Assistant Dean of Residence Life & Community Standards

Title: Assistant Dean of Residence Life & Community Standards

Position Purpose:

The Bates College Office of Residence Life is seeking a compassionate, engaging, and personable individual to join a team of professionals that is dedicated to student development and growth. Based on a commitment to racial and social justice and the development of structures responsive to student needs, this role is an essential part of building welcoming and affirming communities on campus. With a focus for integrating student support into accountability structures, this is a unique opportunity to develop strategies for supporting success for students of all identities, experiences, and perspectives in residential communities.

The Assistant Dean directs both the college’s community standards processes and residence life system. The community standards process addresses violations of the code of student conduct through the lenses of accountability, restoration, student support, transparency, equity & inclusion, and wellbeing. The Assistant Dean also supervises the residence life system including the residence life coordinator on-call team. Supervising the Assistant Directors for housing, residence life, and community standards, the Assistant Dean is responsible for integrating community building and student support frameworks throughout the program. Within all aspects of the program, the Assistant Dean focuses on building relationships that support professional and student staff in building welcoming and inclusive communities.

Job Duties:

Residence Life

• Provide leadership, supervision, and development opportunities to Residence Life professional staff that foster professional growth and leadership
• Develop relationships between professional and campus partners to build strong residential communities that celebrate difference and support all students in their academic and personal success at Bates
• Supervise regular training opportunities and meetings for all professional staff members who supervise student Residence Life Staff (Area Directors)
• Oversee and facilitate difficult conversations with both students and parents taking into consideration risk management and policy consistency
• Supervise conflict resolution processes including Area Director work on roommate mediations and other community challenges
• Direct the Assistant Director of Residence Life to manage a comprehensive and educational year long residence life student staff training curriculum
• Collaborate with the Director of Campus Safety to ensure integration of Campus Safety and Residence Life Coordinators is working smoothly to support students after-hours
• Supervise, manage, oversee, and train the Residence Life Coordinator team

Community Standards, Conflict Resolution, and Restorative Practices

• Incorporate the tenants of equity, inclusion, access, and educational justice in all areas of work.
• Partner with Senior Associate Dean in ensuring the community standards system, sanctions, and practices, align with institutional initiatives in student support, student accountability, health/well-being, and restorative practices, and conflict resolution
• Lead the Restorative Practices program and integrate it across the Dean of Students Office to support conflict resolution and proactive outreach.
• Lead the initiatives to liaise with city councilors, the community resource sergeant from LPD, and off-campus students
• Serve as the hearing officer for major violations of the code of student conduct
• Approach conduct meetings through an educational lens, utilizing motivational interviewing techniques to provide students with the opportunity to consider behavioral change
• Adjudicate conduct hearings and assign sanctions based on a preponderance of evidence
• Align conduct sanctions with the Code of Student Conduct and ensure consistency within charges and sanctioning
• Review reports from Campus Safety, Residence Life, and Campus Life or complaints from faculty, staff, and students to determine appropriate interventions and actions
• Conduct investigations into allegations of student academic or social misconduct
• Review standards for documentation best practices and provide feedback on incident report writing
• Build creative assessment structures to determine the efficacy of community standards practices
• Serve as a member of the Bates Care Collaborative
• Adjudicate violations through the Conduct Officer Review process or refer appropriate cases to the Student Conduct Committee
• Support the selection and training of the Student Conduct Committee with the Senior Associate Dean and collaborate with the faculty, staff, and student co-chairs of the committee for committee procedures
• Serve as the primary power user for conduct database software – and maintain an organized and efficient conduct database. Provides statistical reports and summaries for various departments and agencies regarding caseloads, types of conduct cases, and outcomes

Housing

• Supervise the Assistant Director of Residential Operations to facilitate and coordinate major housing processes including: summer housing, incoming student housing, summer placement, short term housing, winter housing, March room selection process
• Direct management of student and family concerns about policies, policy enforcement and housing assignments
• Consistently enforce housing policies while also evaluating individual needs for exceptions to housing policies
• Supervise Assistant Director of Residential Operations to maintain accurate housing and access records in housing database
• Collaborate with the IT Program Manager/Functional Lead to implement and maintain housing software
• Supervise and/or facilitate mediation of roommate conflicts when appropriate and reassignment process

Student Support Advisor

• Serve as Student Support Advisor to a cohort of students throughout their academic career
• Advise students managing personal challenges to connect with supports and ensure academic and personal success
• Provide supplemental academic advising as needed as students negotiate their academic development
• Assist students in negotiating academic policies such as leaves, course deferrals, and other process

Student Affairs

• Serve on the Student Affairs “on-call” rotation, providing timely response and support for student emergencies
• Serve as Green Dot Trainer
• Participate in team projects that enhance the quality or efficiency of Student Affairs
• Participate in Senior Week, Commencement, Winter Carnival, and other campus wide events including events, protests, and crisis support, to provide support and student supervision as needed
• Support the Associate Dean in other projects related to operations, student accountability, community standards
• Participate in national and regional professional development opportunities to ensure the implementation and assessment of best practices related to student life

Minimum Qualifications:

Education

Education

• Bachelor’s degree required
• Master’s degree preferred

Experience

Experience

• 5+ years of experience in residence life or higher education (including professional or undergraduate experience in residence life, student government, student activities, student or outdoor leadership positions, other campus offices, etc.)
• Demonstrated success in supporting students from underrepresented groups, including students from historically underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, first-generation-to-college students, LGBTQ+ identified individuals, and low-income students
• Experience working in collaborative and dynamic office environments with frequently shifting tasks and priorities
• Experience in supporting success of peer to peer educational models including implementation of assessment practices
• Experience supporting young adults and their families in the transition to a residential college environment.
• Training and experience in facilitating mediation, conflict resolution, or other restorative practices processes.
• Experience with adjudicating complicated and high level conduct violations where probation, suspension, and expulsion are considerations

Skills and Knowledge

Skills and Knowledge

• Demonstrated awareness of, sensitivity and commitment to diversity and inclusivity and to serving the needs of a culturally and educationally diverse and inclusive community with diplomacy and tact.
• Strong interpersonal skills with ability to develop and maintain collegial relationships with clientele such as students, families, staff, faculty and co-workers.
• Excellent communication (written, verbal & listening) skills.
• Ability to effectively engage with diverse personalities and manage difficult situations.
• Ability to work independently and handle multiple priorities with minimal supervision.
• Strong organizational, tracking, and assessment skills including proficiency in basic data management systems and basic computer software (e.g., Microsoft Word and Excel, Power Point, WordPress [website], Google docs, email and calendaring.)
• Strong problem solving skills with the ability to adapt and explore multiple avenues to a solution
• Personal commitment to excellence and the mission of a top-tier small liberal arts college.

Benefits:

Bates College offers competitive salaries, excellent benefits (health, dental, 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.

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 glexow@bates.edu .

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: Jul 12 2024 Eastern Daylight Time
Applications close: