Seminary in Jail Academic Program Coordinator - Chicago, IL
Listed: 01-18-2022
Employer: McCormick Theological Seminary - 5460 South University Avenue, Chicago, IL 60615 | (773) 947-6300 | https://www.mccormick.edu/
Location: Chicago, IL
Type: Full-time
Download: Job Description - Seminary in Jail Academic Program Coordinator
GENERAL SUMMARY:
The Solidarity Building Initiative seeks to mitigate the numerous material, social, and political barriers system impacted individuals experience while incarcerated and upon release. We envision that liberative carceral education provides resources for intellectual and spiritual growth and flourishing for incarcerated learners and create communities of belonging and advocacy.
The Seminary in Jail Academic Program Coordinator (SJAPC) supports both in person and virtual academic programs offered at the Cook County Department of Corrections (CCDOC) through McCormick's Solidarity Building Initiative for Liberative Carceral Education. This position reports to the SBI Director. The ideal candidate is a self-motivated, experienced project manager with excellent administrative skills, works well on pilot initiatives, can work independently and on a team, strong problem-solving skills, experience with building and managing relationships across multiple demographics, and demonstrates commitments to social justice and equity.
This position manages student academic processes and records, including the admissions process, course scheduling and coordinating logistics to offer a program of liberative carceral education at the CCDOC, includes but is not limited to offering courses, extracurricular workshops and all related activities to the academic program. This position develops and maintains procedures and systems to ensure efficient workflow and service delivery related to student, faculty, and curriculum support. The SJAPC is responsible for coordinating services, operational support, and communication to students and faculty, including tracking, scheduling, and compliance with policy. The SJPC regularly interprets and communicates program, operational, and institutional policies, procedures, and rules.
This is a contract position with employee benefits, and subject to renewal after a one-year term based on securing additional funding.
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:
This is a new position and duties will be flexible and varied as we determine the best configuration of responsibilities. They are likely to include the following:
Work with program director as secondary liaison for correspondence with CCDOC staff and liaisons. The SJAPC ensures that SBI maintains a stable, professional relationship with CCDOC, and must exercise excellent independent judgement and discretion within an environment that is frequently fraught and unpredictable.
Oversee and manage the process for offering new courses and onboarding instructors, includes working with SBI Faculty Representative and internal McCormick departments.
Supervise Educational Assistants and Interns supporting Seminary in Jail programs, including working with Program Director to craft job descriptions, interview and train.
Serve as administrator for seminary education in jail program, includes but is not limited to developing academic calendars and program brochures, updating course catalogs, coordinating meetings with CCDOC staff, SBI teaching team, points of contact to obtain approval for syllabi, ordering supplies and processing the necessary paper work for obtaining clearance letters for volunteers.
Develop orientation and training materials for Seminary in Jail program.
Work with program director to develop admissions and registration process and ensure admission and registrar receives the necessary information to register CCJ students.
Maintain and update internal databases used to store student records, including the SBI Google Drive folder for certificate courses, ensuring all course materials are uploaded, attendance roster is updated, homework is stored and shared with instructors and other related activities.
Coordinate with instructors and guest speakers to ensure they have all the required documents for entrance into the jail and process check request for honoraria.
Support instructors in preparing course material such as ordering supplies, printing syllabi and handouts, assembling course packets to be distributed at the jail and ensuring final class celebration and course completion certificates are completed.
Coordinate and serve as a facilitator for orientations, ongoing development and onboarding training for Seminary in Jail programs.
Lead efforts to connect incarcerated students with educational resources to support them in the McCormick SBI program and beyond, such as tutoring, Pell Grants, scholarship opportunities and degree granting programs for incarcerated students.
Serve as administrative assistant for Academic Advisory Committee and Teaching Team meetings, ensuring meetings are scheduled, craft agendas, recording meeting minutes, send follow up communication and present when necessary certificate program, record meeting notes and provide follow up communication.
Attends professional development trainings as assigned and regular internal meetings.
Misc. Duties:
Work with MTS Director of Communication to craft and share social media content related to the certificate program.
Support efforts to develop content for SBI Newsletter and blog post.
Supports program director in working with IL- Coalition for Higher Education in Prison (IL-CHEP) to start a Higher Ed in Jail subcommittee.
Represent SBI director as appropriate with internal and external audiences.
Respond to routine correspondence.
Proofread and edit documents.
Required Qualifications
Graduate degree in any field;
Minimum of two years’ experience as a teacher, trainer, advisor, or similar role;
Minimum of one year’s experience in a supervisory role in an educational setting or similar (e.g. advising, counseling, instructional/learning environment);
Demonstrated experience developing new systems or programs in which all details are not always clearly defined
Experience working with diverse populations.
Preferred Qualifications
Graduate degree in a related field, e.g. Education, Counseling Psychology, Program Administration, social services;
Experience providing professional support to college instructors;
Have been part of a prison education program;
Prison experience, or experience in similar institutions (e.g. reentry facility, juvenile detention center, immigrant detention center).
KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES REQUIRED:
Ability to work in professional environments, with people from varying demographic identities, working in teams to collectively achieve success.
Ability to think creatively, “outside of the box,” and analytically process/reflect about tasks and deliverables in new ways.
Ability to be organized, maintain a calendar, keep track of individual and shared tasks, and communicate effectively about work.
Must possess strong interpersonal skills and emotional intelligence.
Must possess a high degree of personal integrity and ethics by respecting the confidential and sensitive nature of each individual's reentry efforts.
Must be able to speak, read and write English with high proficiency. Bilingual in English and Spanish is a plus.
Successful candidates will have:
Demonstrated ability to speak with thoughtfulness and critical understanding about teaching and learning;
Demonstrated ability to speak with thoughtfulness and critical understanding about the social and historical contexts of SBI’s work;
Demonstrated ability to speak with thoughtfulness and critical understanding on issues of diversity and inclusion;
Superior managerial, communication, and organizational skills;
Demonstrated commitment to social justice and equity;
Solid computing skills (Microsoft Office suite, Google Drive, Zoom, database experience).
Benefits:
401 (k)
Dental insurance
Flexible schedule
Health insurance
Paid time off
COVID-19 considerations:
Employees are required to wear a mask at all times when in the building and vaccination is strongly recommended.
Ability to commute/relocate:
Chicago, IL 60615: Reliably commute or planning to relocate before starting work (Preferred)
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