FT Faculty - Academic Director of SLU/JWL Partnership

Academic Director of SLU/JWL Partnership and Assistant Professor

Saint Louis University

Located on a beautiful, historic 271-acre campus in St. Louis, Missouri with an international campus in Madrid, Spain, Saint Louis University (SLU) is one of the nation’s oldest and most prestigious Catholic universities. Founded in 1818, SLU is recognized for its world-class faculty and academic programs, life-changing research, compassionate health care, and strong commitment to faith and service. Rooted in Jesuit values, with a pioneering history as the first university west of the Mississippi River, SLU offers its nearly 13,000 students a rigorous, transformative education of the whole person. It is guided by a service-focused mission: the pursuit of truth for the greater glory of God and for the service of humanity. SLU seeks excellence in the fulfillment of its corporate purposes of teaching, research, health care, and service to the community.

The School for Professional Studies

SLU’s School for Professional Studies (SPS) offers globally accessible academic programs in Saint Louis University’s Jesuit tradition of excellence. Faculty and staff in SPS promote a student-centered, innovative, and enterprising environment built on a foundation of integrity, accountability, and collaboration. SPS offers undergraduate degrees, graduate degrees, professional certificates, and post-baccalaureate certificates.

The SLU-JWL Partnership Program

SLU has partnered with Jesuit Worldwide Learning (JWL) and other Jesuit universities to offer a 100 percent online, cohort-based Bachelor of Arts in General Studies program to students “at the margins” of our world – typically in war zones, refugee camps, and impoverished countries. SLU and our JWL students are supported at the cohort locations by JWL-provided onsite learning coordinators; JWL also provides required hardware, software, and regular Internet access to facilitate student engagement and academic success.

The SLU-JWL B.A. in General Studies program is housed in SLU’s School for Professional Studies.  Approximately 50 percent of the Program courses taken at SLU are in various humanities and social sciences disciplines, including most courses meeting SLU’s University Core requirements; the remaining 50 percent of the courses are split nearly evenly between the disciplines of organizational leadership and computer information systems.

Position Description

SLU’s School for Professional Studies invites applicants for the full-time position of Academic Director of the SLU-JWL Partnership Program. This is non-tenure track faculty position, at the rank of Assistant Professor (negotiable). In the first year or two following the hire, we expect the administrative appointment portion of the position to be approximately 75-80%; in subsequent years, that may decrease to approximately 60%. Teaching one to three courses in the Program per year will fulfill the remaining portion of the position responsibilities. 

Administrative responsibilities include:

overseeing the hiring of Program faculty, monitoring their work, and supporting their evaluation managing the Program curriculum and academic schedule, including working with SPS, the University Registrar, and other University departments and faculty committees as needed determining and coordinating faculty teaching assignments for the Program’s six eight-week academic terms annually supporting faculty work to adapt course content and pedagogies for the Programs distinctive international student populations (with support from our Reinert Center for Transformative Teaching and Learning) working with specialists in SLU’s Information Technology Services department to ensure course/program compatibility with various technological infrastructures in the Program’s remote settings coordinating and overseeing assessment of student learning in the Program collaborating with SLU’s student academic support colleagues and JWL’s onsite learning facilitators supervising and collaborating with our SLU-JWL Program Coordinator, who serves as students’ “front line” resource at SLU serving as a liaison between and among various SLU and JWL constituencies promoting the program internally and externally

Required Academic Credentials and Professional Experience

Minimally, candidates must have:

an earned master’s degree in an academic discipline taught in the Program at least three years of experience coordinating or overseeing academic programs offered fully (or mostly) via distance education modalities sufficient knowledge of and experience supporting international, non-traditional students in collegiate-level academic programs experience working with/supporting people “living at the margins” familiarity with, and willingness to support, Ignatian pedagogy and Catholic Social Teaching

Preferably, candidates will have:

an earned Ph.D. in one of the humanities or social science disciplines taught in the Program interdisciplinary pedagogical training, research, and/or teaching experience experience supporting students in and/or administering international, non-traditional academic programs experience designing courses for, and teaching, international students via distance education

The Ignatian mission in higher education is rooted in Catholic principles of social justice and cura personalis – care for the whole person. Accordingly, the position requires candidates with the ability to understand Jesuit education and pedagogy as a dialectic between the work of contemplative reflection and social justice. Further, the interdisciplinary nature of the General Studies curriculum, in the tradition of Ignatian higher education, requires the Academic Director to integrate and navigate the Program’s diversity of disciplines; the Academic Director must understand and coordinate the curriculum, and its faculty, holistically.

Applying for the Position

Candidates must complete an official application via the Working at SLU website. As part of that application, candidates must submit the following:

A cover letter that explains: Why the applicant is interested in working at Saint Louis University, and in this particular role How the applicant is qualified to direct the SLU/JWL partnership program, addressing all minimum academic credentials and professional experience requirements noted above

A current CV A statement of teaching philosophy Contact information for three professional references