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Athletic Director

Employer
College of Saint Benedict
Location
Minnesota, United States
Salary
Salary Not specified
Date posted
Oct 27, 2020

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Position Type
Executive, Executive Directors
Employment Level
Executive
Employment Type
Full Time

The College of Saint Benedict invites applications for the full-time, benefit-eligible position of Athletic Director to begin January 2021. Review of applications will begin on November 1, 2020.

Mission:
The mission of the College of Saint Benedict is to provide for women the best residential liberal arts education in the Catholic university tradition.  The College of Saint Benedict fosters integrated learning, exceptional leadership for change and wisdom for a lifetime.

The College:
The College of Saint Benedict (CSB) is a liberal arts college for women located in the central lakes area of Minnesota. The campus is minutes away from St. Cloud, an increasingly diverse regional center with a population of over 100,000, and 70 miles from Minneapolis and St. Paul.  Some CSB staff choose to reside locally, while others commute from the Twin Cities. Both St. Cloud and the Twin Cities offer a wide range of fine arts, cultural, dining, recreational, and sporting opportunities.

CSB is a Catholic college in the Benedictine tradition enlivened by values of community, hospitality, stewardship, and justice.  The college is dedicated to cultivating an equitable, inclusive community founded on respect for all persons. Students, staff and faculty from many diverse belief systems and backgrounds collectively bring a rich dimension to the academic, cultural, and religious experience at CSB. Learn more in our Statement on Diversity and in our brochure regarding Higher Education in the Catholic and Benedictine Tradition.
 
With a total enrollment of approximately 1700 students, CSB has a unique coordinate partnership with Saint John's University (SJU), a liberal arts college for men. CSB and SJU are committed to the holistic transformational development of women and men within the context of a unified, coeducational experience. All students, faculty, and staff have the opportunity to experience and engage with the two institutions. For further information, see http://www.csbsju.edu/about.

CSB offers competitive salaries and a comprehensive benefits program.

CSB Student Development Philosophy:
The CSB and SJU Student Development divisions, shaped by our Catholic, Benedictine, liberal arts and residential tradition, understand student learning as dynamic and interactive within the academic community and the holistically developing individual. We provide opportunities for young women to become more aware of their responsibilities to promote the common good, and to fully engage as reflective leaders in an increasingly intercultural and global community.

CSB Athletics:
The College of Saint Benedict has 11 intercollegiate (varsity) teams and 8 competitive club sport teams. The program seeks to reinforce the college mission of preparing women to think critically, lead courageously and advocate passionately through sport.  Developing strong communication skills, engagement in the community and campus involvement are other critical focuses of our athletic program. 

The CSB athletic programs are competitive on the court, on the field and in the classroom.  The school finished top four in the MIAC all-sports race 23 of the last 25 years.  Since 2017-18, Saint Benedict has made six team trips to the NCAA postseason and honored six athletic All-Americans and two Academic All-Americans.

In addition, during the 2019-2020 school year all our varsity teams maintained at least a 3.3 GPA, with seven maintaining a 3.5 or higher.  Cross country led the department with a team GPA of 3.741.

Club sports have also experienced their share of success. In 2020, the CSB dance team posted a third straight top-10 finish at nationals, and the club lacrosse team headed into the 2019 regional tournament as the No. 2 seed. Saint Benedict’s club teams have a no-cut policy so that athletes of all levels can compete and be a part of a team, but they are very competitive in local and regional competitions.

Facilities:
Outlined in Strategic Directions 2020, a blueprint for CSB, the college commits to providing exceptional facilities and experiences for intercollegiate, club and intramural athletics in support of physical health and wellness for women.  New outdoor facilities completed in 2018 include two side-by-side soccer fields (one synthetic turf and the other a premier sand-peat grass field), two softball fields (one full synthetic turf field and the other a grass and agri-lime infield), three intramural/multi-use grass fields and an athletic support building.  The athletic building features home and visitor locker rooms, a training room, alumnae room, team room, press box, official’s locker rooms, public restrooms and concessions for spectators.

The Haehn Campus Center at CSB houses a well-equipped fitness center, spacious and updated field house, Claire Lynch Hall - home to the CSB basketball and volleyball teams – a group exercise studio and the department’s primary training room. The field house has space for four basketball courts and tennis courts, and is used for practice and training by varsity and club teams, as well as intramurals and strength and conditioning. There is a walking/running track that spans the outside edge of the fieldhouse, which is also open to members of the CSB/SJU and St. Joseph community. Claire Lynch Hall received an upgrade in 2017-18 with new bleachers, a new floor, a mural and new signage around the gym.

Our CSB swim team practices on campus at the CSB pool and competes at the Saint John’s Warner Palaestra pool.  Similarly, our women’s indoor and outdoor track teams’ practice and compete over at Saint John’s.  The St. John’s Donald McNeely Spectrum, a multi-purpose field house with a regulation sized, six-lane, 200-meter track is home to our indoor team and Clemens stadium is home to outdoor track and field.  Clemens hosts a regulation sized, eight-lane, 400-meter track includes a steeplechase water barrier, shot put, long jump, triple jump, high jump, and pole vault pits.

Our tennis team practices and competes outdoors on 8 hardcourts refinished during the summer of 2019.  They also have access to indoor courts at Sta-Fit in Sartell, MN.  The CSB golf team competes at Blackberry Ridge, one of the finest and most beautiful 18-hole public golf courses in central Minnesota. Lastly, you can find our women’s hockey team practicing and competing at the Municipal Athletic Complex in St. Cloud, located 6 miles east of campus.

Responsibilities:

The Athletic Director (AD) is responsible for the overall administration of a nationally distinctive intercollegiate athletic program.  Overall administration includes student-athlete welfare and the student-athlete experience, fundraising for and stewardship of program resources, student-athlete recruiting, and marketing and communication functions of the department.

Student Athlete Welfare and Athletic Experience
The College of Saint Benedict Athletic Director provides vision, leadership, and advocacy for CSB’s intercollegiate athletics program. To execute, the AD will: 

  • Demonstrate conscientious knowledge of and adherence to the rules and regulations of the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC, the conference affiliations of the College), and all applicable college policies and regulations, including Title IX, affirmative action/equal opportunity guidelines and Benedictine Values.
  • Foster and support a competitive athletic experience.
  • Build and maintain a culture of support through the management of athletics staff, administrative and coaching personnel, and student athletes. The AD will support this culture with inclusive leadership and exceptional communication with athletics staff, the wider CSB community, external constituents, and student athletes. The AD will manage or direct all personnel processes including hiring, supervising, and evaluating athletics department staff.
  • Create an environment that supports and fosters the growth of female student-athletes and that embraces and reflects the changing demographics of the student population. A strong AD will be present for and active with student athletes as a leader and role model, offering service to students in the form of mutual respect and support, personal connections, advocacy for student athletes, and building community across sports disciplines through healthy competition. A strong AD will model approachability for student athletes, community members, and external partners to create a positive, personal experience.
  • Manage and direct efforts to maintain facilities, daily operations of the athletics program and oversight of the athletics program budget.
  • Strengthen the Saint Ben’s Athletics Brand and the multiple ways that brand intersects with academic preparation, leadership development, and skill building for student athletes.


Recruiting for the Athletics Program
As the champion for women in sport at CSB, the athletic director is uniquely situated to recruit talented student-athletes to Saint Ben’s. Collegiate sports play an important role in the decisions prospective students and their families make about where to attend college. As a result, the CSB athletic director will play an active and ongoing role in attracting student-athletes to Saint Ben’s.  To execute, the AD will:

  • Work directly with the CSB/SJU Admission and Enrollment team to recruit intercollegiate and club sports.
  • Strategically expand team rosters, develop, and build up other club sports opportunities, and create meaningful ways for students to engage in CSB Athletics. 
  • Eliminate barriers students face when considering involvement in sports. A successful AD will be intentional about building a diverse, inclusive, and equitable athletics program.
  • Effectively distribute and use recruitment materials to engage in meaningful conversations with prospective students and their families during campus visits, off campus recruitment events, and regional travel. The AD will coordinate coaches and staff doing likewise. 


Fundraising and Stewardship for the Athletics Program
The College of Saint Benedict Athletics Director will champion women’s athletics by building and supporting the identification, cultivation, solicitation, and stewardship of program resources. Program resources include personnel, money, volunteers, and materials.  To execute, the AD will:

  • Oversee the athletics budget and within that budget, understand the resource needs, opportunities for growth, and capacity for advancing athletics through both revenue generation and philanthropic/fundraising efforts.
  • Think creatively to identify opportunities to grow financial resources for athletics, engage community members, supporters and volunteers, and work collaboratively with campus and community partners on effective fundraising strategies.
  • Partner and collaborate closely with Institutional Advancement, the external fundraising and engagement department on campus to identify, cultivate, solicit, and steward donor relationships, revenue generation, and philanthropic support for CSB Athletics.
  • Support volunteer engagement in the athletics program as a means to cultivate relationships and financial support for the program in accordance with best practices in volunteer management.
  • Create meaningful sponsorship opportunities and pursue revenue generating opportunities including camps, clinics, workshops, and other fee-based programming for the external community.
  • Manage and coordinate the Bennie Game Changers, the CSB donor program, through relationship building and acting as a liaison between current and prospective members of the Bennie Gamechangers and the College of Saint Benedict Athletic Department.

Qualifications:

Required:

  1. Baccalaureate degree
  2. Coaching experience
  3. Experience managing an athletics program
  4. Experience managing budgets
  5. Fundraising experience
  6. Excellent communication skills
  7. Availability to work evenings and weekends on a regular basis during the school year
  8. Excellent interpersonal relations skills
  9. Demonstrated ability to build collaborative working relationships with administration, faculty, students, alumnae, donors, media, and the public
  10. Self-motivated
  11. Results-oriented

Preferred:

  1. Master’s degree in related field
  2. Demonstrated women’s intercollegiate athletic coaching experience
  3. Demonstrated experience competing at the collegiate level
  4. A working understanding of NCAA Division III athletics and the added value of athletics to the education process and to the institution
  5. Demonstrated understanding of the value of women in sport
  6. Experience in building comprehensive marketing plans
  7. Experience in fundraising and donor relations including personal solicitation and stewardship
  8. Ability to effectively communicate the student athlete requirements, goals, and resources to all of the College of Saint Benedict athletes
  9. Demonstrated use of discreet judgment and confidentiality
  10. Strong computer skills
  11. Understand and properly serve both the mission of the college and the goals of the Athletic Department at the College of Saint Benedict.

Apply:

Applications are accepted online at http://employment.csbsju.edu.

Applicants should complete the full application and attach a cover letter and resume. The cover letter should address the responsibilities and qualifications contained in the profile and include the names and contact information for three professional references.

For further information, questions may be addressed to:
Marcia Mahlum, CSB Student Development Operations Officer, Search Committee Chair
MMAHLUM@CSBSJU.EDU.

The College of Saint Benedict is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.

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