Assistant Dean for Student Development and Engagement, Widener University

Posted by Widener University on March 2, 2015

Widener seeks an accomplished, experienced and innovative professional to assume the position of Assistant Dean for Student Development and Engagement to serve as a highly visible member of the Associate Provost and Dean of Students’ senior staff with responsibility for overall student development and transformation through extensive collaboration with academic units. This new position will lead initiatives at the unit and university levels, participate in planning and setting priorities, drive strategic initiatives to ensure their success and work with the academic units in collaborative transformational learning initiatives in alignment with the 2015-2021 Strategic Plan.

In addition, this position will lead, coordinate and develop strategic goals, oversee all assessment initiatives within student affairs; develop and oversee professional development for all levels of staff and enhance student engagement through the use of social media platforms .

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES: (include but are not limited to)

Essential Duties

Academic Collaboration

– Foster innovative collaboration between student affairs and academic affairs to promote student learning outcomes and enhance student transformation and success.

– Work collaboratively with academic units and faculty to create, oversee and assess high impact student experiences and assure that new Student Affair programs and projects align with established strategic learning objectives.

Assessment

– In collaboration with the Associate Provost and Dean of Students lead the development of divisional goals, objectives, strategies and initiatives that demonstrate and affirm a unified approach to transformative learning and development aligned with Widener Strategic Plan 2015-2021.

– Lead Division staff in the development, implementation and analysis of unit-based assessment projects.

– Lead the Student Affairs assessment agenda in support of an ongoing culture of assessment incorporating learning outcomes and assuring effective and appropriate regular assessments of annual goals, departments, programs and services.

– Develop a comprehensive assessment training plan for Student Affairs staff.

– Collect and analyze data for use in making decisions regarding Student Affairs programs and services, policy making, resource allocations, and other processes requiring data analysis. Provide recommendations for program improvement.

– Author and disseminate information from assessment efforts to interested members of the campus community.

Administrative Leadership

” May supervise assigned department(s) within the Division of Student Affairs with responsibility to hire, evaluate, manage and lead department staff. Departments to be determined based on the needs of Students Affairs and the experience of the incumbent.

” Lead Student Affairs professional development.

” Manage complex and sensitive student issues, including but not limited to, crisis management with responsibility for oversight and management of emergency protocols.

” Serve on the Behavioral Intervention Team, and lead and participate in various Student Affairs Divisional and University-wide committees.

” Design, implement and administer programs to enhance communication and responsiveness to external stakeholders.

– Serve as a member of the Student Affairs Leadership team with specific responsibility for oversight and management of emergency response procedures. Assists with developing and updating protocols, policies and procedures for responding to student emergencies.

Social Media

– Develop and maintain social media platforms that foster a 21 st century Student Affairs presence that effectively serves and engages students..

– Direct the development and continuous enhancement of the Student Affairs web presence, and assist Student Affairs departments as needed with the development of their websites.

– Develop, execute, assess, and refine a social media strategic plan that enhances the achievement of Student Affairs student learning outcomes.

– Oversee and coordinate social media communication to identify, assess and implement communication strategies that represent best practices in relation to the constituents.

Job Qualifications:

QUALIFICATIONS AND CHARACTERISTICS: (Education/Training and Experience Required)

– Master’s degree required in Student Affairs/Development, Higher Education Administration, or counseling, higher education or a closely related field.

– Demonstrated progressive professional responsibility/experience in university setting with minimum five years’ experience in a leadership role in Student Affairs

– Exceptional written, verbal, listening and interpersonal skills and substantial successful past experience effectively interfacing with faculty, administrators and staff in the creation of collaborative programming for students.

– Proven ability to successfully partner with faculty creating collaborative programming resulting in a seamless and holistic learning experience for students.

– Experience with developing and assessing high impact learning practices applicable to the collaborative educational and learning focused higher education environment

– Experience successfully managing assessment projects in a higher education setting including developing student learning outcomes, knowledge of data collection methods, ability to analyze quantitative and qualitative data, and ability to communicate results in oral and written form.

– Experience in creating and assessing strategic goals as well as effective assessment of functions, processes, departments, programs and services.

– Knowledge of social media outlets and experience with departmental web sites and in crafting engaging and creative messaging for college students.

– Demonstrated commitment to continuous improvement and demonstrated skill in examining and re-engineering operations and procedures, formulating policy, and developing and implementing new strategies and procedures.

– Knowledge of organizational structure, workflow, and operating procedures, and experience in fiscal management.

– Demonstrated excellence in interpersonal relations, team-building, and conflict resolution and student programming in collaboration with faculty. Excellent working knowledge of student development theories and the ability to put these theories into practice.

– Past experience in developing and implementing systematic assessment, improvement and subsequent renewal of programs, benchmarking best practices and gathering data necessary for informed decision-making.

– Fostering and modeling an atmosphere of mutual respect, caring, collective engagement, accountability, and personal growth in a community and demonstrated experience successfully working with other student affairs professionals and university staff.

Widener University, an independent, metropolitan, doctoral-intensive University, connects curricula to social issues through civic engagement. Dynamic teaching, active scholarship, personal attention and experiential learning are key components of the Widener Experience. Located in Chester, PA, Widener’s main campus is nestled between Philadelphia, PA and Wilmington, DE, with satellite campuses in Exton and Harrisburg Pennsylvania and Wilmington Delaware. For more information about the University, please visit our website at http://www.widener.edu.