Assistant Director Advising Operations and Outreach
Location: Longmeadow, MA 01106 · Type: Full-Time Salaried ·
Salary: $52,000.00 - $63,000.00 Salary
Description
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
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.
