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Hello to everyone. I subscribed to this list about 4 months ago and while I haven't yet participated, I've enjoyed many of your discussions from the periphery. I'm now joining in as a neophyte to ask for some advice and assistance on the development of a job description for a writing/learning counsellor. This is basically a new position at my college, so even the title is a little undefined. A little background on our situation might help. For the past two years, I've been the Assistant Dean of Academic Studies at the Ontario College of Art and Design. For much of that time I have been part of a College-wide group of people lobbying for the establishment of a learning/writing support centre, staffed by a full-time position. We now have the support of the administration to begin this work in earnest, along with a small budget of $70,000. OCAD has about 1900 students, an increasing number of whom are ESL, as well as the usual assortment of students who experience academic difficulty for any number of other personal, systemic and institutional reasons. While we have had a very good support service for students with special needs in place for a number of years, we have had only a very small service for other students in need of additional learning support. Running for six years, this programme has been staffed by a part-time Literacy Coordinator and funded by a charitable foundation. Prinarily providing peer tutoring, this service has suffered greatly from minimal funding, lack of institutional commitment, isolation from the curriculum, and a litany of other stuff that I'm sure will be familiar to most of you. The service has been better than nothing, but it is in great need of expansion and development. At the same time, OCAD has been going through a kind of institutional educational/cultural paradigm shift: the percentage of academic requirements for graduation have increased over the last five years. Now the College is applying for degree-granting status which would mean a further increase in academic requirements. Traditionally, academics at OCAD have been the poor cousin, inverting the historical relationship between studio and academic curriculum in what might be termed text-based post-secondary institutions: my programme (encompassing curricula in social sciences, humanities, art/design history, theory, criticism) has always been under-resourced and considered by many to be "not very important", even unnecessary for students training to be visual artists and designers. As a result, students have effectively been discouraged from developing traditional academic skills, including oral and written communication and research skills. Another symptom of the traditionally marginal status of academics at this College is the fact that my position, which administers 20% of the College curriculum is a half-time position, and is identified as an assistant dean, rather than dean or equivalent. Needless to say, all of this has combined to hamstring students' academic success and frustrate faculty no end. I realise that I've gone into a fair bit of detail. I hope you are bearing with me. What I am looking for is ideas on the development of a job description for this new position which will be part teaching, part supervision and training of peer tutors, part program development, part liason/advisory with curriculum managers and faculty. Structurally, it will report to my own position, so as to anchor the programme to the curriculum. It will also be supported by a standing advisory committee composed of reps from studio and academic areas of study, as well as Student Services, Special Needs and Admissions. We are hoping to post asap so as to have someone in place by the end of July to begin planning programming and develop a mission statement for the Learning Centre, etc. Because we are looking to the expertise that such a person would bring to helping us develop a long term plan for programming, financial support, mission statements, structural issues, and etc, this will initially be a one year renewable term. The plan is that it will become a permanent position at the end of the first contract. Questions include title, situation vis. the faculty association, salary ranges, experience and professional qualifications. We want someone who can develop a programme for students working within a visual art and design curriculum, and who has experience and qualifications in adult learning and ESL. What are reasonable expectations of such a position? I am particularly concerned that this not turn into an impossible workload for one person to carry. (Although I am pretty sure that we need a real dynamo!) Would it be possible to get copies of comparable job descriptions at your institutions? Any ideas, feedback, suggestions on setting up this programme would be very much appreciated. The other issue we are struggling with is assessment. We have been administering an writing sample as a part of the Admissions process, but have cancelled this because of its all around questionable value. We will be looking to the person who fills this position to advise the College on this issue. I hope that all of this does not seem an impossibly tall order. I think that it could be a very exciting opportunity for the right person. Looking forward to your responses. Bronwen Cunningham - [log in to unmask]