Center for Faculty Excellence

New Faculty Orientation (NFO) provides opportunities for new faculty to gather as a cohort to develop community, become familiar with faculty responsibilities, and learn more about the offices, programs, technology systems, and resources available to faculty at Loyola University Chicago. NFO consists of a 2-day NFO Kick-Off event at the start of the academic year, as well as NFO workshops that take place over the course of the academic year. View upcoming events and access recordings/materials from previous workshops on our New Faculty Orientation page.

Although created with new faculty in mind, all are welcome to attend NFO events!

NFO 2024-2025 Agenda

Good mentoring is often cited as a key factor in the professional advancement and career satisfaction of faculty members. Each stage of the faculty lifecycle requirements the development of new skills. New faculty can benefit from mentoring by learning how to transition and acclimate to their new institution (and, in some cases, new city) and how to navigate the balance between research, service, and teaching.

Traditional 1:1 mentoring can provide a useful relationship for some faculty. However, this conventional mentoring style can have some limitations. Many people have different ideas of what it means to be a mentor, which can result in an uneven mentoring experience for mentees. In addition, traditional 1:1 mentoring is based on a "guru" model that assumes one person can meet the diverse needs of a faculty mentee (research, teaching, navigating departmental/disciplinary politics, personal issues, etc.).

Faculty Mentoring Handbook

The National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD) is an organization dedicated to "supporting faculty, postdocs, and graduate students in making successful transitions at every stage of their academic career."

NCFDD offers great resources on topics relevant to faculty life. There are workshops on topics ranging from "How to Develop a Daily Writing Practice" to "Moving from Resistance to Writing" to "Mastering Academic Time Management."

Loyola University Chicago holds an institutional membership which means that ALL faculty, graduate students, and postdocs have full access to all NCFDD resources. To activate your membership, simply do the following:

1. Go to Member Sign In 
2. Click on "Become a Member" at the top
3. On the Institutional Member page, click on the pull-down menu
4. Select Loyola University Chicago, click Continue
5. Click on Activate My Membership
6. Complete the 3-step registration process (*must use your @luc.edu email address)
7. You will receive a welcome email at your LUC email address within 24 business hours confirming that your account is now active and you can begin fully using your new NCFDD membership.