Job Details

Job Location: New Gloucester - New Gloucester, ME

About Unity College:

For more than fifty years, Unity College has been preparing the next generation of environmental professionals and leaders to successfully face real-world challenges. With environmentally focused degrees, Unity College offers affordable and accessible bachelors degrees, masters degrees, certificates, and non-degree courses through a variety of modalities including hybrid, in-person, hyflex, and online.

Our Mission:

Through the framework of sustainability science, Unity College provides a liberal arts education that emphasizes the environment and natural resources. Through experiential and collaborative learning, our graduates emerge as responsible citizens, environmental stewards, and visionary leaders.

Position Overview:

The Dean of Student Success (DSS) is responsible for designing, implementing, and providing on-going support for College-level efforts that enhance the student experience and that meaningfully promote access and inclusion. The DSS manages and develops institutional policies relating to student support, life, and retention efforts at Unity College. The DSS works with senior leadership to establish the strategic direction of the College regarding student success and retention in addition to working with senior leadership to align student success, academic, and marketing/recruitment efforts.

The DSS provides informed support for, and creative collaboration with, leaders of differentiated learning modalities, including those that are entirely online to those with distinctive integrated living and learning educational experiences. As the Enterprise leader for the mostly decentralized student success functions, the DSS develops and monitors compliance with student success heuristics and supports initiatives seeking to meet established benchmarks for those measures.

POSITION SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES AND EXPECTATIONS

Oversees audience specific decentralized Enterprise policies regarding student success through collaborations with Enterprise and Sustainable Education Business Unit (SEBU) leaders by ensuring compliance with Enterprise policies through continual assessment.

Collaborates with senior leaders to identify institutional goals for retention, persistence and graduation achievement efforts, and assesses SEBUs in meeting established standards.

Provides informed and effective support for decentralized units.

Develops mechanisms, including employee training, to ensure compliance with institutionally determined policy, including those that relate to Title IX, ADA, Sections 503 and 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and student conduct, among other topics.

Ensures accuracy of all student handbooks to reflect current institutional policies.

Leads a centralized Registrar office to ensure accurate and confidential record keeping processes for course catalogues, registration, course schedules, degree audit, credit transfer, and transcript fulfillment.

Develops and supports policy and assessment of decentralized academic advising services and effectiveness.

Establishes business protocols, standards, and procedures for institutional student success initiatives and works with VPs of SEBUs and their student success reports to ensure effective practices.

Advocates for institutional resources to create and maintain high quality student success programs and prepares and manages the budget for areas of oversight.

Continually assess and strengthen all aspects of student success to improve processes and efficiencies while providing oversight of assessment and evaluation of co-curricular programs.

Partners with senior leaders to integrate curricular, co-curricular, and residential components into a transformative and developmentally differentiated living and learning experience through the educational framework of sustainability science.

Meets institutionally established goals by developing and maintaining implementation plans that include measurable outcomes, assessment plan, budget, timeline, and benchmarks for each.

Contributes to accreditation efforts as needed.

Manages strategic plan initiatives and goals as assigned.

Serves as a member of Senior Staff.

Support institutional sustainability initiatives and values as a senior member of the college.

Pro-actively communicate challenges, successes, and failures with leadership.

Other duties as assigned.

Full job description provided at time of interview.

Key Responsibilities:

Demonstrates commitment to Unity Colleges core values and serves as a role model for the Colleges standards of conduct.

Contributes to the Colleges commitment to sustainability and contributes to the Colleges commitment to support a diverse and inclusive working and learning environment.

Follows safety and infection control policies while assisting with their enforcement.

Assumes responsibility to maintain and upgrade professional knowledge and skills with regulations, industry trends, current practices, new developments, and applicable laws. In addition to actively participating in Unity College Professional Development days and Unity College required annual trainings.

Demonstrates a high degree of commitment to customer service and student success.

Performs other duties as assigned.

Required:

Master's degree in a related discipline with at least 5 years in a supervisory role required.

Minimum of IO years of progressively responsible experience in one or more of the key areas of student success.

Must have experience in managing multiple departments.

Successful experience preparing and executing student retention plans.

Experience setting and meeting retention, persistence, and graduation rate targets.

Experience in managing human resources to develop a new organizational infrastructure.

Project and budget management experience.

Ability to use data and analytics to inform strategy.

Record of leadership and service that demonstrates integrity and accountability.

Experience integrating curricular and co-curricular programs to achieve student learning outcomes.

Experience in finance and strategic planning.

Personal commitment to the environmental focus and mission to the college.

Collaborative yet decisive administrative style that encourages informed risk and creative thinking.

Ability to function effectively within a matrix organizational structure, maintaining open lines of communication while being discreet, courteous and well poised.

Preferred:

Doctorate or equivalent preferred.

Work Schedule / Availability Requirements

Work hours are specific to the requirements of this position and can include days, evenings, and weekends. Working extended hours required as needed. Must be flexible and cooperative in fulfilling responsibilities and meeting the Colleges needs. Although Unity College employees are generally scheduled to work at their specifically assigned locations, there are times when travel is necessary and employees are required from time to time to attend events, meetings or work temporary assignment at any Unity College location.

Physical Demands

While performing the duties of this job, it is regularly required to sit and talk or hear. The employee is occasionally required to stand or walk. The employee must occasionally lift and/or move up to 25 lbs. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision, distance vision, peripheral vision, depth perception, and the ability to adjust focus. The use of either hand for repetitive movements such as grasping, grasping and turning, and fine manipulation is required as is the ability to use the telephone for internal and external communications.

Location: Pineland Farms, New Gloucester, Maine

Just a half hour from Portland, Unity College Headquarters, Unity College Distance Education, The Technical School for Environmental Professions (opening in 2022), and the School of Environmental Business & Sustainable Ventures are based at the Pineland Farms campus. The facilities are within easy access to one of the fastest-growing cities for startups in the country.

Benefits:

Unity College offers a comprehensive and competitive compensation and benefits package for its faculty and staff. Benefits for eligible employees include:

• Paid holidays
• Paid time off
• Medical
• Dental
• Short- and Long-term disability
• Life Insurance
• Flexible work benefit eligible
• Vision
• 403B