Assistant Director Advising Operations and Outreach

Supervisor: Dean for Retention and Advising

Position Code: ADAOO

Status: FT

Hours: M-F 8:30 am - 5:00 pm

Job Location: Longmeadow, Hybrid

Exempt (Yes/No): Yes

JOB SUMMARY:  

The Assistant Director of Advising Operations and Outreach is responsible for the University’s student success and advising management systems across student populations. This includes supporting software applications used to support student advising and retention.  Working with a team of professional advisors, the Assistant Director ensures the University systems meet the needs of the student success and retention efforts, streamlining communication and support to students and advisors.  The Assistant Director will leverage data and technology to coordinate meaningful outreach to students throughout their educational journey. The Assistant Director will assist in the development and review of advising related assessment, developing regular reports related to student success and persistence. The Assistant Director will also provide advising to a caseload of up to 100 students. 

Working collaboratively with student financial services, Dean of Students, information technology, admissions and advising colleagues, the Assistant Director develops and oversees advising operations calendars and communication plans, ensuring processes and proactive outreach occur in a timely manner.  The Assistant Director works collaboratively with  the Director for Advising and Student Success and the Director of BPO Advising and in developing and implementing semester engagement activities such as welcome events, annual family picnic, advising drop in hours, online communities for student parents and caregivers, commencement and celebratory events to name a few. 

ESSENTIAL JOB FUNCTIONS:

• Maintain an assigned caseload of students, providing holistic advising, proactive outreach, course registration support, and referrals to campus resources as appropriate.
• Assist Dean, leading all administrative operations for non BPO Advising and Retention efforts, including student hires, budget management, departmental communications and calendaring, website, social media, retention tracking and reporting, and system optimization efforts. 
• Develop business practices, policies, and procedures for students, faculty and staff on the use of student success management and advising tools. 
• Coordinate communications related to business practices, policies and procedures of student success management and advising tools.
• Apply project management processes to ensure successful project implementation and execution of advising and  student success operation ensuring program deliverables are met and activities are completed in a timely manner.
• Create and maintain faculty and staff user accounts.
• Create and execute semester and yearlong communication and event plans for the Advising Center. 
• Coordinate work through cross-functional teams, including student affairs staff involved in case management, IT, Academic Deans, faculty and Career Advisors to improve integration with disparate systems and data courses. 
• Review and evaluate program effectiveness; assist in data management and compilation of reports. 
• Work with vendors to research issues and test functionality of the systems, and implement ongoing systems improvements and enhancements.
• Coordinate development and implementation of necessary trainings related to student success management tools.
• Coordinate advising operations and processes including staff onboarding, training and operational materials, new student onboarding, registration, early alert reporting, midterm grade review (Trad), add/drop, university withdrawals, non-par processes, and post session outreach, and assessment.
• Pull, analyze, and distribute reports using Salesforce, Jenzabar, Google Suite, and PowerBI to inform decision-making and track progress toward retention goals. 
• Contribute to the planning and implementation of student success initiatives, ensuring they are data-informed and measurable. 
• Assist in developing or administering virtual and in person events such as orientation and BPO 099, webinars, ceremonies, graduation activities. 
• Assist Dean in leveraging AI and predictive analytics to identify at-risk students, developing communications plans for proactive outreach. 
• Maintain thorough and accurate documentation of activity utilizing technological tools such as a CRM and Student Information System.
• Assist in the development of data dashboards and tracking to inform advising and retention efforts. 
• Evaluate processes and procedures and make recommendations for continuous improvement in the student experience by thoughtfully utilizing technology, customization and workflow design. 
• Support recruitment, marketing, admissions, orientation and retention activities as needed. 
• Select, Train and Supervise a Team of Peer Mentors to provide support and outreach to new Longmeadow students.  Work collaboratively with the Director for Advising and Student Success in developing engagement activities.  Assess all peer mentor related programs.  
• Prepare a mid year and end of year report.
• Others duties as assigned.
• Attend trainings as required.
• Perform any other duties or tasks as assigned by the University.

KNOWLEDGE AND SKILLS:

• Effectively prioritizing work requests, multi-tasking and time management.
• Providing technical assistance to others and communicating technical concepts and ideas to diverse populations both verbally and in writing.
• Ability to engage in systems thinking, configure systems for consistency with institutional policies and procedures. 
• Ability to work in a fast paced environment, meeting deadlines. 
• Ability to manipulate and analyze data; staying abreast of technology changes related to student success.
• Establish and maintain cooperation, understanding, trust and credibility
• Possess excellent customer service skills.
• Read, understand, and follow application specific documentation of procedures and instructions. 

QUALIFICATIONS:

• Bachelor’s degree required and 5-7 years’ experience.
• Experience with project management software required; experience with Jenzabar and Salesforce preferred.
• Experience in troubleshooting and analysis principles, application design principles and scheduling systems. 
• Strong interpersonal, written and oral communication skills.
• Experience working in a higher education setting is preferred.
• Ability to establish and maintain effective working relationships with all members of the University community including students, faculty, staff, and administrators.
• Ability to adhere to University policies and procedures.
• Ability to handle confidential information with discretion and within FERPA and HIPAA guidelines.
• All new employees must complete the FERPA, Anti-Harassment, and any other required online trainings within 15 days of employment.
• General knowledge of the University’s mission, purpose and goals and the role this position plays in achieving those goals.