Mentoring relationships are a cornerstone of professional development across disciplines, offering early‑career faculty essential support as they navigate institutional norms, build research productivity, and counter the isolation often experienced in higher education. These relationships strongly influence faculty trajectories, yet the effectiveness of departmental mentoring programs depends on how well their structure aligns with faculty needs. This study explored faculty perceptions of a mentoring program within an Agricultural Education and Communication (AEC) department, applying a Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Challenges framework. An instrumental case study design incorporated semi-structured interviews, document analysis, and observations with 14 faculty members, 7 mentors, and 7 mentees, purposefully selected from the department’s 33 faculty, representing the four AEC specializations: Communication, Education, Extension, and Leadership. Strengths centered on a supportive departmental culture and meaningful informal mentoring. Faculty described collegiality, accessibility, and strong senior‑faculty engagement as features that fostered trust, timely guidance, and smooth transitions for new faculty. Weaknesses involved limited awareness of program expectations, unclear roles, and inconsistent mentor–mentee engagement. Participants also noted the absence of structured guidance and light-touch accountability, which hindered consistency and follow-through. Opportunities included developing centralized mentoring resources, offering mentor training, and increasing recognition for mentoring contributions. Participants also identified potential for expanding cross-disciplinary mentoring networks to broaden perspectives and enhance individualized support. Challenges included significant time constraints and the evolving tenure and promotion process. Heavy workloads limited sustained engagement, while changing institutional expectations created uncertainty for mentors and mentees, resulting in inconsistent guidance. This study highlights that mentoring programs benefit from deliberate structure, centralized resources, up-to-date tenure guidance, and formal recognition of mentoring work. Mentoring is a powerful cultural asset; institutions must pair it with intentional systems that promote consistency and sustainability across mentor–mentee relationships, ultimately strengthening faculty development and improving long-term departmental effectiveness across institutional contexts.