Student Success Advisor

SUU; Cedar City (UT); On-site; USD 42,000 - 56,000; Full time

Job summary

Southern Utah University is seeking Student Success Advisors (SSAs) to provide holistic advising, career guidance, and wellbeing support on campus. The role involves meeting with students, guiding degree requirements, and helping design success plans to achieve on-time degree completion.

The SSAs will outreach to incoming and continuing students, collaborate with faculty and staff, and contribute to retention initiatives while working a regular on-site schedule.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree required or equivalent.
• Demonstrated ability to build rapport with students and colleagues.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Strong problem-solving abilities and data-informed decision making.
• Ability to collaborate with teammates and work independently as needed.
• Experience with technology and information systems.

Responsibilities

• Provide holistic advising to students, including academics, career guidance, and wellbeing.
• Explain degree requirements, registration, and enrollment processes using advising tools.
• Meet with students to create completion plans addressing academic and personal goals.
• Outreach to new/continuing students to support goal achievement and engagement.
• Collaborate with faculty, staff, and campus partners on retention and completion initiatives.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Job description

Student Success Advisors (SSAs) fulfill a vital role for students by providing academic advising, career guidance, and holistic support focused on well-being beyond the classroom. They inspire, motivate, and challenge students to achieve on-time degree completion. Through their meaningful relationships with students, SSAs make a crucial contribution to student retention, persistence, and completion. This position works in an office setting during regular office schedule hours 8:00 am to 5:00 pm Monday through Friday. This position is not a remote position and will be housed on SUU campus.

• Provide holistic advising to students, which includes: Going beyond academics to build relationships focused on the whole student; empowering students through those relationships to make the most effective decisions for their education. Ensuring student understanding of academic requirements, degree audit tools, and related registration and enrollment processes. Meeting individually with students to identify strengths and challenges and to help create success plans that address needs and offer academic, personal, and campus engagement opportunities. Proactively outreaching to all new/continuing students to assist in the creation and/or modification of completion plans that position students to achieve self-defined personal, career, and academic goals.
• Advise incoming first-year and transfer students throughout their enrollment process, including occasional events for recruitment purposes, to ensure they are best set up for success during their time at SUU.
• Maintain knowledge of university resources related to student finances, holistic wellness, academic support, and other high-need services. Refer and follow-up with students as necessary.
• Collaborate regularly with college faculty, staff, and administrators as well as a wide network of other campus colleagues and partners regarding enrollment, retention, and completion initiatives.
• Other duties as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications

• 4 Year / Bachelors Degree
• Demonstrated ability to build rapport in developing meaningful relationships with students and campus colleagues.
• Excellent oral and written communication skills.
• Demonstrated ability to build strong and authentic relationships with students from a variety of backgrounds.
• Demonstrated ability to both collaborate with teammates and to work independently on efforts that support institutional and team goals.
• Strong problem-solving skills, including the ability to synthesize data and take action based on complex information.
• Experience using and comfort with technology (student information systems, basic Office programs, etc.), as well as the ability and willingness to quickly learn new computer-based programs.

Preferred Qualifications

• Master’s degree in higher education, counseling, or a closely related field.
• Experience working in a higher education setting; at least two years of experience in academic advising strongly preferred.
• Knowledge of current and emerging trends related to student affairs, retention, and completion.
• Knowledge of student development theories and their application in an advising setting.
• Knowledge of/experience with specific academic area of assignment.

This position is contingent on funding.

Due to recent changes in H1B visa fees, Southern Utah University is no longer able to sponsor international faculty and staff that require an H1B visa and are currently living outside of the United States.