Job no: 493150
Work type: Staff Full Time - Full Year
Location: Lewiston, ME
Categories: Student Affairs: Student Support
Title: Assistant Dean of Students - Center for Student Success
Position Purpose:
As the Center for Student Success's primary daily presence, the Assistant Dean provides direct student support, builds milestone programming, and collaborates with the Senior Associate Dean to shape the Center for Student Success's culture and implementation. This hands-on, relational practitioner directly delivers advising and programming that fosters community, belonging, and holistic student growth.
Job Duties:
Campus Collaboration:
- Build strong partnerships with faculty to position the Center for Student Success as a valued resource in student success.
- Navigate the dual advising model (faculty advisors and Center for Student Success staff), clarifying roles for students and faculty.
- Collaborate daily with CITL, Academic Affairs, the First-Year Experience (FYE) team, the Center for Purposeful Work, and campus partners to unify student support.
- Participate in cross-divisional working groups and college-wide initiatives.
Program Development:
- Partner with leadership to design and execute integrated milestone programs throughout the 4-year student journey.
- Develop and facilitate academic skills programming (time management, study strategies, navigating academic difficulty).
- Create and deliver goal-setting, reflection, and skill-building workshops at key transition points.
- Support New Student Orientation, Student Affairs divisional events, and the potential peer mentor program.
- Serve as the Center for Student Success’s primary, visible daily contact for drop-in student support and resource navigation.
- Collaborate with campus partners to codify a purpose-driven sophomore experience.
- Ensure consistent, welcoming staffing during Center for Student Success operating hours.
Holistic Support:
- Manage a student caseload as a Student Support Advisor (SSA), providing holistic advising on academic policies, leaves, deferrals, and degree planning.
- Conduct proactive outreach via Bates Reach (Starfish) to support students before challenges escalate.
- Engage in the SSA community through monthly case consultations and professional development.
- Participate in the Student Affairs on-call rotation and monthly training meetings.
Assessment and Continuous Improvement:
- Support the Center for Student Success's assessment framework by tracking student engagement and program participation.
- Contribute data and insights to semesterly activity and outcome reports.
- Apply a reflective, iterative approach to program design to build a culture of continuous improvement.
- Stay current on student success best practices and integrate them into Center for Student Success planning.
Minimum Qualifications:
Education
- Bachelor's degree required
- Master's degree strongly preferred (field open)
Experience
- 3–5 years of progressively responsible experience in an undergraduate setting (advising, counseling, or student-facing programming).
- Proven direct student advising expertise; this is a practitioner role rather than a managerial one.
- Experience in residential life, campus life, first-generation programs, orientation, or student success.
Preferred:
- Experience leading cross-functional integration efforts or building shared ownership across academic and student affairs.
- Familiarity with early alert platforms (Starfish, EAB Navigate, or equivalent).
- Experience supervising student workers or peer educators.
- Familiarity with NACADA principles and academic advising best practices.
- Experience working in dual-reporting or matrixed higher education environments.
Skills and Knowledge
- Commitment to equity and inclusion, and serving the needs of a culturally and educationally diverse community.
- Experience contributing to a new center, program, or initiative from its early stages.
- Exceptional interpersonal skills; ability to connect empathetically with students, faculty, and staff.
- Self-starter with sound judgment; able to prioritize and adapt in an evolving environment.
- Comfort with technology platforms and data collection for program improvement.
- Ability to maintain strict confidentiality and student privacy.
- Strong organizational skills and attention to detail.
Benefits:
Bates College offers competitive salaries, excellent benefits (health, dental, 9% retirement contribution with potential for an additional 3% match, sick leave, 24 days of vacation, 2 personal days, 13 paid holidays, dependent care subsidy, free parking, access to library and athletic facilities & more), and a supportive, collegial environment in a drug and smoke-free workplace.
Hiring Range: The hiring range for this position is $65,775 to $82,218. Placement within the range depends on experience and other factors.
Equal Employment Opportunity Statement:
Bates College is committed to the principle of equal opportunity and providing an educational and work environment free from discrimination. The college prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, national or ethnic origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression, age, disability, genetic information or veteran status and other legally protected statuses in the recruitment and admission of its students, in the administration of its education policies and programs, or in the recruitment of its faculty and staff. Bates College adheres to all applicable state and federal equal opportunity laws and regulations. All college faculty, staff, students, contractors, visitors, and volunteers are responsible for understanding and complying with the Non-Discrimination Policy.
Inquiries concerning the college’s policies, compliance with applicable laws, statutes, and regulations (such as Title VII, Title IX, and ADA/Section 504), and complaints may be directed to Gwen Lexow, Title IX Officer, 207-786-6445 or via email at [email protected].
About Bates:
Bates is internationally recognized as a leading liberal arts college, attracting 2,000 students from across the U.S. and around the world.
Since 1855, Bates has been dedicated to educating the whole person through creative and rigorous scholarship in a collaborative residential community. Committed to opportunity and excellence, Bates has always admitted students without regard to gender, race, religion, or national origin.
Cultivating intellectual discovery and informed civic action, Bates prepares leaders sustained by a love of learning and zeal for responsible stewardship of the wider world. Bates engages the forces — intellectual trends, demographic changes, and technology — that are transforming higher education and the world into which our students graduate.
Bates has highly competitive admissions, graduates over 90 percent of its entering students, and more than half of its alumni earn graduate degrees. Bates employs 200 faculty members and 550 staff.
The college is proud of deep roots in the Lewiston/Auburn community, Maine’s second-largest urban area with a population of approximately 65,000. Bates is located on a beautiful, 133-acre, traditional New England campus in Lewiston, an emerging city with an entrepreneurial climate, a lively arts scene, and a dynamic business community. Bates is 35 miles north of Portland, 140 miles north of Boston, and 350 miles north of New York City.
Advertised: 6 Aug 2026
