B5 · Branch B
SOD faculty onboarding
Onboarding a new faculty member is a year-long arc, not a day-one orientation. The mentor, the cohort, the first review.
Key takeaways
- Mentor pairing matters more than orientation
- The first-year cohort is the social anchor that retains people
- Service load creeps — protect their research time on purpose
- The first review is the highest-signal one
A faculty member you hired in May arrives in August, teaches their first semester in September, and is up for their first review the following May. The decisions you make in onboarding shape whether they’re a long-term colleague or someone who quietly looks elsewhere in year two.
This chapter is School-of-Dentistry-specific in places but the structure generalizes.