PURPOSE AND SCOPE OF THE ORGANIZATIONAL UNIT
The Office of Student Retention and Completion is a part of the Student Affairs Division at MCC and drives the successful improvement of student retention and graduation rates and serves as a centralized space for students to access common student services to strengthen their ability to navigate Mesa Community College and achieve their academic and career aspirations. The goal of the Retention and Completion area is to enhance the student experience by providing support with educational planning, resource awareness, and success strategies. The unit leads, coordinates, and implements targeted interventions guided by evidence-based practices and institutional data and analytics to support student success and the institution’S retention and persistence goals through the provision of academic supports and early intervention strategies that promote student success. The office provides a myriad of workshops, activities, and programming that promote a successful college transition, student development and self-efficacy, academic and personal success, engagement, timely graduation, and lifelong learning from the first year to graduation. In addition, the Office of Student Retention and Completion leads and supports large- and small-scale assessment projects, while developing and monitoring early alert systems and protocols. The unit is comprised of critical functional areas that include: Academic Advising, First-Year Success, TRiO, American Indian Institute, International Education, and Mesa College Promise.
PURPOSE AND SCOPE
Under the direction of the Director, Academic Advising, the Advising Coordinator is responsible for planning and daily implementation of comprehensive specialized advising services by delivering high-quality support services to include educational/degree planning, course selection and registration, academic support, resource awareness, and retention and success strategies – all in an effort to increase retention, progression, completion, and time-to-degree completion of MCC students. In addition, supervise a team of professional academic advisors, while managing an assigned student caseload and providing advising, registration, and enrollment services. The position assists with the design and implementation of effective advising strategies, student engagement and communication plans, recruitment initiatives, New Student advising initiatives, and other identified strategies to increase MCC retention and graduation rates. The work is proactive and designed to assist the student to the completion of a credential or degree. The position requires a high degree of student and staff interaction, communication, organization, and attention to detail. This position will focus on working with students in a manner that leads to persistence, retention, completion, and transfer to four-year institutions or their career field. The coordinator will utilize a variety of technology solutions in addition to in-person and virtual interactions to connect with students. The ability to effectively lead, strategize, problem-solve, adapt, demonstrate innovation, and utilize and learn new technology is essential.
DESCRIPTION OF WORK
Reporting to the Director, Academic Advising, the Advising Coordinator position coordinates advising case management services for specific Guided Pathway and Field of Interest (FOI) programs and supervises a team of professional academic advisors who delivers academic counseling regarding course selection, degree options, and other academic, transfer, career/workforce, and student development issues and strategies to improve academic performance. This is achieved in part by partnering with key staff and counterparts to deliver exceptional advising and learning support services to new and continuing students. This role shares some similar responsibilities with advisors as it manages a student caseload but is unique in that it also includes leadership responsibilities of to ensure the center is meeting deadlines, prepares reports on overall center activity, and steps in to assist with programming assigned to others when needed, while displaying strong business acumen and empathy for students.
The coordinator position will also serve as a resource, connecting students to academic support, advising, career advising, financial aid, and other support services, and providing them with the information they need to be informed on the support services they can utilize. In conjunction with other campus partners, the coordinator facilitates degree completion, often through assisting students to remove barriers to finishing their degrees, and by assisting in the development of tailored pathways to graduation, when appropriate. The position also develops campaigns and strategies for stop-out students who are near graduation to develop completion plans. Additionally, the position will coordinate academic advising strategies during priority and peak registration periods to support retention, persistence, and completion, by identifying students who are not registered for classes in the following term.
