From its early inception, the mentoring program was placed administratively within the Office of Faculty Development and Academic Support (OFDAS) as the office charged with development programs for all new faculty. OFDAS provides seminars, panel discussions, workshops relating to professional development in teaching and scholarship. The Faculty Mentoring Program within the broader mission of OFDAS has become part of an integrated effort to retain new faculty and to provide support for faculty with tenure and seniority throughout their academic careers.

The Faculty Mentoring Program (FMP) was established in 1991 at the OFDAS as the Junior Women Faculty Mentoring Program. Prior and up to the late seventies, a major challenge for higher education was the lack of access for women to graduate programs and then to faculty positions in colleges and universities. The University of Hawai`i at Manoa established a formal mentoring program as a way to assist in the professional development of women faculty. Over time, faculty, administrators and department chairs noted success of the program, and inquiries and requests by junior male faculty demonstrated the growing awareness if the efficacy of mentoring on the campus for junior male faculty as well. In 1999 the Program was renamed and extended to all junior faculty. Orienting mentoring towards all faculty has accomplished the engendering of a broader base of collegiality across gender and ethnicities as well as academic departments.