Associate Director, Student Advising

Associate Director, Student Advising
Rasmussen University
Online/Remote

The Associate Director of Student Advising will provide students, Advisors, Senior Advisors, and Advising Managers with general guidance and direction in an effort to promote quarterly student persistence, improve overall retention outcomes to support enrollment growth. This role will build strong relationships with students, Advisors, Senior Advisors, and Advising Managers that foster open communication and guidance in an effort to ensure the students successfully meet their University educational goals. The Associate Director of Student Advising is also be responsible for directly managing, onboarding, training and development of other team members and demonstrate a strong level of leadership and expertise to support and nurture team cohesiveness and promote attainment of goals.

Responsibilities:

The Associate Director of Student Advising meets with students to support quarterly student persistence, improve overall retention outcomes to support enrollment growth.

• Serves as the student's primary point of contact to seek resolution to student needs by providing relevant educational advice, directing students to the appropriate self-serve resource and/or acting as liaison between the student and the requested student service area ensuring resolution is obtained in a timely manner.
• Creates and maintains quarterly student schedules and advises students on course schedule sequence to ensure that the student successfully meets their University educational goals.
• Completes quarterly student academic progress (SAP) audits, including but not limited to GPA and CCR calculations and projections. Actively manages their schedule, outreach and overall student success.
• Recognizing the rigors of student life and students' personal obstacles to educational success, strives to instill confidence by providing encouragement and support through the course of advising.
• Utilizes student information system (SIS) to identify, document and track student progress and advising activities.
• Answers basic questions such as ledger card entries, payment plans, and excess funds issuance.
• Communicates the impact of the student's credit load on tuition and the financial aid award.
• Performs regular proactive student outreach to drive student outcomes throughout the student's life cycle; collaborates interdepartmentally and conducts audits of student success data trends to support this effort.
• Tracks benchmark goals; devises and executes methods and strategies to reach goals and team objectives.
• Leads, conducts and supports ongoing audits to ensure the reliability of SIS data.
• Keeps abreast of and maintains strict adherence to all institutional, governmental and accreditation policies, regulations, codes of conduct.
• Makes the best use of time/resources and prioritizes activities; stays focused in spite of distractions.

The Associate Director of Student Advising actively manages a group of Advisors, Senior Advisors and Advising Managers to successfully meet quarterly retention goals.

• Will coach, mentor, motivate team members toward attainment of quarterly and programmatic goals.
• Through regular one on ones, coaching and various other task the Associate Director of Student Advising will motivate, guide and shape Advisors, Senior Advisors, and Advising Managers to meet their individual career goals.
• Monitors daily and developmental progress of team members, suggests development plans to improve performance.
• Assists with the development of strategies which address student retention
• Accurately monitor, analyze, forecast, and report student retention.
• Will attend and hold weekly departmental and interdepartmental meetings. To include but not limited one on ones with Advisors, Daily huddles, and weekly retention meetings. In addition will also be required to attend weekly Campus Management meetings.
• First level of support for Advisors, as well as first level of escalation for student concerns.
• Provides proactive leadership/expertise with challenging student populations.
• Along with the support of the Campus Director will be responsible for hiring, onboarding and training of new advising staff.
• Conduct mid-year and end of year Performance reviews with each Advisor in accordance with the Performance Summary guide found on UltiPro.
• Promotes the value of team continuity and cohesiveness and acknowledge wins and successes with the team; motivates team members to support a positive, solutions-based culture in which people want to perform at their best.
• Sets and maintains high performance standards for self and others that support the overall strategic plan and vision of the department, campus and organization as a whole and holds self and others accountable for achieving results.
• Invites input from each employee when faced with new challenges and share ownership and visibility in order to devise and implement solutions; partners with central services to request policy or process revisions.

The Associate Director of Student Advising cultivates and maintains a positive team environment including on campus and across the organization.

• Possesses a high level of integrity in all interactions with students and employees by showing a regard for both the stated expectation of the policy as well as its intent
• Cultivates and maintains a positive team environment including on campus and across the organization.
• Actively contributes to the learning environment and collegial experience for students and employees; provides constructive and appropriate input and ideas to assist the University in decision-making and process improvement.
• In support of the collaborative team environment, shares equal responsibility of providing assistance with campus and community activities both on campus and off-site such as, covering campus welcome area, supporting student orientations, career fairs, graduation ceremonies, etc.
• Engage in University-sponsored community activities.
• Maintaining an accurate fundamental knowledge of all programs available, Institutional and programmatic accreditation, affiliation, general learning outcomes, typical career opportunities, and industry outlook

Position Requirements:

• 5 years of experience in Advising, Counseling, Customer Service or related field.
• A bachelor's degree is required.
• Proven ability to coach, mentor, motivate team members toward attainment of goals.
• Proven record of consistent performance and leadership.
• Proficient in Microsoft Office Suite; student information system experience preferred.
• Ability to work independently a collaboratively as a member of a team and with other departments both in-person and virtually.
• Strong multi-tasking, organizational, planning and coordination skills.
• Proven customer service in a professional environment.
• Must be self-motivated, flexible, patient and solutions oriented.
• Strong interpersonal skills to interact with students, management and peers.
• Must have strong command of the English language, in both oral and written form.
• Professional appearance and telephone/virtual manner are essential.
• Ability to work evenings and weekends.

About Us:

Rasmussen University, a university accredited by the Higher Learning Commission, an institutional accreditation agency recognized by the U.S. Department of Education (www.hlcommission.org), is dedicated to changing lives and the communities it serves through innovative educational programs. As a pioneer in career-focused education since 1900, the University is defining a new generation of higher education that focuses on competency-based education, technology and transferable skills. Rasmussen offers undergraduate and graduate programs online and in person at 20 campuses around the country. The University is designed to lift and support its students every step of the way, from each student's first credential to their last. Rasmussen is dedicated to global enrichment, serving the underserved, and meeting the evolving needs of diverse students, communities, and economies. Rasmussen encourages its students, faculty, and staff to strive for academic excellence, community enrichment and service to the public good. Rasmussen is a wholly owned subsidiary of American Public Education, Inc. (Nasdaq: APEI). For more information about Rasmussen University, please visit www.rasmussen.edu.

It is the policy of Rasmussen University to afford equal opportunity to all qualified persons. We treat all qualified individuals equally as to their recruitment, hiring, assignments, advancements, compensation, and all other terms and conditions of employment. Rasmussen University does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, creed, sex, age, national origin, sexual orientation, or physical, mental, or sensory disability, or any other characteristic protected by law.

If you are a resident of a state with designated pay transparency requirements and this role is available remotely, you may be eligible to receive additional information about the compensation and benefits for this role, which we will provide upon request. Please send an email to recruiting@apei.com.