Assistant Director of Student Writing

Position Purpose:

The Assistant Director (AD) of Student Writing is the operational lead of the Student Writing & Language Center. The AD carries out the center’s mission and vision on a day-to-day basis, ensuring that policies and procedures are followed, updated as needed, and consistently communicated to all tutor staff. The AD is responsible for the daily and seasonal running of the center, the hiring, training, and supervision of entry-level peer tutors, and the development of student-facing programming and campus partnerships. This is a 10 month position while students are in session. Priority deadline is Friday, May 8, but the position will remain open until filled. Preliminary interviews will begin May 15.

Job Duties:

Tutor Hiring, Training & Supervision:

• Supports and supervises writing tutors involved in First Year Seminars.
• Participates in annual hiring cycles for new writing tutors and language tutors, including marketing, outreach for nominations and recommendations, application review, interviews, selection, and onboarding.
• Teaches and runs the Basic Tutor Education program which helps prepare new writing tutors for entry-level work with first-year students.
• Conducts regular walk-throughs, office hours, and observations in the center, providing timely and supportive feedback to the tutors.
• Maintains ongoing mentorship with all tutors and provides direct tutoring support to students as needed.
• Works with Lead Tutors as a support layer for staff meetings, hiring, shift coverage, and data reporting.

Center Operations and Management:

• Oversees daily center operations including shift scheduling, space management, supply inventory, and tutor accountability.
• Manages the Penji platform and Qualtrics surveying for tutor tracking, session data, and client satisfaction reporting.
• Holds primary responsibility for all center record-keeping and coverage, including tracking and approving all tutor timesheets on a bi-weekly basis.
• Manages the center's day-to-day communications and public presence–including website, social media, and marketing materials–coordinating with Student Academic Support Center staff and Resource Representatives to ensure consistent student support across the Peer Learning Commons.
• Plans and facilitates biweekly tutor staff meetings.
• Writes and produces the weekly Friday Digest (internal e-newsletter) and runs Thesis Café as a weekly community event for senior thesis writers.
• Supports tutors in preparing for and attending writing center or writing tutor conferences.
• Available to attend occasional night/weekend special event programs.

Campus Partnerships:

• Delivers student-facing workshops on topics already built and written by the Director, with the opportunity to create additional workshops if interested.
• Participates in tutor training and informational classroom workshops for the Public Speaking and Presentation Support Studio.
• Collaborates with campus partners (e.g. Purposeful Work, Student Center for Belonging and Community, and Accessible Education), to ensure all students have relevant and equitable access to writing and language support services and events.
• Supports the Director in community-engaged writing initiatives, including partnerships with local middle and high schools through the Harward Center and other local community organizations.

Minimum Qualifications:

Education

• Bachelor's degree required.
• MA in Rhetoric & Composition, English, Linguistics, Language and/or Communication, or a closely related field, preferred.
• Experience working with multilingual students, and/or proficient in multiple languages, highly desired.

• Writing or language teaching and/or writing or language center experience–as a tutor, administrator, or staff member–required.
• Demonstrated understanding of writing, speaking, or language center theory and practice.
• Experience supervising, training, or mentoring peer tutors, students or young adult employees.

• Commitment to equity and inclusion, and serving the needs of a culturally and educationally diverse community.
• Strong organizational, record-keeping, email communication, collaboration, writing and presentation skills.
• Ability to manage multiple concurrent responsibilities across a complex, high-traffic program; excellent attention to detail.
• Familiarity with learning center management platforms and online asynchronous and synchronous tutoring programs (e.g., Penji, WCOnline.)
• Comfort with data collection, tracking, and reporting (Google Sheets, Qualtrics, Google Forms, etc.), as well as social media, office, and website management tools (LinkedIn, Instagram, Slack, Wordpress, etc.)
• Genuine interest in and patience for working closely with undergraduate students, including those in their first professional role; holds high expectations while providing supportive mentorship.

Benefits:

Bates College offers competitive salaries, excellent benefits (health, dental, sick leave, 20 days of vacation, 2 personal days, 13 paid holidays, dependent care subsidy, free parking, access to library and athletic facilities & more), and a supportive, collegial environment in a drug and smoke-free workplace.