By: Rachel Levy, Deputy Executive Director MAA @mathcirque

The MAA usually hosts an Early Career Mentoring Network Social at our annual meetings.  It is a casual event in the hotel lobby with food and conversation. In January 2020 at the Joint Mathematics Meetings in Denver, I was delighted to be able to drop by and fell into a conversation with Frank Lynch and Sean Sather-Wagstaff about the challenges of developing effective mentoring relationships, especially by email.  

We discussed ways to engage in mentoring, how to overcome awkward mentoring situations, and how to make a fledgling mentoring partnership grow well. We talked about trying to find things you might have in common to break the ice and provide common ground. This could be work or a recreation-related hobby.  

Sean shared these ideas about mentoring remotely (pre-COVID-19):  

For me, mentoring is an organic process. I meet with my grad students and as we talk things come up (teaching issues, conference participation, etc.) and we discuss them. Mentoring someone I’ve never met by email makes this strategy extremely difficult. Previously, I attempted to address this by writing to my mentees about this issue and telling them to let me know if they have any issues they want to discuss. Then once a month or so, when I didn’t hear from them, I’d reach out to ask how things are going. This strategy did not work very well. I did not have any meaningful interactions with my mentees, which frustrated me greatly. Frank made a suggestion (which should have been obvious) which I’ll try out if I get assigned another mentee in this program. Instead of vaguely asking how things are going, I’ll ask more specific questions: How is your teaching going? How is your research going? How is your relationship with your departmental advisor/mentor/supervisor going? I’m embarrassed that I didn’t try this before.

We also talked about how to navigate power dynamics and asymmetry. Some ideas included making sure the person assigned as a mentor (a) shares struggles and challenges and (b) is open to ideas from the person they mentor. This can help normalize difficulties and bring some symmetry to the relationship. In some places, peer mentoring is established (even among junior and senior faculty) to break down the idea of one-way mentoring. In these cases, the more senior person still usually has more power and authority, so faculty have to be careful about boundaries and confidentiality. For example, a more senior faculty member may be asked to weigh in on the reappointment, tenure, or promotion of another faculty member. 

It is important to discuss ground rules (and probably follow up with an email for reference). Is the mentor possibly going to be involved in reappointment, promotion, and tenure? Will they recuse themselves? Would the person being mentored want them to? Could they write a letter?   It can be helpful to discuss the culture of the institution around mentoring. What are the expectations? Will that work for the people involved? How often will you meet? There are no perfect answers to these questions, but a common understanding can go a long way toward establishing a constructive mentoring relationship.

Frank Lynch is an Associate Professor of Applied Mathematics at Eastern Washington University. His research is in biological processes.

Sean Sather-Wagstaff is a Professor of Mathematical Sciences and Associate Director of Undergraduate Studies at Clemson University. His research is in homological and combinatorial commutative algebra.