Job Title: Director, Writing Center Director, Writing Center

Department: Student Success

Reports To: Consulting Associate Vice President for Student Success

Location: On-site alternating between the Calvin and Mountain View campuses

Date: To start immediately

Employment Status: Exempt, full-time

Summary

The Director of the Palo Alto University (PAU) Writing Center supports students at all levels, as well as faculty and staff, as they prepare, draft, and revise their writing for various contexts and purposes. S/he aspires to foster a safe, nurturing, and equitable space where members of the PAU community can share, discuss, draft, and revise their work, and seeks to engage community partners in the cultivation of a robust culture of writing at PAU. The Writing Center is committed to providing an environment for students and faculty that is collaborative, adaptive, and inclusive. PAU actively seeks a candidate that is an innovative professional to create a robust Writing Center to meet the needs of in-person, hybrid, and fully remote students. This is a key role to supporting students’ writing success at the graduate (PhD, PsyD, MA, MS) and undergraduate (BS) levels in different terms (fall, winter, spring, summer). The Director of the Writing Center is a visionary who is creative, focused, and driven and will create a technologically and pedagogically strength-based model using assessment and evaluation tools to monitor student progress. S/he will collaborate with faculty members and/or program directors to ascertain optimal approaches to meet students’ writing needs, will serve a diverse community of students, including first-generation students, and will assist all students in improving their writing, particularly at the doctoral level with both qualitative and quantitative research studies. Developing relationships with staff, administrators, and faculty members who work collaboratively to meet a myriad of student needs and inform students of available resources is

an asset in this role. Standard duties include attending corresponding department meetings, pursuing professional development activities, cross-training, sharing information for dissemination across campus, and performing other duties consistent with the role of a Director of the Writing Center. S/he contributes in-depth knowledge to faculty and administration about what works and what does not work for PAU’s student population to improve their writing skills.

This role requires high touch, communication, and collaboration across campus departments to meet and exceed the writing needs of PAU’s student body.

Specific Duties and Responsibilities

• Work to develop and promote a culture of writing at PAU
• Responsible for the hiring, training, scheduling and oversight of student writing coaches and student administration support for the PAU in-person and virtual writing center
• Management of the day-to-day operations, including administering the in-person and online utilization of the Writing Center and website; coordinating writing workshops/webinars; supervising the budget if applicable; and creating various student and faculty writing resources
• Development of innovative programming based on reflective assessment of the writing center and its services
• Deliver graduate student writing services and resources, including dissertation writing support
• Generate writing center utilization and student progress reports
• Stay up-to-date with best practices, technologies, and relevant memberships
• Provide formative and developmental writing instruction to graduate and undergraduate students to become independent scholarly writers
• Provide writing coaches with feedback and ongoing professional development opportunities
• Review student course papers, dissertation chapters, and research proposals for content, organization, task fulfillment, academic integrity, voice, cohesion, and APA adherence
• Address students’ questions and concerns in developing, researching, and publishing scholarly work, including document formatting in APA style
• Foster professional relationships with students and comply with all PAU pertinent policies and procedures as outlined in the Employee Handbook
• Oversee all accounting and bookkeeping for editor and program invoices if applicable
• Other duties as assigned

Dissertation Administration

• Liaise with doctoral programs related to final format edits and other doctoral writing support
• Work with academic department manager on the dissertations requiring Format Review & Approval
• Hire and supervise Graduate Student Dissertation Editors

University Leadership

• Contribute to the vision, leadership, and strategic direction for the writing center to fulfill its mission and service to the PAU community
• Promote writing across the curriculum and within disciplines of study
• Consult with faculty and provide assistance with the teaching of writing in the curriculum
• Represent the Writing Center on University and Division Committees
• Promote writing services university-wide
• Serve in an advisory role for doctoral/master handbooks, dissertation formatting guides, & other writing support resources
• Other duties as assigned

Required Qualifications:

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

• Ph.D. in English or related field (e.g., Rhetoric/Composition, Literacy Studies, Linguistics), PhD preferred
• 5 years tutoring, teaching and/or leading a writing center at the college/university level
• Strong supervisory skills to supervise student workers
• Must have excellent attendance and punctuality, collegial and diplomatic behavior at work, as well as work performance to the satisfaction of management and essential functions of the position
• Excellent English writing and oral communication skills
• Commitment to academic excellence and student success
• Sensitivity to students with diverse backgrounds and learning needs
• Ability to work independently and in collaboration with others
• Individual and small group writing teaching/tutoring experience with students who are English language learners, international, and/or graduate or undergraduate students
• Expertise in APA writing style for qualitative and quantitative research studies
• Strong proofreading and editing skills
• Knowledge of and ability to provide services to multi-ethnic, international, and underserved students
• Advanced skills in Word, Excel, Google documents, Adobe Acrobat, Zoom, and Turnitin
• Demonstrated compassion, patience, respect, and comfort toward human diversity with cross cultural awareness and sensitivity

Application Procedures:

Qualified candidates for the Writing Center Director position should apply with a:

• Cover letter describing qualifications for and interest in the position. PAU is committed to providing an educational environment that supports a diverse, equitable and inclusive population. In your cover letter, please include information on how your background and experience has prepared you to be in an environment that holds equity and inclusion core to its mission and values.
• Curriculum vitae
• Writing center philosophy statement
• Writing sample

EEOC Policy:

The University is an equal opportunity employer and is firmly committed to non-discrimination in its hiring and other employment practices and in the application of its personnel policies. In compliance with all applicable federal and state laws, except where a bona fide occupational qualification exists, employment decisions will be made irrespective of the staff member's race, color, religion, religious creed, ancestry, national origin, age (except for minors), sex, marital status, citizenship status, military service status, sexual orientation, medical condition (cancer- related or genetic condition), disability and/or any another status protected by law. When necessary, the University will reasonably accommodate individuals with disabilities, if the individual is otherwise qualified to safely perform all essential functions of the position and if it will be done without undue hardship to the University.