topics to discuss include expectations for service and how to balance service with academic and professional responsibilities. 

Mentor Commitments

As a mentor, I will …

• support my mentee’s engagement in service opportunities (e.g., undergraduate and peer mentoring, community outreach, committee memberships) as appropriate given with their academic and professional goals and aspirations and time constraints.  
• demonstrate to my mentee that I value their engagement in service and their contributions to creating and contributing to communities of belonging.  
• encourage my mentee to maintain a balance between their core academic responsibilities (e.g., research, scholarship, teaching), professional activities, and selected service contributions.  
• provide insights to my mentee on the weight provided to service in hiring, tenure, and promotion decisions within the academy. 
• provide insights to my mentee on how to communicate about the transferable skills developed through their pursuit of service opportunities.
• seek to mitigate negative impacts on my mentee if they are subjected to a disproportionate amount of service demands due to their non-academic areas of expertise.   

Mentee Commitments

As a mentee, I will …

• seek guidance from my network of mentors to identify and select service opportunities (undergraduate and peer mentoring, community outreach, committee memberships, etc.) as appropriate given my aspirations, academic and professional goals, personal interests, and time constraints.  
• provide context for my mentor on the purpose and meaning of my engagement in various service roles, including but not limited to those that contribute to creating a communities of belonging.
• prioritize balancing my core academic and professional responsibilities (e.g., research, scholarship, teaching) with my selected service contributions.    
• value and seek to further understand the service responsibilities managed by my mentor, including their selected contributions to advancing communities of belonging.  
• recognize that my mentor and/or peers may face disproportionate service demands – due to their unique knowledge, perspectives, and / or experiences – that canmight go beyond the scope of their academic areas of expertise. 

Additional Resources

• Windchief. S. (2019, June 21). Culturally attuned mentoring paradigms: Relationships in community context. Cornell University. http://tiny.cc/Windchief_Mentoring
• Misra, J., Lundquist, J. H., & Templer, A. (2012). Gender, work time, and care responsibilities among faculty. Sociological Forum, 27(2), 300–323. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1573-7861.2012.01319.x
• Ballard, D., Allen, B., Ashcraft, K., Ganesh, S., McLeod, P., & Zoller, H. (2020). When words do not matter: Identifying actions to effect diversity, equity, and inclusion in the academy. Management Communication Quarterly, 34(4), 590–616. https://doi.org/10.1177/0893318920951643