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Location

East Lansing, MI | United States

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Job description

Working/Functional Title

UIA Fellow/Strategic Initiatives Manager

Position Summary

This position is place-based in East Lansing with a 4 days in person and 1 day remote schedule. Travel within the Continental U.S. will be required several times per year for UIA activities.

OVERVIEW

As a member of the Undergraduate Education and Student Success Strategic Initiatives team at MSU, the UIA Fellow/Undergraduate Student Success Strategic Initiatives Manager will report to the Assistant Dean for Student Success Administration and Leadership in the Office of Undergraduate Education. The UIA Fellow/Strategic Initiatives Manager will work closely with university leadership to lead, support, and assess MSU and UIA student success initiatives to ensure all students can learn, thrive, and graduate. Specifically, the UIA Fellow/Strategic Initiatives Manager will:

• Assist with the setting and implementation of the student success strategy on campus; 
• Project manage and lead strategic student success initiatives on campus and across the UIA; 
• Work with senior leaders to identify, analyze, and find solutions for student success barriers; 
• Assist in planning campus wide student success events;  
• Work closely and collaboratively with student groups, leadership and organizations to incorporate the student perspective in all internal and external efforts.
• Understand and support advising and retention outreach efforts on campus
• Spend approximately 25% of their time devoted to supporting UIA Central initiatives;
• Travel approximately four times a year for three days duration each time to meet with other universities and central staff associate with the University Innovation Alliance.

The Student Success Initiatives Manager will support the implementation of campus wide projects that support student persistence, retention, graduation and overall success to meet MSU’s strategic goal of an 86% graduation rate with no opportunity gaps by 2030. They will work closely and collaboratively with other divisional staff members and student success focused areas across the institution. The incumbent will lead work through campus wide committees to map the undergraduate student experience and support opportunities that increase retention through direct student support programs, policy changes, interventions, and programs all through the lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion.  The position will conduct, and support, research related to the implementation of campus-wide student success initiatives to propose strategies and initiatives to meet short-term and long-term student success goals.

SPECIFIC RESPONSIBILITIES

• Project manage campus wide student success projects in alignment with MSU’s strategic plan
• Serve as a key collaborator with Undergrad Education units, the colleges, Student Life and Engagement, Institutional Research, University Health and Wellbeing, Office of Diversity Equity & Inclusion, and Enrollment Management to support strategic student success efforts
• Participate and coordinate with various campus and divisional level student success teams
• Research and assess policies and procedures related to undergraduate student success 
• Serve on division and campus wide committees as a subject matter expert for student success initiatives
• Support MSU’s UIA Liaisons, Provost, and President in UIA-related activities
• Participate in and contribute to UIA Fellows activities, including regular meetings, ongoing Slack channel, retreats, and planning
• Support MSU’s participation in UIA scale projects implemented at MSU
• Coordinate MSU personnel participation in UIA convenings and meetings
• Respond to queries from UIA institutions and others about MSU’s student success efforts

For more information, visit:

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement

All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, citizenship, age, disability or protected veteran status.

Required Degree

Masters -Student affairs, higher education, or related field

Minimum Requirements

• Knowledge equivalent to that which normally would be acquired by completing a master’s degree in student affairs, higher education, business, Counseling or other related field and minimum of five years of work experience in higher education or a related field
• Knowledge of theories and practice related to undergraduate student success, retention and graduation
• Articulated and proven passion for transformation in higher education to better serve marginalized students
• Evidence of a commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and experience conducting work to close opportunity gaps in higher education
• Ability to manage multiple activities concurrently, to continually monitor their status and to prioritize activities so that deadlines are met with limited supervision
• Ability to work with detailed information with attention to accuracy; strong skills in documentation, tracking, and data collection 
• Proven success in innovative thinking to develop and implement creative solutions to complex challenges
• Experience and comfort with working in ambiguity and demonstrated ability to creatively, rapidly, and collaboratively iterate to solve problems
• Ability to work collaboratively and constructively with people at multiple levels and with diverse perspectives
• Demonstrated experience to lead or project manage within a complex organization like a higher education institution
• Ability to access, understand, and interpret data from multiple sources to promote student success through data-informed and innovative practices
• Evidence of the ability to build consensus across multiple divisions of a complex organization
• Excellent communication skills; including an ability to work diplomatically and effectively with campus partners

Desired Qualifications

• Terminal degree
• Direct student advising experience (financial aid advising, academic advising, student affairs advising, disability support advising, etc.) at a large public institution
• Experience with process mapping, policy analysis and or project management
• Experience implementing strategic initiatives to support the retention and success of underserved student populations
• Past experience managing complex change initiatives in a collaborative and consensus building environment
• Experience teaching, advising, leading, and/or mentoring diverse undergraduate students. 
• Experience leading a unit 

Required Application Materials

A complete application will include a CV/Resume, cover letter, contact information for three professional references, and a DEI statement.

The DEI statement should include your contributions to promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Through this statement you can share how your lived experiences, past and future academic and professional activities have or will contribute to promoting equity and inclusion at MSU. 

Website

Department Statement

DEPARTMENT STATEMENT

The Office of Undergraduate Education cultivates a vibrant, multi-disciplinary community that is diverse along many dimensions, including race and ethnicity; gender, sexual orientation, and gender identity and expression; ability status; and creed or ideology.

UNIVERSITY INNOVATION ALLIANCE STATEMENT

Michigan State University is a founding member of the University Innovation Alliance (UIA), a national consortium of large public research universities working together to improve outcomes for all students across the socioeconomic spectrum, particularly low-income students, first-generation students, and students of color. The UIA is designed, organized, and led by our 17 member institutions’ presidents and chancellors. Together, we draw from every region in the country and span the spectrum of U. S. public research universities, from emergent institutions to land grant universities and state flagships.

Since its launch in 2014, the University Innovation Alliance has transformed a theoretical concept for collaboration into a nationally recognized community of practice that is driving both institutional transformation and improved student outcomes. Our work is based on the simple proposition that when universities share ideas, experiences, and challenges, and work together, they can accelerate innovations that help students graduate with a college degree. Today, our institutions are on track to graduate an additional 100,000 students over the next decade, and we have raised graduation rates for students from low-income backgrounds by nearly 25 percent.

MSU Statement

Michigan State University has been advancing the common good with uncommon will for more than 160 years. One of the top research universities in the world, MSU pushes the boundaries of discovery and forges enduring partnerships to solve the most pressing global challenges while providing life-changing opportunities to a diverse and inclusive academic community through more than 200 programs of study in 17 degree-granting colleges.

About Michigan State University

Spartans work every day to advance the common good in uncommon ways.Together, we tackle some of the world?s toughest problems to find solutions that make life better?from alternative energy to better food safety to breakthrough medical and environmental applications achieved through rare isotope research.We teach. We explore and we discover. We collaborate and lead. We innovate, inspire, and empower. We achieve our potential and create circumstances that help our students and others achieve theirs.We're good at it, and we've been at it for more than 150 years.The nation?s pioneer land-grant university, MSU began as a bold experiment that democratized higher education and helped bring science and innovation into everyday life. The revolutionary concept became a model for the nation.Today, MSU is one of the top research universities in the world?on one of the biggest, greenest campuses in the nation. Home to nationally ranked and recognized academic, residential college, and service-learning programs, we?re a diverse community of dedicated students and scholars, athletes and artists, scientists and leaders.In ways both practical and profound, we work to create a stronger, more sustainable, and more hopeful future for all.

Connections working at Michigan State University

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