Mentoring FAQ

I am afraid whether or not there is a lot of pressure on the mentor will depend most on the mentee. In my experience, 90% of mentees are good at understanding boundaries, and there aren't issues. There will always be that small number, however, who goes overboard in contacting their mentor. I am not sure if much could be done about this, other than mentors trying to politely but firmly draw a line or that they suggest other ASU resources to pursue. If you have a question about specific resources that would help your mentee, you are free to ask us.

While the diversity committee could send out an email to mentees reminding them not to go overboard in contact. And this is something for the diversity committee to consider. But we will say why I have some hesitation in doing this. Most grad mentees are already terrified to reach out at all and need pressure in the other direction. We worry that an email like this will make grad mentees scared ever to reach out, which is counter to the purpose of the mentoring program. We know that such a message would have affected some of us when we were grad students.

Yes, it is optional for both mentees and mentors. We invite mentors by email, and so to be a mentor, the graduate student must directly respond and explicitly agree. There is no pressure at all to say yes. The Diversity Committee respects that there might be all kinds of legitimate reasons that a grad student would choose not to serve as a mentor. Moreover, the diversity committee holds no evaluation power over grad students, so there should be little pressure to yes for the sake of pleasing the committee (and again, we understand if you choose to decline. No judgment at all!)

Mentees are by default put in the program under their status as a first or second-year Phil grad-student. However, mentees can opt-out upon receiving the initial email that explains the mentoring program.

It is about becoming a better philosopher. What feedback grad students give should depend on the strength of the particular grad student. Some grad students are good at finding holes in arguments; others are better at suggesting relevant readings; some might have a firm grasp on how to structure papers for publication, etc. So Isas long as the feedback helps the mentee develop as a scholar, that is good feedback. And I believe it is also good to get used to engaging in dialogue about philosophy. When my friends and colleagues ask for feedback on their papers, I don't think much about what I am giving them feedback for/about specifically. Perhaps I am unusual in this, but I point out things that, from my perspective, would make the paper stronger. There is endless disagreement among professional philosophers about what sort of things make good philosophy papers. I think we each have to do the best we can, given our idiosyncrasies. I would hesitate to say something like the advice should be specific to writing better seminar papers since each professor leading their seminar has different thoughts on what makes a good seminar paper.