Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Life - Rochester

The new AVC for Student Life is the campus student development leader and strategist, reporting directly to the chancellor. This campus leader works collaboratively with other members of the chancellor’s senior team (academic affairs and innovation, finance and campus resources, communication and marketing, and enrollment management) as well as directors of residential life, student wellbeing, and student engagement. As the strategist for student development at a diverse and growing campus, this new leader will have the opportunity to use evidence and imagination to shape both the current culture and the future direction of this strong, new campus.

Ongoing collaboration with the academic leadership and faculty is expected to sustain UMR’s established, integrated approach to learning and development. Additionally, the vice chancellor has responsibility for student affairs financial management and will provide budgetary oversight for Student Life operating budgets, working closely with the vice chancellor for finance and campus resources. This role provides an exciting opportunity for an experienced student affairs leader to engage in a culture of creativity and collaboration, serving as a catalyst and supporter of evidence-based student engagement and wellbeing. At the same time, the growth of the campus provides this leader with the opportunity to strengthen support and organizational structures.

As a growing campus devoted to educational innovation, we seek a visible, optimistic, and dynamic student development leader. The AVC will lead, supervise, coach, and provide strategic direction to a multi-faceted staff to increase student engagement and wellbeing and to enhance residential life. The Student Life team includes directors of residential life, student health and wellness, and student engagement with staff members and partners who support those areas (e.g., counseling, recreation, health services, disability services, intercultural programs, living learning communities, and student activities). Together, this campus leader and their team will also manage student orientation, student conduct, care reporting, biased incident response, and student Title IX issues. 

The AVC for Student Life will be a seasoned student affairs leader with proven experience in student advocacy, belonging, and wellbeing. To be successful in this work, the AVC will need to:

• Work collaboratively to advance a compelling, innovative student engagement and wellbeing vision and culture for the student-centered UMR. 
• Be a visible leader, present and engaged with students and the campus community. 
• Continue to advance and enhance community and belonging through innovative and impactful initiatives. 
• Strengthen student engagement and wellbeing by developing student life staff who will lead, assess, and invent new ways to enhance student life. 
• Promote and practice collaboration, communication, trust, and transparency. 

• As a student-focused leader, provide a positive, dynamic, visible presence on campus, modeling engagement, inclusion, and respect.
• Provide student development, equity, and retention leadership and expertise for the campus, working closely with other members of the chancellor’s leadership team.
• Lead and be responsible for student development staff and outcomes through strategic project management, evidence-based practice, and coordination with faculty and other relevant staff in this intentionally matrixed campus community. 
• Provide oversight for student development operating budgets, working closely with the vice chancellor for finance and campus resources and the chancellor to ensure alignment with strategic priorities.
• Manage the policies and processes associated with general student conduct, care reporting for at-risk students, biased incident reports involving students, and student-related Title IX/sexual misconduct.
• Provide retention and equity expertise as a member of the campus Diversity and Inclusion Committee and the chancellor’s leadership team. 
• Work collaboratively and strategically with the vice chancellor for academic affairs and innovation and faculty to ensure coordination and intentional integration of curricular and co-curricular endeavors and to contribute expertise to foundation and grant proposals that include student development elements. 
• Work collaboratively with other officers of the University of Minnesota system to meet the student development objectives of the systemwide and campus-level strategic plans. 

Required Qualifications

• Minimum of a master’s degree in a relevant field
• Substantial prior experience in student development leadership
• Demonstrated administrative abilities
• Ability to maintain high visibility on campus

Preferred Qualifications

• Doctoral-level academic preparation in student development theory and/or equitable practices in higher education
• Success in obtaining grant funding, especially for initiatives related to access, diversity, inclusion, and student success
• Experience in strategic planning and assessment of student development programming and efficacy
• Experience supervising or leading a team of student development professionals with a wide range of responsibilities
   

Starting salary range: 

• $105,000–115,000 for assistant level
• $115,000–125,000 for associate level

Work arrangements: In person

Benefits: As a Professional and Administrative (P&A) employee, you’ll enjoy a comprehensive benefits package with low-cost health coverage, professional development opportunities, and retirement plan with 10% employer contribution. (See our benefits page for more information.) 

Please submit both a cover letter and a resume (or CV) by January 15, 2025. Applications without both documents will not be reviewed.

Apply here

For questions or nominations, please contact Jennifer Erickson (jrostami@umn.edu).

The UMR campus community currently serves nearly 1,000 undergraduate and graduate students in the heart of downtown Rochester. UMR offers distinctive health sciences education to prepare students for a broad spectrum of current and emerging careers. Partners make it possible at UMR and the campus is grateful for their educational collaborator, Mayo Clinic.

To meet the demands of the ever-evolving health care industry, UMR embraces a unique approach to higher education. Students are at the center of everything, and research informs practice. UMR is dedicated to meeting the changing needs by creating new opportunities while looking beyond the horizon to see what’s next. Research at UMR is focused on what matters most: student learning and development. All faculty engage in what is known as the "scholarship of teaching and learning," which means studying the intersection between how faculty teach and how students learn. Of course, faculty don't just study it—the results are then applied in our classes daily. UMR faculty help to develop curious, competent learners ready to enter the job market as change-makers. Students who go on to professional and graduate schools take with them the tools to learn, research, and grow in that new and more demanding level of education. UMR’s academic approach requires driven, curious students and produces independent thinkers poised to create change in the vast, vibrant, and growing health care universe. UMR hires and nurtures faculty who are leaders in learning and staff committed to student development and wellbeing. 

UMR will inspire transformation in higher education through innovations that empower graduates to solve the grand health challenges of the 21st century.

UMR core values are embedded in its vision: community, respect, diversity, and inclusiveness, evidence-based decision making, and human potential. To build and sustain collaborative communities that move UMR toward this vision while creating a culture of trust, accountability, and belonging, UMR necessarily places high value on diversity and inclusiveness. As a purpose-driven community, UMR values human potential and the significance of every person, compelling the campus community to make evidence-based decisions that will empower individual learning and development so that students, staff, faculty, and community partners will flourish.

Given the UMR’s focus on student learning and development, Student Life staff and the faculty work closely together. As one of the most innovative health-focused universities in the country today, UMR nourishes human flourishing, compassion, creativity, intellectual inquiry, and the core competencies and habits of mind needed for an impactful professional career in the health sector. UMR offers degrees at the bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral levels and is fully accredited by Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association of Colleges and Schools in conjunction with the University of Minnesota Twin Cities.  

Academic Programs

UMR’s location in Rochester, Minnesota, known as America’s City for Health, presents opportunities to engage meaningfully with the local communities through intentional partnerships and initiatives. UMR students benefit from the rigorous and meaningful programmatic offerings, and they graduate not only as skilled leaders, but as compassionate citizens. UMR offers two undergraduate degree choices: a Bachelor of Health Sciences (BSHS), and a Bachelor of Science in Health Professions (BSHP). The Bachelor of Science in Health Sciences program is known as an innovative degree program with an integrated curriculum to provide students with a foundational undergraduate education that allows them to pursue a wide range of careers in the health field, including business and leadership; psychology and mental health; pre-med and patient care; research, discovery and cures; public health; and health technologies. The BSHS degree also offers avenues to Get Forward Faster with early assurance and accelerated programs including, an early assurance nursing degree in partnership with the University of Minnesota School of Nursing. The Bachelor of Science in Health Professions degree is in educational collaboration with Mayo Clinic School of Health Sciences and offers certification in four areas: echocardiography; radiography; respiratory care; and sonography. UMR also offers a master’s and doctoral level degree in bioinformatics and computational biology, offering an opportunity for research and a graduate education at the intersection of quantitative sciences, biology, medicine, food and agriculture. Additionally, a Master of Business Administration is offered on the Rochester campus by the University of Minnesota Duluth, and a Master of Science or doctorate in occupational therapy is offered on both the Twin Cities and Rochester campuses.

UMR Students

All undergraduates at UMR have one thing in common: they aspire to a career in health. At the same time, the student community is the most diverse campus in the University of Minnesota system, with the fall 2024 first-year class identifying as 45% BIPOC, 47% first-generation and 47% Pell-eligible. The disparities in educational attainment that plague Minnesota colleges and universities do not exist at UMR. Underrepresented students do not have statistically significant lower graduation rates than their peers. 

Student Life at UMR

Student Life at UMR is organized to support students in ways that contribute to their academic success and personal development: student engagement, student wellbeing, and an enriched residential experience. The structure is designed to deliver the following:

• Strategic direction for Student Life that propels the UMR mission, vision, and values
• Excellence in student programming and student support
• Delivery of a planning and assessment culture that complements UMR’s evidence-based approach
• Collaborative, timely decision-making and leadership in communicating how and why decisions are made
• Effective management of student crises
• Clear lanes of responsibility alongside intentional opportunities to “share lanes”
• Advocacy for students and for Student Life across campus with a goal of raising awareness and inspiring new partnerships

The Student Life team reflects the ethic of the student-centered campus. Staff are passionate and dedicated in their work to support students and create an excellent environment on campus. Cross-disciplinary work occurs across campus, and although the team is organized into three themes (student engagement, student wellbeing, and residential life), staff collaborate to infuse the themes in multiple aspects of their work.

The student engagement team includes new student orientation, first year experience, living learning communities, intercultural initiatives, student government advising, and student activities.

The student wellbeing team includes counseling and disability services, along with close working relationships with the contracted partners who provide health services and recreation.

The residential life team includes staff who support UMR’s residence halls and apartments as well as a close working relationship with the contracted partner that provides dining services. First- and second-year students are required to live on campus in three facilities: Student Life Center (residence hall with 400 beds), 318 Commons (98 fully-furnished apartments with 261 beds), and the Residence at Discovery Square (25 unfurnished apartments with 47 beds).

Finances and Affordability

UMR has a current annual budget of $33.5 million. UMR has demonstrated a commitment to keeping its undergraduate degree programs affordable and accessible to undergraduate health sciences students from Minnesota. As a land grant university, all of the University of Minnesota system campuses are committed to enrolling and graduating a broad, diverse spectrum of students, especially from Minnesota. UMR will continue to enroll at least 75% Minnesota residents in its undergraduate programs, with a current student body of 85% Minnesotans. UMR also boasts a “flat tuition” (the same rate for in-state and out-of-state students) that will continue to enhance its ability to attract students to meet Minnesota’s health care workforce demands. Enrollment of first-year students grew by 12% in fall 2024, and continued enrollment growth is anticipated.

Current Facilities

UMR leases six properties in downtown Rochester, all within walking distance of student opportunities at Mayo Clinic and most accessible via skyway. Additionally, the University has purchased adjacent land parcels to be developed in the future Education District, a proposed 10-acre footprint in the First Avenue Southwest area of Rochester. In 2023, UMR opened its doors to a new Student Life Center including student residential space, a dining facility, an intercultural center, admissions welcome center and recreational space. This space was made possible by a remodel and lease of an adjacent hotel, illustrating UMR’s creative, cost-effective facilities approach. Plans for expanded facilities in the next three years include additional classrooms and student interaction space, adjacent faculty and staff offices, a gym, and more.

UMR Leadership

Meet Chancellor Lori J. Carrell.
 

• Population: 121,395 as of 2020 census
• Land area: 54.75 square miles
• Average home cost: $319,000 in 2024
• Job growth rate: 4.7% in 2024 (leads the state)
• Public schools supported by recent positive referendum vote
• 85 miles southeast of Minneapolis-St. Paul
• 100 parks and 85 miles of paved trail

Rochester, the third largest city in Minnesota, is a caring community with friendly neighborhoods, activities, plenty of parks and green spaces, walking and bicycle trails, and a lively downtown with many community-hosted events. Known as America’s City for Health, Rochester is a vibrant city with a rich history that combines the qualities of a diverse metropolis with the spirit of a smaller community. Rochester is home to the world-renowned Mayo Clinic, Minnesota’s largest employer and the worldwide leader in medicine, ranked #1 in Best Hospitals by U.S. News and World Report. As of 2022, Mayo Clinic employed more than 42,000 people in Rochester, making it the largest employer in Minnesota.

In 2013, the Minnesota state government determined there was a compelling interest to authorize public investments in Rochester to help support Mayo Clinic in Rochester as a global medical destination center. State and local leaders worked together to develop Destination Medical Center (DMC) and create in statute the financing tools and public governance structure necessary to create a global destination for health and wellness. With more than $5 billion in projected private investments over the next 20 years, DMC will provide the public financing necessary to build the public infrastructure and other projects needed to support the vision of expansion in Rochester. Mayo Clinic is moving forward with $5 billion in facilities investment, aligned with their Bold. Forward. Unbound. strategy to lead the world in digital health advancement.