Area Coordinator, Professional Service Specialist 4

Position Title: Area Coordinator

Division: Student Life

Department: Residential Learning and University Housing

Position Summary:

Reporting to the Director for Residential Learning, the Area Coordinator (AC) is responsible and accountable for residential learning programs and services as well as day-to-day operations of a residential area housing approximately 1,500 students. The AC will assume primary responsibility for supervision and evaluation of staff for their respective area; assist in the hiring and training of staff campus wide; oversee use of a learning outcomes framework for facilitation of residential environments consistent with the strategic goals of the University; provide support for living-learning communities and affinity housing groups; coordinate operations functions including key control, maintenance work order tracking, and damage assessments and billing for their respective area; serve as a campus hearing officer within the student conduct system; as well as collaborate with counseling, student health, public safety and other university departments for conflict mediation, and crisis intervention.

The successful candidate must have demonstrated experience working in university residential settings; supervising paraprofessional/student staff; and coordinating housing operations functions. The AC will employ evidence-based best practices to implement and evaluate programs and services and maintain program effectiveness. The AC is responsible to work collaboratively and develop productive working partnerships with multiple university departments.

This is a live-in position, which requires the successful candidate to live in an assigned university apartment. The AC is required to participate in a 24/7 on-call rotation with other professional staff, and to serve as a support for the in-hall staff and assist with emergencies that occur after normal business hours. This position is considered an essential employee during certain emergencies as designated by management.

Functional areas of responsibility:

• Hiring, training, supervision and evaluation of paraprofessional/student staff
• Coordination of residential learning initiatives and programs
• Coordination of operations functions
• Oversight of assigned budgets
• Conflict mediation and crisis intervention
• Student discipline processes

Essential duties and responsibilities:

• In collaboration with other department staff, coordinate the recruitment, selection, training and evaluation of paraprofessional/student staff.
• Directly supervise Resident Directors (RDs), and Resident Assistants (RAs).
• Serve as liaison between paraprofessional/student staff and management.
• In collaboration with other department staff, organize all staff training and in-service sessions throughout the year including the summer staff training. Oversee the creation of staff manuals, protocols and other documents for in-hall staff training needs.
• Facilitate weekly staff meetings
• Maintain personnel files.
• Use relevant student development theory and evidence-based best practices to develop and institutionalize residential learning initiatives that support student needs and meet University strategic goals.
• Provide oversight for all aspects of the in-hall programming and regular community building activities.
• Work collaboratively with other campus offices to plan activities and serve on committees as assigned.
• Provide support and intervention as needed to assist in-hall staff to mediate, manage and resolve crisis incidents and conflicts. Provide referral assistance as needed. Review incident reports and follow-up appropriately on a daily and case-by-case basis.
• Serve as a hearing officer within the campus discipline system under direction from the Assistant Dean of Students.
• Serve in a rotation with other staff to be available on-call 24 hours a day for in-hall staff and facilities concerns.
• This position is considered an essential employee during certain emergencies.
• Perform other duties as assigned.

Required Qualifications:

Education:

A bachelor's degree (preferred: Master’s Degree in Student Affairs, Student Personnel, Higher Education Administration or a closely related field is required).

Experience:

One (1) year of professional experience (preferably in housing and residence life/residential education or a closely related fields is required (experience at the graduate staff level is acceptable). Experience, implementing educational initiatives and overseeing living-learning communities in a college/university context as well as operations experience strongly preferred.

Abilities, attitudes, knowledge and skills:

• Energy, creativity, organizational skills, tolerance for ambiguity, sense of humor, desire to challenge status quo, ability to work odd hours and as a member of a team.
• Knowledge of residence life operations.
• Demonstrated leadership ability, organization and planning skills.
• Ability to maintain confidentiality of sensitive information.
• Sensitivity to and ability to work with students, faculty, and staff of diverse backgrounds including varied socio/economic status, sexual identities/orientations, gender identities or expressions, cultures, ethnicities, nationalities, national origins, ancestries, races, religions, abilities/disabilities and ages.
• Demonstrated ability to foster and maintain collaborative working relationships.
• Demonstrated ability to facilitate teams and groups.
• Knowledge of all laws likely to have an effect upon University students.
• Ability to work in a stressful and changing environment and with great attention to detail.
• Ability to handle multiple assignments and balance competing priorities and develop efficient work plans.
• Expertise in budget oversight.
• Availability to work varied and flexible hours.

Core Competencies: Strong analytical, and organization skills; excellent interpersonal skills; excellent oral and written communication skills; excellent training skills; strong conflict resolution skills; excellent program development skills.

Language Skills: Ability to communicate effectively and interact tactfully with all levels of university students, staff, and faculty; read, analyze, and interpret documents, policies, budgets and contracts; and respond effectively to the most sensitive inquiries or complaints.

Reasoning Skills: Ability to define problems; collect and interpret data; and apply data and analysis skills to the formulation of proposals and solutions.

Technology: Proficient in use of technology to carry out electronic communication and develop both printed and electronic documents using computers and the Internet. Experience with Windows system software, Microsoft Office (Excel, Microsoft Word, Power Point), Outlook and other e-mail software.

Work Environment: The work environment characteristics described here are representative of those an employee encounters while performing the essential functions of this job. The noise level in the work environment is usually moderate.

Note: This is not an exhaustive list of all responsibilities, requirements and skills. Employees are required to perform tasks assigned by supervisors and management reserves the right to revise the job or to require that other or different tasks be performed when circumstances change.