Student Affairs Administrator, Associate

Purdue University; West Lafayette (IN); On-site; USD 55,000 - 76,000; Full time

Job summary

Purdue University’s Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture is seeking a Student Success Specialist to lead undergraduate student support, coordinate scholarships and awards, and collaborate with faculty to promote recruitment, retention, and student achievement.

In this role you will analyze student success metrics, design program improvements, supervise student workers, manage course scheduling and events, and serve as liaison with academic advisors while upholding

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Human Resources, Education, or related field.
• 6 months of experience serving in a student support role in an educational setting.
• Strong initiative with an ability to work independently.
• Familiarity with higher education student success issues and programs.
• Ability to manage projects and processes involving multiple stakeholders.
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills.
• Ability to relate well to students, develop rapport, trust, and work within a shared decision-making model with the students.
• Ability to work effectively with individuals from different viewpoints and backgrounds and teamwork in daily work activity.
• Ability to analyze, interpret, and implement university policies and procedures.
• Excellent time management, organizational and problem-solving skills.
• Must represent the university with professionalism, tact, and diplomacy at all levels.

Responsibilities

• Manage student success programs within the academic unit to assist undergraduate students with achieving a variety of goals including academic, leadership, social or career focused objectives.
• Collect, analyze, and report student success metrics.
• Under immediate supervision, exercises independent judgement in the development of new resources/programs or enhancement of existing resources/programs to improve student success, celebrate student achievement, strengthen student retention, and build student community within the unit.
• Coordinate with academic advisors and faculty to discover and respond to factors adversely affecting student success and provide guidance to students to overcome barriers to success.
• Proactively design, recommending and implementing improvements to programming in conjunction with program leads and academic advisor.
• Assessing outcome of current activities and establishing, implementing and facilitating new or updated activities.
• Serving as the unit’s scholarship and student awards coordinator and managing the unit’s internal scholarship selection process.
• Evaluating scholarship selection process and designs and recommending updates to improve effective and efficiencies.
• Ensuring all HLA courses are scheduled appropriately.
• Overseeing large lecture room requests, grade reminders, and other related duties.
• Working with undergraduate chair and program leads to assure course scheduling meets student needs, managing Curriculog, course modifications and other curricular issues related to scheduling.
• Onboarding and managing a minimum of one student worker for the Student Success office.
• Assigning tasks and projects, ensuring completion of projects is accurate and on time.
• Serving as the Advisor to the HLA Ambassadors
• Creating and maintaining a schedule of events for the ambassadors and monitors involvement to ensure each student is sharing the responsibility of the required events
• Attending multiple annual education events and career fairs for Purdue students and 4-H and FFA student groups of all ages
• Attending High School career fairs within the area as well as Industry career fairs annually at Newfields Botanical Gardens
• Coordinating and successfully executing annual events for the HLA department including but not limited to, Undergraduate Welcome Dinner, Col of Ag Boiler Gold Rush Carnival, Awards Ceremony and Graduate Celebration, Senior Recognition Reception

Skills

Initiative

Independent work

Student success familiarity

Project management

Interpersonal skills

Communication skills

Teamwork

Policy analysis

Time management

Professionalism

Education

Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Human Resources, Education, or related field

Job description

Student Affairs Administrator, Associate

City: West Lafayette

Req Id: 43697

Job Summary

The Department of Horticulture and Landscape Architecture (HLA) is seeking a Student Success Specialist. In this role, you will manage student-facing (undergraduate) support activities within the academic unit, including activities related to recruiting, retention, student success, student awards, and scholarships. You will enhance the efforts of, and makes referrals to, university support offices providing centralized student success services, be responsible for the creation and implementation of student recruiting activities within the academic unit in collaboration with HLA faculty and staff and university and college admissions recruiting activities and serve as Schedule Deputy for the department.

What You’ll Be Doing:

• Managing student success programs within the academic unit to assist undergraduate students with achieving a variety of goals including academic, leadership, social or career focused objectives
• Collecting, analyzing, and reporting student success metrics
• Under immediate supervision, exercises independent judgement in the development of new resources/programs or enhancement of existing resources/programs to improve student success, celebrate student achievement, strengthen student retention, and build student community within the unit
• Coordinating with academic advisors and faculty to discover and respond to factors adversely affecting student success and provide guidance to students to overcome barriers to success
• Proactively designing, recommending and implementing improvements to programming in conjunction with program leads and academic advisor
• Assessing outcome of current activities and establishing, implementing and facilitating new or updated activities
• Serving as the unit’s scholarship and student awards coordinator and managing the unit’s internal scholarship selection process
• Evaluating scholarship selection process and designs and recommending updates to improve effective and efficiencies
• Ensuring all HLA courses are scheduled appropriately
• Overseeing large lecture room requests, grade reminders, and other related duties
• Working with undergraduate chair and program leads to assure course scheduling meets student needs, managing Curriculog, course modifications and other curricular issues related to scheduling
• Onboarding and managing a minimum of one student worker for the Student Success office
• Assigning tasks and projects, ensuring completion of projects is accurate and on time
• Serving as the Advisor to the HLA Ambassadors
• Creating and maintaining a schedule of events for the ambassadors and monitors involvement to ensure each student is sharing the responsibility of the required events
• Attending multiple annual education events and career fairs for Purdue students and 4-H and FFA student groups of all ages
• Attending High School career fairs within the area as well as Industry career fairs annually at Newfields Botanical Gardens
• Coordinating and successfully executing annual events for the HLA department including but not limited to, Undergraduate Welcome Dinner, Col of Ag Boiler Gold Rush Carnival, Awards Ceremony and Graduate Celebration, Senior Recognition Reception

What We’re Looking For:

• Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration, Human Resources, Education, or related field
• 6 months of experience serving in a student support role in an educational setting
• In lieu of degree, an equivalent combination of education and experience may also be considered (Associates + 2.5 years of experience; HS/GED + 4.5 years of experience)
• Strong initiative with an ability to work independently
• Familiarity with higher education student success issues and programs, student retention tools, scheduling and academic and co-curricular activities
• Ability to manage projects and processes involving multiple stakeholders
• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
• Ability to relate well to students, develop rapport, trust, and work within a shared decision-making model with the students
• Ability to work effectively with individuals from different viewpoints and backgrounds and teamwork in daily work activity
• Ability to analyze, interpret, and implement university policies and procedures
• Excellent time management, organizational and problem-solving skills
• Must represent the university with professionalism, tact, and diplomacy at all levels

Nice to Have:

• Experience with scheduling and curricular management

What You’d Like to Know:

• Learn more about Purdue’sbenefits summary
• Purdue will not sponsor employment authorization for this position
• A Background Check is required for employment in this position
• FLSA: Exempt (Not Eligible For Overtime)
• Retirement Eligibility: Defined Contributions Waiting Period

Career Stream

Professional 1

• Pay Band: S050
• Job Code: 20002133

Career Path Maker: https://www.purdue.edu/hr/careerpathmaker/

Who We Are

Purdue is a community built on collaboration, with global perspectives, Boilermaker pride and endless opportunity to live, learn and grow. Join us and contribute to our culture.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Purdue University is an EOE employer.

Posting Start Date: 8/20/26