This position is responsible for hiring faculty and coordinating the academic processes involved in RVCC's RISE program. It is a faculty-focused position, with a significant portion of time spent working with the academic departments to staff RVCC courses taught inside the NJ Department of Corrections as part of the NJ-STEP consortium. The position will work with the Assistant Director and Director of RISE to hire instructors to staff a robust offering of courses each semester; to assure that course-management goals are met; to track DOC clearances in the program; and to build and streamline the operations to better serve the needs of students who are incarcerated. The candidate will be responsible for effectively communicating goals, issues, and progress reports to faculty throughout the program.

The position will work collaboratively with community colleges and the region's four-year colleges to identify, qualify, and hire appropriate faculty to teach RVCC's courses at the participating NJDOC facilities. In addition, the position will develop processes to ensure that course goals are being met to RVCC's satisfaction in every discipline and that professors from the participating schools are following all recognized best practices. The coordinator is responsible for assuring that all courses meet the quality criteria set by RVCC and the Middle States Commission on Higher Education, while staying within DOC guidelines for materials and classroom conduct.

Duties & Responsibilities:

Identify, recruit, and onboard RISE faculty and qualify volunteers from Princeton University's Prison Teaching Initiative (PTI) to staff RISE courses at NJDOC facilities across the state.

Monitor and manage all RISE instructors. Specifically, the Coordinator will serve as the liaison between the academic departments and off-site faculty and ensure that faculty follow RVCC's curriculum, produce acceptable course material, and make sure that contact-hour calculations are appropriate for each course. Some RISE instructors are volunteer faculty who lack access to RVCC administrative systems, in which case the Academic Coordinator will serve as proxy to those systems.

Identify course materials needed and submit materials checklists for approval to the NJDOC in a timely fashion.

Determine necessary course deliverables in concert with the academic departments and the academic deans; collect, verify, and work with faculty to submit grades for each registered student; and make decisions regarding requests for exceptions to deadlines and to deliverables.

Regularly communicate with all faculty and report to the DOC all class cancellations and make-up sessions needed to successfully complete our courses.

Work with the DOC to ensure that all teachers are cleared and trained, which is required of all who work in the RISE program. Teachers who cannot be cleared or trained may not work inside the prison facilities.

Work with the Assistant Director each term to organize and conduct our RISE teacher orientation, which is essential to the continued success of our program.

Organize faculty observations and student course evaluations.

Maintain a list of approved faculty and courses and work with the Assistant Director to develop the list of classes offered, based on student needs at each facility.

Master's degree required.

1-3 years of experience supervising personnel required.

Candidate must maintain DOC clearance and be willing to visit prison facilities.

Must demonstrate excellent communication, writing, and organizational skills, preferably with 2-3 years of experience in synthesizing large quantities of information and creating reports.

Candidate must have a thorough knowledge of faculty expectations and processes in order to verify that all RVCC and government criteria are being met in each academic discipline. This will require interfacing with academic departments and understanding academic expectations for conduct and record-keeping and the processes used by professors.

Strong understanding and adherence to FERPA student privacy, especially when dealing. with sensitive student information.

Ability to function independently and possess a working knowledge of RVCC internal processes and personnel.

Must be proficient in Microsoft Word, Excel, and PowerPoint, and in using the faculty-focused portions of Banner.

Preferred Qualifications:

Experience in prison education preferred.