ADVANCING EQUITY AND INNOVATION IN HIGHER EDUCATION

Call for 2019-2020 Futures Initiative Graduate Fellows

Good news! The Futures Initiative is now seeking THREE Graduate Center doctoral students in any field for 2019-2020 fellowships.

Applications are due February 24, 2019.

These are one-year positions, renewable for up to three years (contingent on program funding), for the following roles:

We aim to build a team that is diverse in every way. Doctoral students who have backgrounds that are underrepresented in the academy are especially encouraged to apply.

Graduate Fellows are at the heart of the Futures Initiative, and the work we do is designed to support our mission and the professional goals of every Fellow. Our past fellows have gone on to do meaningful, inspiring work, both in the academy and beyond. In the same way that we advocate peer-to-peer communities online, peer mentorship, and student-centered learning in the classroom, so are we organized around the ideal of peer administration and peer leadership as the basis of agency and activism in the development of future leaders of a more equitable society and system of higher education.

Futures Initiative Fellowships offer a total compensation of approximately $28,000 for 2019-2020. The FI Fellowship has two components: a graduate assistant appointment and a financial aid fellowship. The graduate assistant appointment carries eligibility to purchase low-cost NYSHIP health insurance and offers in-state tuition remission for Fellows who are within their first 10 registered semesters of study. Fellows are required to work 450 hours for the academic year/225 hours per semester. This translates into 15 hours of work per week during each 15-week semester. Determinations of re-appointments are made on an annual basis depending on individual eligibility and GC needs.

Please apply using this form by February 24, 2019. A CV is also required and should be emailed to futuresinitiative@gc.cuny.edu.

About the Futures Initiative

The Futures Initiative leads a wide range of initiatives supporting equity, innovation, engaged pedagogy, leadership for change, support of public higher education, and the use and development of technologies that enable these goals within the CUNY community and beyond.

Our current collaborations include the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation-sponsored Humanities Alliance (in partnership with the GC’s Teaching and Learning Center and LaGuardia Community College) and the Leadership, Liberal Arts, and the New Majority (a leadership and peer mentoring program, initially funded by the Teagle Foundation, that extends throughout the entire CUNY community). Other key partners within CUNY include the Teaching and Learning Center, the GC Digital Fellows Program, the Office of Educational Opportunity and Diversity, and the Office of Career Planning and Professional Development.

We amplify our mission beyond CUNY through co-leadership with Dartmouth College of the international open online network HASTAC (“haystack”): Humanities, Arts, Science and Technology Alliance and Collaboratory). HASTAC is dedicated to “Changing the Way We Teach and Learn” with commitment to a second social and technology mission: “Difference is not our deficit. It’s our operating system.” A free and open community, HASTAC is a platform that allows any of its 16,000+ members to have a voice, to contribute, and to emerge as a leader.

Goals and Contributions of All Futures Initiative Fellows

  • Be a valued member of a supportive team that prizes mentorship, growth, and leadership with a core mission of innovation founded on equity and a commitment to meaningful social and institutional change
  • Have a key voice in a visionary organization that is working toward meaningful institutional and cultural change in higher education
  • Gain skills in project management, events planning, leadership, communications, grant development, social media and web support, and programmatic support that will serve you in whatever career goals you aspire to
  • Connect meaningfully with the CUNY and HASTAC communities
  • Contribute to the program’s engagement with the public, including by regularly sharing and communicating relevant research, events, and opportunities via our various communications networks and platforms
  • Build an ongoing portfolio of your contribution as a graduate student and an FI Fellow through monthly blog post communicating your research, teaching, and community experiences
  • Participate in and co-lead weekly team meetings and assist with the designing and building of the program
  • Assume leadership roles for running the program, including events and weekly meetings
  • Share skills with one another and with others at the Graduate Center

Current Openings

Web Designer and Digital Strategist

We seek a graduate fellow to serve as Web Designer and Digital Strategist for the Futures Initiative. Our website uses Commons-in-a Box to connect faculty, students, and staff from across the CUNY campuses (and beyond). We seek someone who understands the infrastructure and technology as well as the rationale and goals of using an open-source, networked platform for our program’s web presence.

In addition to the general expectations above, the person in this role will:

  • Serve as one of two administrators of a multi-site network (futuresinitiative.org) using the Commons In A Box platform, built on WordPress and BuddyPress
  • Evaluate site analytics, suggest changes, and implement approved site improvements
  • Suggest and implement design and user experience improvements for futuresinitiative.org and hastac.org
  • Provide technical support, documentation, and digital guidance for City University of New York students and faculty using futuresinitiative.org
  • Troubleshoot any site performance issues
  • Perform site and plugin updates as needed
  • Manage hosting/server environment (through Reclaim Hosting)
  • Present on areas of digital expertise, including the Futures Initiative’s use of technology, in public venues such as blog posts, conferences, and journals
  • Participate in program outreach
  • The position requires comfort with WordPress, HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and PHP.
  • Familiarity with Drupal is desirable, as the Futures Initiative also serves as the administrative hub for HASTAC, which is built on Drupal
  • Familiarity with design tools such as Adobe Creative Suite is also desirable in order to create attractive web materials

Co-Director, Futures Initiative Leadership Fellows

We seek a graduate fellow to serve as Co-Director for the Futures Initiative Leadership Fellows program. This program works with CUNY undergraduate students on topics that surround social justice, mentorship, leadership, academia, career, public speaking, and other current topics of interest. We seek someone who is self-aware and mindful of the diverse community of CUNY students who come from many of NYC’s underserved communities, as well as the challenges these students face on a daily basis. Active listening skills are especially important, as is an interest in peer to peer learning and student centered pedagogical practices. The ideal candidate should be a team player and have an interest in working with these students, and also learning from them.

In addition to the general expectations above, the person in this role will:

  • With guidance from the program’s director, serve as the primary lead for the 2019-2020 fellowship year, overseeing 30 undergraduate students from across CUNY
  • Help students learn leadership and mentoring skills, and teach them to apply these skills among their peers and communities
  • Jointly plan and facilitate the one-day Leadership Fellows’ workshop in summer 2020 (participation in the summer 2019 workshop is desirable as well; modest supplemental funding will be provided for summer work)
  • Coordinate and lead monthly FI Mentor meetings, building rapport with students and mentoring them
  • Communicate regularly with undergraduate Leadership Fellows and the graduate students/faculty members who nominated them
  • Oversee Leadership Fellows’ involvement in the program and help keep them accountable, for instance by tracking participation
  • Develop opportunities for Leadership Fellows to be active members in their community, for instance by collaboratively writing activities and prompts for blog posts
  • Invite Leadership Fellows and their nominators to participate in all FI activities
  • Assist with scheduling Leadership Fellows’ meetings at the Graduate Center
  • Work closely w/ HASTAC Scholars Director and Humanities Alliance Director on cross-initiative collaborations
  • Help plan and attend enrichment activities for Leadership Fellows at venues around NYC
  • Share resources (such as fellowship and job opportunities) with the Leadership Fellows
  • Research outside funding opportunities and contribute to grant writing and reporting
  • Attend weekly or bi-weekly meetings with the Leadership Director and the Director of Programs and Administration (in addition to weekly Futures Initiative team meetings)

Specialist, Institutional Leadership and Administration

We seek a graduate fellow to work with the Futures Initiative and HASTAC leadership team on all aspects of programming, administration, and research, including planning a national conference and assisting with the publication of a scholarly book on the topic of graduate education and careers inside and outside the academy. This role is ideal for someone interested in a career in higher education administration or a leadership position within the nonprofit, government, or corporate sector. The person in this role will have the opportunity to see all elements of program development and behind-the-scenes strategy, and will be mentored in areas that many graduate students do not encounter until later in their careers, including strategic planning, budget development, grantwriting, event planning, personnel management, scholarly publishing, conference planning, and more. This person will work most closely with Katina Rogers, Director of Programs and Administration.

In addition to the general expectations above, the person in this role will:

    • Be curious about the intellectual and professional opportunities of academic administration
    • Work closely with Katina Rogers, Director of Programs and Administration, on all aspects of Futures Initiative and HASTAC programming
    • Serve as Dr. Rogers’s research assistant for the final stages of editing for Putting the Humanities PhD to Work: Theory, Practice, and Models for Thriving Beyond the Classroom, including fact-checking, copyediting, and citation review
    • Serve as lead organizer for a national conference on Putting the PhD to Work in spring 2020
    • Learn and implement event planning skills including program planning, delegation, project management, and communication
    • Learn and implement budget-related skills including budget development, purchasing, and expenditure tracking
    • Learn and contribute to grantwriting, implementation, and reporting
    • Communicate with institutional partners, faculty, students, staff, and the public on matters related to the program
    • Write periodic blog posts reflecting on your work and its connection to your research and the higher education landscape
    • Essential skills include: attention to detail, clear communication, reliability, solid judgment, flexibility, curiosity.

Please contact Katina Rogers, Director of Programs and Administration for the Futures Initiative, if you have any questions. krogers [at] gc.cuny.edu

Apply here: https://goo.gl/forms/yxqVC7ZGJIAIbabH2

 

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The Futures Initiative
The Graduate Center, CUNY
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