Mentor Orientation


Dear Mentors,

Welcome and welcome back. Thanks for being a mentor in the program!

Structure
Students work on one project per year. The honorarium is 500 EUR per project or approximately 50 EUR per hour. There are two evaluations per project in the form of a few questions in an online form. 

Your online contract and two evaluation forms for the year ahead are here
You will be sent a reminder two weeks before evaluations are due.
The academic year begins September 1 and ends June 15.

What is expected
Critiques/Meetings: A minimum of two per semester (min. 1-2 hours each)
Evaluations: Online evaluation forms with questions to consider (1 hour each)

Working with your students
Please be clear with students what your time limits are with them before you begin. For example, are you open to phone calls or emails between meetings? How long will your meetings be? Does the student need to come to you? Are you flexible with the meeting times or does your schedule not permit this? What does your student expect from you in terms of support, advice, critique. Be clear with them too about your expectations and concerns about their projects, production schedules and methods of working. 

If you find your student is behind, not producing graduate level work, you are not working well together or are having communication problems, please let us know right away. We can try to get you and your student back on track and if this isn't possible we can dissolve the arrangement. These are not insurmountable problems and happen from time to time in these challenging independent study processes. The sooner you let us know, the easier it will be to resolve. 

And please challenge your students. Support is a good thing but not the primary reason for this arrangement. They can also get support from their friends, colleagues and family. They really need you to question and challenge them as well as to give them honest, constructive critiques and feedback on their work. 

If you have concerns about the possibility of completing the project in time it is your responsibility to let your student know. Students will not receive credit for incomplete projects, no matter how ambitious. Part of building a sustainable praxis is setting attainable goals, making a commitment to a project and following through with it. 

That said, change is also a valued aspect of the process. If your student's project diverges from the original plan, s/he needs to explain how and why the plan has changed and seek your approval. This process should be documented in your mid-year evaluations. 

Contact info
Contracts and administrative questions go to: admin [at] transartinstitute.org 

Questions, concerns, dialog about academic matters are eagerly awaited: 
cella [at] transartinstitute.org and knoll [at] transartinstitute.org

All our best,

Cella and Klaus