About the position
Hamilton College invites applications for the position of Director of the Language Center. This is an 11-month position with a preferred start of July 1, 2025, and a pay range of $75,000 - $86,000. The Language Center Director is responsible for supporting the center's mission. The Language Center is one of four academic resource centers (ARCs) that belong to a larger community of academic support named ALEX ('Advise, Learn, Experience'). The four ARC directors report to Hamilton's Dean of Engaged Education. For matters pertaining to the Critical Languages Program, the Director reports to the Dean of Faculty. Hamilton College offers courses in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Ancient Greek, Hebrew, Hindi-Urdu, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Russian, and Spanish. The Director of the Language Center is responsible for an academic center whose mission is to support language teaching and learning by providing expertise, leadership and innovation in conceptualization, design, adaptation and implementation of technology, new practices and theory. The director oversees operations, purchases, staffing, budget, planning, assessment, and the physical space of the center, as well as providing user support. The director works closely with the Language Center Coordinator to establish priorities and procedures, and is in regular contact with faculty. The director keeps current professionally in language center administration and directorship, as well as pedagogy, methodology, technology, and national language learning standards and assessment through a variety of professional organizations and publications. The director participates in national and regional conferences, and is advised by the Language Center Advisory Committee, a faculty committee which currently has a representative from each of the language/culture departments. The Language Center's 30 student employees include 7 student assistants, 20 language tutors and 3 facilitators for the Critical Languages Program (Korean).
Responsibilities
- Oversee the administration and daily operations of the Language Center, including but not limited to budget development and management, policy and procedure development, supervision of Language Center staff
- Work to increase the profile, visibility, utilization, and development of the Language Center by strengthening existing projects (e.g., the Multilingual Faculty series, Curriculum Embedded Conversation Groups, Cookies & Conversation) and/or developing new ones (e.g., CLAC)
- Collaborate with others on campus (e.g., faculty, ALEX advisors, the Office of Global Learning, Days-Massolo Multicultural Center, Oral Communication Center, Career Center, and Writing Center) to advance the mission of the Language Center
- Research and share with faculty innovations in language teaching practices, including new technologies, emerging pedagogies, and assessment tools
- Create opportunities for faculty to share their own discoveries in pedagogical practices
- Support the pursuit of grants related to teaching language and culture
- Provide mentorship and administrative support (e.g., orientation) to the international teaching fellows
- May develop and teach a one credit-bearing course each academic year (e.g. a language course or a tutor training course). The course syllabus shall be approved by the Language Center Advisory Committee and the Committee on Academic Policy
- Recruit, train, and supervise student tutors
- Research opportunities to improve and maintain the Center's quality of service and education, including but not limited to, exploring new technology and developing and maintaining instructional materials
- Hire, train, and mentor the student facilitators for the Critical Languages Program
- Hire the examiner for the Critical Languages Program
- Conduct regular program assessment for the Critical Languages Program
- Manage course registrations, course materials, and grades submission for the Critical Languages Program
- Serve on College committees and perform other duties as assigned
