Salary: $100,000.00 - $120,000.00 Annually
Location : Central Campus, Jackson, MI
Job Type: Administrator
Department: Office of the Chief Academic Officer
Opening Date: 08/10/2026
Closing Date: 8/17/2026 11:59 PM Eastern

Description
POSITION SUMMARY:

The Dean of Student Support provides academic and administrative leadership for the College functions that most directly connect students to learning, academic progress, and credential completion. Reporting to the Vice President of Student Achievement and Academics and serving as a peer member of the Academic Leadership Team, the Dean ensures that advising, academic support, testing, TRIO, and regional center operations function as extensions of the academic enterprise.

This position is intentionally distinct from a traditional dean of student services. It is not a catch-all for student-facing functions and does not duplicate responsibilities assigned to other areas of the College. Its purpose is to eliminate organizational silos by creating direct, structured, and accountable connections among faculty, academic departments, academic deans, Navigators, learning support, testing, TRIO, and the regional centers

The Dean is accountable for translating academic direction into an accurate, accessible, and coordinated student experience; faculty-connected academic support; advising grounded in current curriculum and pathway requirements; testing access responsive to faculty and student needs; specialized support for eligible TRIO participants; and community-based programming that allows students to complete meaningful credentials through evening, weekend, hybrid, and on-site options.

Essential Functions
ESSENTIAL DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES:

1) Leadership and strategic direction
• Serve as a member of the Chief Academic Officer's Academic Leadership Team (ALT) and contribute to collegewide planning, policy development, academic operations, and innovation.
• Translate the Student Academic Achievement Imperative, Maroon & Gold Standards, and College strategic priorities into clear operating expectations, annual goals, and measurable outcomes for all assigned units.
• Develop and execute an integrated annual plan for the assigned portfolio, with explicit connections to course success, persistence, retention, credential completion, transfer, access, and community responsiveness.
• Establish formal operating agreements, communication schedules, escalation pathways, and shared accountability among assigned units, in cooperation with academic deans, departments, faculty, and other College offices.
• Lead organizational change with clarity and follow-through. Replace avoidable handoffs and duplicated processes with coordinated workflows that make ownership visible to employees and students.
• Ensure consistent service and quality across locations, academic pathways, delivery modalities, and student populations while allowing responsible adaptation to local and programmatic needs.
• Lead and/or support committees, task forces, accreditation activities, grant initiatives, and special projects as assigned; maintain professional currency through appropriate regional and national engagement.

2) Center for Student Success: faculty-connected academic support
• Lead the Center for Student Success team as an academically driven learning-support operation rather than a stand-alone referral or general service center.
• In collaboration with the Vice-President, peer academic deans, department chairs, and faculty, develop a staffing model that uses qualified full-time and adjunct faculty to provide course-specific assistance, mentoring, academic coaching, review sessions, learning labs, supplemental instruction, and other direct academic support.
• Ensure that faculty and adjunct assignments, service expectations, scheduling, and compensation comply with College policy, applicable agreements, academic qualifications, and available resources.
• Establish discipline-based standards for the selection, faculty approval, training, supervision, and evaluation of peer tutors and other student academic-support personnel.
• Use enrollment patterns, gateway-course performance, course success data, faculty referrals, and student demand to prioritize staffing and services where academic support can have the greatest effect.
• Integrate Center services with early-alert processes, Navigator outreach, TRIO support, faculty communication, online learning, and support at Jackson College Lenawee and Jackson College Hillsdale.
• Provide accessible day, evening, weekend, and online support consistent with the course schedule and the needs of working, adult, online, dual-enrolled, and regional students.
• Evaluate the Center's effect on student learning, course completion, persistence, and student confidence; report findings to faculty and academic leaders and adjust services based on evidence.

3) Testing Center: faculty-informed access and academic integrity
• Establish and administer a clearly defined Testing Center service model, including eligibility criteria, capacity expectations, approved testing uses, accommodation-related testing, make-up testing, placement or certification testing, and other authorized services.
• Direct the Testing Center staff regarding schedule, staffing, capacity, and service model of the Testing Center based on faculty course schedules, testing windows, student demand, and the instructional calendar.
• Ensure dependable in-person and approved online or virtual proctoring, including appropriate evening and weekend availability when academic programs require it.
• Create a routine faculty consultation process and publish clear calendars, submission deadlines, testing procedures, and service expectations well in advance of each term.
• Ensure secure and consistent test administration, identity verification, confidentiality, chain-of-custody practices, academic-integrity protocols, incident documentation, and timely communication with faculty.
• Coordinate approved testing accommodations with faculty and the College office responsible for formal accommodations, while preserving test security and student dignity.
• Maintain reliable testing technology, vendor relationships, staff training, contingency plans, and accessible testing environments across approved modalities and locations.
• Monitor utilization, wait times, no-shows, capacity constraints, faculty satisfaction, and student access; use the results to adjust hours, staffing, space, and processes.

4) Student Achievement Navigators: pathway-based advising in partnership with faculty
• Establish a program- and pathway-aligned advising model in which each Navigator has defined academic departments, programs, and faculty contacts, with support from the appropriate academic dean.
• Create and enforce a regular communication cycle among Navigators, faculty, department chairs/program directors, and academic deans so that advising reflects current curriculum, prerequisites, sequencing, program-entry requirements, transfer expectations, and career pathways.
• Implement a closed-loop process for updating advising guides, degree maps, registration tools, catalog information, transfer information, and student communications before academic changes take effect.
• Develop required onboarding, continuing education, and periodic competency verification for Navigators; conduct routine advising-accuracy audits and address errors promptly and transparently.
• Ensure that students receive documented academic plans, proactive outreach, degree-progress review, timely registration support, early-alert follow-up, and interventions appropriate to their goals and academic standing.
• Define clear referral and escalation processes for curriculum exceptions, complex transfer questions, restricted-program requirements, academic concerns, and issues requiring faculty or dean judgment.
• Ensure that Navigator advising complements rather than replaces faculty mentoring and program-specific academic guidance; build a connected relationship in which each group understands its responsibilities and shares relevant information.
• Use caseload, appointment, contact, registration, persistence, and completion data to balance workload, identify students who need outreach, and evaluate advising effectiveness.
• Provide consistent advising quality for students at Central Campus, Jackson College Lenawee, Jackson College Hillsdale, partner schools, and online, with service methods adapted to each setting.

5) TRIO Student Support Services: specialized academic support and grant stewardship
• Provide executive oversight for TRIO Student Support Services, including program direction, personnel, budget, required services, documentation, performance objectives, reporting, and compliance with federal grant requirements.
• Ensure that eligible participants, including low-income and first-generation students and students with disabilities who demonstrate academic need, receive intensive, individualized academic support consistent with the approved grant.
• Support high-quality tutoring, mentoring, academic planning, study and test-taking skills, self-advocacy, financial literacy, transfer preparation, career exploration, and other authorized services that advance persistence and completion.
• Build structured collaboration among TRIO staff, faculty, Navigators, the Center for Student Success, and other College units so that participants experience coordinated rather than parallel support systems.
• Partner with faculty, Navigators, and the Center for Student Success to create appropriate intervention pathways for students facing elevated academic risk who are not eligible for TRIO, while keeping grant-funded services, records, and expenditures properly separated.
• Ensure that TRIO support for students with disabilities complements, and does not replace, the College's formal accessibility and accommodation processes.
• Monitor participant progress, service delivery, persistence, graduation, and transfer outcomes; intervene when performance is below grant or College expectations.
• Support grant renewal, audit readiness, responsible stewardship of federal funds, and the responsible adoption of effective TRIO practices across the broader College where appropriate.

6) Regional centers and community-based academic delivery
• Provide academic and administrative leadership for Jackson College Lenawee in Adrian and Jackson College Hillsdale, ensuring that each center is fully connected to the College's academic leadership, standards, systems, and student-support network.
• Develop and sustain predictable multi-year course rotations that allow students to complete designated degrees and credentials through evening, weekend, hybrid, and other accessible formats without unnecessary travel to Central Campus.
• Use program pathway maps, enrollment trends, student demand, labor-market information, transfer opportunities, and community input to determine which complete pathways should be offered at each location.
• Collaborate with academic deans, department chairs, and faculty to recruit, assign, and support qualified Jackson College full-time and adjunct faculty to teach at the centers and at partner high schools.
• Ensure that instruction delivered at regional centers and partner schools meets the same expectations for faculty qualifications, course outcomes, assessment, academic integrity, student engagement, and continuous improvement as instruction delivered elsewhere.
• Provide students at the centers with dependable access to advising, testing, tutoring, TRIO and other eligible supports, technology assistance, and timely connections to College offices.
• Maintain a visible College presence in Lenawee and Hillsdale counties and build sustained relationships with K-12 districts, intermediate school districts, employers, transfer partners, civic organizations, community groups, and local leaders.
• Identify, recruit, and engage appropriate community, employer, education, alumni, and student representatives for regional and program advisory committee work; ensure that their input informs academic planning and delivery.
• Lead strong, measurable growth in dual enrollment and early middle college participation through active school partnerships, clear pathways, effective student and family communication, coordinated advising, on-site faculty delivery, and academic support.
• Monitor not only dual-enrollment participation but also course success, credit accumulation, credential progress, high-school partner satisfaction, and students' transition into continued Jackson College enrollment after graduation.
• Develop financially and academically sustainable multi-year course rotations, subject to enrollment demand, faculty availability, facility capacity, academic approval, and College resource requirements.

7) Data, assessment, and continuous improvement
• Establish a concise performance dashboard for the assigned portfolio and review results regularly with the Vice President for Student Achievement and Academics, peer deans, unit leaders, and faculty partners.
• Use student-level and program-level data, disaggregated as appropriate by location, pathway, modality, and student population, to identify barriers, inequities, capacity needs, and improvement opportunities.
• Set annual improvement targets and require written action plans when results, service quality, advising accuracy, grant objectives, or access expectations are not being met.
• Partner with institutional research, information technology, and academic leaders to improve data quality, reporting, early-alert use, degree audit accuracy, and evidence-based decision-making.
• Conduct regular program and service reviews; document changes made, resources invested, and whether those changes improved student learning, persistence, completion, or community access.
• Support institutional accreditation, assessment, compliance, and strategic planning by providing accurate documentation and demonstrating how assigned functions contribute to student achievement.

8) Personnel, budget, operations, and compliance
• Recruit, select, onboard, supervise, coach, evaluate, and develop assigned administrators and staff; create a culture of care, high ex