Centre for Teaching Excellence

The solution, then, is clear: Everyone needs to start talking. Before a single beaker gets rinsed, the question of authorship has to be laid on the table,

junior researchers should keep detailed notes of their research.

Someone who is respected within the field and has contacts who can help you with publications and jobs. Someone who is knowledgeable about the university and its politics and policies. Someone who takes the time to help with your studies and your career. Someone who does not exploit you. Someone who is not a disinterested observer of your career but cares about you as a person and is supportive -- like a coach cheering you on.

the profile is similar to how junior faculty members would describe their ideal career mentor, too.

The mentor relationship is alive and well in the sciences, where there is a strong tradition of senior researchers bringing postdocs and new assistant professors into their laboratories and grant projects. But in the social sciences and humanities, probably because of the difficult job market, relations between established scholars and newcomers to the profession seem strained.

In every assistant professor there seems to lurk a Karate Kid seeking a Mr. Miyagi who will train his acolyte to be a skilled warrior in the art of research, teaching, and service and impart pithy life lessons along the way. Such singular folks exist, and you may find one. But it's far more likely that you will find several mentors who, while not well-versed in all aspects of academic life, will offer good advice in one or another area.

Someone who got tenure 30 years ago may not appreciate what it takes to get tenure today. The young tenure tracker may not know, or catch on quickly enough, that the same mentor who is a wizard of statistical methodology is offering awful advice about handling disruptions in the classroom. Or perhaps the issue is transference: A scholar may excel at conceptualizing new theory, for example, but may not be good at teaching others to do likewise.

In the words of Ronald Reagan, one should "trust but verify."

To hear others tell it, an "old boys' club" ran universities and the academic professions well into the 1970s, and if you were lucky enough to win admission into the club, you got the mentoring -- or more precisely, the patron-client relationship -- at the heart of the master-apprentice model

Today, talk about mentoring is ubiquitous in virtually every field, and at all levels of education

Law schools should be sure that female and minority professors have mentors and other support to improve their chances of winning tenure,

female and minority professors were less likely to win tenure than their white, male colleagues

Universities increasingly offer mentoring programs that link new faculty with more experienced colleagues.