Spring GA-ship Opportunity!!

Announcing Opening for Graduate Assistant in the PSU Center for Academic Excellence

Program Assistant

POSITION DESCRIPTION:
Portland State University's Center for Academic Excellence (CAE) promotes and supports academic excellence in teaching & learning, community-based learning, and university assessment by enhancing faculty scholarship, improving student outcomes, and contributing to the Portland metropolitan community. The Graduate Assistant (GA) position to be filled will work specifically with the Community-University Partnership division of the CAE. The ideal candidate will be a strong writer with a desire to write grants, have website management experience, and exhibit interest in or have experience with community-based/service-learning pedagogies. The GA will work indirectly with the CAE’s Student Leaders for Service program, which places 25 student leaders in community organizations throughout the Portland metropolitan region.

REQUIREMENTS FOR THE POSITION:
• Admitted to a graduate degree program, in good academic standing, and taking full-time credits towards the degree as required by the Graduate Assistant Terms of Appointment
• Experience writing for professional purposes and editing a variety of documents.
• Student leadership development experience
• Knowledge of community-based learning/service-learning pedagogies
• Strong organizational skills
• Comfortable in a creative, autonomous, flexible work setting
• Presentation and group facilitation skills
• Ability to write grants
• Strong research skills
• Website/HTML experience
• Enjoy working as part of a team as well as work effectively on independent projects
• Commitment to the mission of Portland State University and the motto “Let knowledge serve the city”

COMPENSATION:
The graduate assistant position includes a tuition remission, though the student is responsible for university fees. The monthly salary is approximately $625. This is a .3 FTE appointment requiring 12-15 hours per week (in compliance with the 2005-06 Graduate Assistant Tuition Remission schedule) from April 7-June 15th, 2008. GA will have the option of working during the summer months for an hourly wage and have the option of continuing the position for the 2008-09 academic year.
OTHER BENEFITS:
◦Whenever appropriate, GA will be encouraged to connect course/program requirements to work responsibilities
◦ Gain experience with direct supervisory roles and responsibilities
◦ Experience with many diverse community organizations throughout the metropolitan region

TO APPLY:
Please send a resume, cover letter, contact information for two professional references to the address below, and at least one writing sample (academic or professional). Also, after the following quotation from educational researcher, Alexander Astin (1995), and with the quotation in mind, write a one-page, single-spaced (max.) essay that addresses the question that follows:

“We [higher education] educate a large proportion of the citizens who bother to vote, not to mention most of the politicians, journalists, and news commentators. We also educate all the school administrators and teachers, who in turn educate everyone at the pre-college level. And we do much to shape the pre-college curriculum through what we require of our college applicants. In short, not only have we helped to create the problems that plague American democracy, but we also are in a position to begin doing something about them. If higher education doesn’t start giving citizenship and democracy much greater priority, who will?”

QUESTIONS:
Do you think higher education should prepare students for democracy, or should this responsibility remain elsewhere? How can higher education prepare students for a life of engaged, democratic citizenship? What should higher education do to assist the “problems that plague American democracy?”

Contact: Amy Spring, 503/725-5582 or springa@pdx.edu
Review of applications will begin: March 31st. Interviews will take place during the week of April 7th.
Send application materials to:
Amy Spring
Assistant Director, Community-University Partnerships
Center for Academic Excellence, 303 Cramer Hall
PO Box 751
Portland, OR 97207
Or via e-mail to springa@pdx.edu