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[stagolee]

Interesting read, surprised the writer didn't go anon.

[allbutfoundajob]

This article raised several questions for me.


1.  Do most people who become faculty members have mentors who urged them to do pursue a faculty position?  I never had any mentor who did that.  I made up my mind prior to coming to college and just kept working on it.  I had many mentors who helped me, but never one who urged me to become a faculty member.

2.  Does the race of the mentor matter?  My mentor in undergrad was of a different race than I am.  I honestly do not see how his race made a difference in his mentoring of me. 

[merce]

...
1.  Do most people who become faculty members have mentors who urged them to do pursue a faculty position?  I never had any mentor who did that.  I made up my mind prior to coming to college and just kept working on it.  I had many mentors who helped me, but never one who urged me to become a faculty member.

2.  Does the race of the mentor matter?  My mentor in undergrad was of a different race than I am.  I honestly do not see how his race made a difference in his mentoring of me. 

I too made up my mind to do a PhD and become a prof while just a babe, yet when my profs (and teachers in HS) said I really just had to get a PhD in English and said I would be great etc. it felt amazing. (I guess that is a "no duh" statement, sorry)

I don't know about question 2. I mean, I don't think all my mentors would be better if we were the same. However, I don't have any who are my kind so maybe that would be cool. I don't know. I haven't had the chance to find out actually. Hmm. maybe that is the point.

[beacon1]

As embarrassing as it is to say, I had no comprehension of what a Ph.D. was when I entered college. I can remember working in a lab on campus (student worker) when I saw the researcher's degree hanging on the wall. I said to him with all sincerity "So you studied philosophy?"

All this to say, I sure that many minorities and folks that don't grow up around academia have no idea what any of it means. They need hand holding, walking through, familiarizing, in order to understand what they might achieve. In essence, they need someone that has been there to show them the way.

[stagolee]

The mentor relationship is a unique one-some mentors respond to qualities they admire, some to folks who "remind me of myself".

Another variation of human capital, an improtant one in discussions of diversity.

[dr_crankypants]

History professors tend to be reluctant to encourage students to think about getting a PhD, though were very encouraging when I decided that I did want to do it.  BUT, I did get a lot of intellectual encouragement of other kinds from professors, and I do think that it ultimately helped me go down this path.  The professors who did encourage me to go on were often in other fields (and, as merce said, I still remember the feeling, which was a great feeling).  I'd started getting interested in the idea of being a professor, but I somehow didn't feel that I would be good enough to do it.  It seemed like a lot to hope for, so this kind of encouragement did make me feel that this was an achievable goal.  I think the author is right that we do need to think about our role in the pipeline problem--and not just our role in deciding who to hire.