Teaching Assistant/Associate/Full Professor And Director Of The Speakers Workshop

Teaching Assistant/Associate/Full Professor and Director of the Speakers Workshop

Department of Communication

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

The Department of Communication at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign seeks applicants to be a Teaching Asst/Assoc/Full Professor and the founding Director of the University Speakers Workshop. The Director will build upon the pilot Speaking Center established in partnership with the University Library to craft a vision for what a Speakers Workshop should look like in our rapidly evolving, multimodal, and increasingly screen-based communication landscape. The Director will be charged with creating a unit to serve the entire campus with speaking and presentation training and support for coursework, scholarly and academic presentations, professional communication, community outreach, and other evolving needs. 

The Director will oversee the routine functions of the Speakers Workshop, including one-on-one consultations for students, support for instructors, assessment, and strategic planning. Long-term, this position will include a teaching component with up to two courses per semester taught within the Department of Communication. However, to allow time for the Director to establish a strong and robust Speakers Workshop, there will be no teaching requirements for the first two years. Thereafter, the teaching load will be adjusted to accommodate the Director’s evolving duties (e.g., if the Speakers Workshop generates activity requiring nearly full-time attention from the Director, teaching may be only an occasional responsibility).

The Director will be appointed as a specialized faculty member in the Department of Communication. The anticipated title is teaching assistant professor; however, candidates with extensive experience related to professorial appointments may be considered for teaching associate and teaching full professor titles.

A doctorate in Communication or a related field is required at the time of appointment.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

The Director will be responsible for managing all aspects of the Speakers Workshop, including hiring, training, and supervising graduate student and peer consultants, planning and delivering programming, supporting classes and instructors across disciplines, assessing the Workshop, and engaging in strategic planning.

The Director will coordinate with the University Library, the campus Writers Workshop, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Student Success Center, and a robust and growing network of student success initiatives across campus to create programming and resources that provide students and other members of the campus community with opportunities to enhance their speaking and presentation competencies.

In developing the Speakers Workshop, the Director is expected to: 

• Hire, supervise, train, mentor, and evaluate graduate and undergraduate peer consultants. Create a repertoire of workshops and other programming tailored to meet the needs of various departments, courses, and constituencies across campus. Ensure support for speaking that is accessible to all students. Incorporate intercultural communication competencies into workshops and related teaching and learning support. Create and update educational materials that respond to the needs of key constituencies. Responsibly budget and steward resources. Maintain the online scheduling and data collection system. Refine and assess appropriate program outcomes, including learning outcomes and program goals. Become and remain familiar with the discipline of Communication’s best practices for public speaking and for speaking centers. Make connections with director colleagues (e.g., course directors, Writers Workshop director, the Student Success Librarian) and faculty across campus to ensure the Speakers Workshop is meeting student and faculty needs. Coordinate and collaborate with other units on campus to support student and faculty success initiatives, such as the University Library’s Savvy Researcher Series. Provide support for student and faculty public engagement efforts. Engage in ongoing reflection on the rapid technological, social, and cultural changes in the communication environment and adapt the Speakers Workshop’s goals and practices accordingly. Report regularly to the head of the Department of Communication to share data about the activities of the Speakers Workshop.

 REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS

• A doctorate in Communication or related field. At least two years of university-level teaching of public speaking or instruction in other courses requiring substantial presentational skills. Demonstrated promise of excellent leadership. Demonstrated experience working successfully in communication-focused settings with students from diverse backgrounds, including but not limited to socioeconomic status, veteran status, places of origin, family background, gender, race and ethnicity, neurodiversity, and the intersection of these.

 PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS

• Experience supervising or working in an existing speaking center or similar student success program. Experience with tutoring and/or one-on-one mentoring in an academic setting. Experience supervising graduate students and peer (undergraduate) mentors. Experience with assessment and program evaluation.

SALARY AND APPOINTMENT INFORMATION

The Teaching Assistant/Associate/Full Professor position is a full-time, benefits-eligible, 9-month, non-tenure track position, renewable yearly subject to enrollments, funding, and positive performance evaluation. The Speakers Workshop Director appointment is a 0% administrative position appointed on a 12-month basis.

The expected start date is July 1, 2024. The starting salary range is expected to be $51,000 – $73,000 plus $12,000 as an administrative stipend for serving as Director of the Speakers Workshop.  Actual starting salary will be determined by the candidate's credentials and alignment with the position requirements.

The University of Illinois is an Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action employer that recruits and hires qualified candidates without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, disability, or veteran status. For more information, visit http://go.illinois.edu/EEO.

Employee benefits are competitive and include those in recognized marriages or civil unions (for same-sex and different-sex partners). Please reference: https://humanresources.illinois.edu/employees/new-hires/benefits.html.

Application Procedures & Deadline Information

Applications must be received by 6:00 pm (CST) on March 1, 2024. To apply for this position, please create a candidate profile at https://jobs.illinois.edu and upload a letter of application, curriculum vitae, evidence of teaching effectiveness (e.g., teaching portfolio, student evaluations, etc.), statement of research interests, and contact information for three professional references. Applicants should also include a statement detailing how their teaching, service and/or scholarship has contributed to the success of students from racial, ethnic, and gender backgrounds that are underrepresented in their academic field. Letters of recommendation may be requested electronically from reference contacts at a later date. Applications not submitted through https://jobs.illinois.edu will not be considered. For further information about this specific position, please contact Cara Finnegan, Professor and Search Chair, at caraf@illinois.edu. For questions regarding the application process, please contact 217-333-2137.

The University of Illinois must also comply with applicable federal export control laws and regulations and, as such, reserves the right to employ restricted party screening procedures for applicants.

The University of Illinois System is an equal opportunity employer, including but not limited to disability and/or veteran status, and complies with all applicable state and federal employment mandates. Please visit Required Employment Notices and Posters to view our non-discrimination statement and find additional information about required background checks, sexual harassment/misconduct disclosures, and employment eligibility review through E-Verify.

Applicants with disabilities are encouraged to apply and may request a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (2008) to complete the application and/or interview process. Requests may be submitted through the reasonable accommodations portal, or by contacting the Accessibility & Accommodations Division of the Office for Access and Equity at 217-333-0885, or by emailing accessibility@illinois.edu.