3: Multi‑Dimensional Model for Mentoring Faculty: A College‑Wide Approach

The University of Rhode Island (URI), like many American universities, faced the retirements of a large group of faculty who started their careers after the post-World War II expansion of higher education. In recent years, we have seen a major turn over and hiring of faculty members. Rice et al. (2000) referred to this as a generational “changing of the guard” in the American professoriate. Significant differences in technology and funding between an academic career in the 1970s and that in the 21st century emphasize this change. Large differences in the ways retiring, senior faculty experienced their careers and quality-of-life expectations exist for newer faculty (Rice et al., 2000). Along with employment conditions, the millennial generation, those born after 1980, requires a different set of retention strategies (Deloitte, 2014; Millennial Branding & Beyond.com, 2013).