Orientation ends, you return to your office with a stack of information, and a simple question appears: who was the person who explained travel funding? You can picture the slide. The name is gone.
The most useful thing you bring home from orientation may be a small list of people and what they can help you do. Build that list while the conversations are fresh.
Organize contacts around questions
Instead of collecting names without context, record the job each office helps you accomplish. You might need help with payroll, course materials, teaching support, research administration, or technology. Use the actual contacts your institution provides, and note the preferred request route.
A useful entry looks like this: 'Travel request questions: department process guide; submit through the named system; ask this office if the instructions don't resolve it.' That tells your future self where to begin.
Ask what new faculty commonly miss
People who support faculty often know which steps cause delays. Ask about lead times, required approvals, and where current instructions are posted. You don't need every exception now. Learn enough to avoid treating an approval process as something you can finish on the morning of a deadline.
Meet staff as colleagues
Introduce yourself, explain your role briefly, and listen to how their work is organized. Ask how they prefer to receive requests. Remembering those details is a practical form of respect. So is giving enough notice and providing the information they need the first time.
Use the directory before you're in a hurry
Find the official directory and practice locating an office. Names and responsibilities can change, so keep links to current sources alongside your own notes. A saved contact list is a starting point, not a reason to ignore an updated process.
Keep one connection with another new colleague
Introduce yourself to someone outside your department and follow up if there's a shared interest. You don't need to leave with a new research team. Having one person you can compare notes with can make an unfamiliar institution feel easier to navigate.
Turn one introduction into a usable next step
Suppose you meet someone from the teaching support office. Instead of leaving with only a name, ask where to request a consultation and what information helps them prepare. You might learn that sending the assignment prompt in advance makes a meeting more useful. That detail turns a pleasant introduction into a resource you can use when a course question becomes urgent.
Afterward, keep your notes brief and practical. Record the office, its purpose, the official contact route, and one thing you need to follow up on. Avoid collecting private details or treating an individual person's kindness as a permanent promise of immediate help.
When you do send a request, identify yourself, describe the task, and provide the relevant deadline. If you're unsure whether the office handles it, ask for the right route. A clear, considerate question usually travels better through an unfamiliar institution than a long email explaining everything that has confused you since arrival.
After orientation, spend ten minutes turning your notes into a short contact guide. Add the question each office answers and the next action you need to take. Then use it once. A guide becomes valuable when it helps you get something done.
Adapted from the orientation, staff, and directory guidance in The New Faculty Handbook by Zafer Unal, p. 3.
