Academia has its own advice maven, Ms. Mentor. Part Dear Abby, part Miss Manners, Ms. Mentor [aka Emily Toth, professor of English and Women's Studies at Louisiana State University] guides professors in making savvy career and social choices. Although she is most helpful counseling colleagues who have begun the anxiety-plagued path to tenure, she embraces the whole profession, everyone from the graduate teaching assistant asking advice about an ornery dissertation adviser to the esteemed elder colleague wondering if it's time to retire. She offers strategies for becoming the "department favorite" and for dealing with the professor who won't erase the board before he leaves the classroom.
Ms. Mentor makes frequent appearances in The Chronicle of Higher Education, where she comes to the aid of both male and female colleagues. Here are some of her best pieces:
- Eccentric Academics
- Why Won't He Erase the Blackboard?
- What If I Don't Know the Ropes?
- Who's Classier?
- The Torment of Teaching Evaluations
- What Should You Wear?
- Fear of Committee-ment
- Can Just Anyone Teach?
- How to Be the Department Favorite
To contact Ms. Mentor with a concern of your own, send her email at ms.mentor@chronicle.com.
For an even bigger dose of Ms. Mentor--advice tailored for her female colleagues--you can try Ms. Mentor's Impeccable Advice for Women in Academia. Chapters include advice about the job hunt, the first year on tenure track, the perils and pleasures of teaching, and post-tenure life.
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