With the academic year just under way, many junior faculty members in search of much-needed advice and guidance have begun to make critical connections with senior colleagues. Departmental pairings are the most standard form of faculty mentoring, as is the practice of newly minted professors' tapping colleagues on their own to answer questions over a cup of coffee or via e-mail. An increasing number of colleges now rely on formal mentor programs, many of them campus-wide, to give new faculty members guaranteed access to senior professors who can help them.