Vice Provost for Student Success

Job Summary:

The Vice Provost for Student Success serves as a senior academic leader responsible for the strategic direction and performance of the University's advising and retention enterprise. Reporting directly to the Provost, the Vice Provost provides executive oversight of the Center for Student Success, including all academic advising operations, early alert and coordinated intervention systems, and persistence initiatives. The role also oversees the University Learning Commons, the University's tutoring services.

The Vice Provost establishes institutional standards for advising delivery, risk identification, intervention protocols, and coordinated student follow-through to ensure measurable improvements in retention, academic progression, and degree completion. This position ensures that advising and tutoring services are structured, integrated, data-informed, and accountable for improving student persistence. The Vice Provost strengthens seamless transitions between advising and tutoring and eliminates structural barriers that impede student success.

The Vice Provost oversees the University-wide Student Advisory Committee network, synthesizes student feedback from each school, and elevates actionable themes and recommendations to senior leadership to inform institutional priorities and improvements.

Essential Functions:

Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Organizational Oversight

The Vice Provost provides executive oversight of:

• Center for Student Success
• All professional academic advisors and faculty mentors/advisors operating within the University's advising framework, including school/college-aligned advising teams housed within the Center
• Tiered advising structure, role clarity, and defined caseload standards
• Early alert systems and coordinated intervention workflows
• Advising analytics, retention benchmarks, and performance monitoring
• Academic Learning Commons
• Tutoring, academic coaching, supplemental instruction
• Integrated academic recovery and support services
• University-Wide Student Advisory Committee Network
• One advisory committee in each school/college
• Structured reporting of student-identified needs, barriers, and recommendations

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

1. Executive Leadership of the Center for Student Success
   • Provide strategic leadership and accountability for the University's advising enterprise housed within the Center for Student Success.
   • Establish clearly defined advising tiers, role expectations, caseload standards, and service delivery expectations.
   • Ensure consistent operational standards across all advising teams while supporting discipline-specific needs.
   • Monitor retention and persistence targets aligned with advisor tiers and student risk categories.
2. Advising Operations and Retention Infrastructure
   • Oversee design and refinement of advising workforce structures, at-risk criteria, tiered intervention protocols, and transition standards between advisor levels.
   • Ensure early alert systems are aligned with defined risk categories and intervention timelines.
   • Oversee development and institutional adoption of advising analytics dashboards.
   • Lead annual reviews of advising effectiveness and recalibrate thresholds, workflows, and caseload models based on persistence outcomes.
3. Oversight of the Academic Learning Commons
   • Provide executive oversight of tutoring, coaching, and supplemental instruction services.
   • Ensure seamless integration between advising, early alert referrals, and academic support services.
   • Establish standards for utilization tracking, coordinated follow-up, and measurable impact tied to persistence and academic progression goals.
4. Early Alert and Persistence Leadership
   • Establish institutional expectations for timely outreach, documented follow-up, and coordinated intervention for at-risk students.
   • Regularly review retention and progression data and guide strategic adjustments to improve student outcomes.
   • Ensure advising and academic support leaders use actionable data to inform practice.
5. Undergraduate-to-Graduate Progression Pathways
   • Ensure advising intentionally integrates long-term academic planning, professional pathways, and preparation for graduate study.
   • Strengthen internal graduate enrollment pipelines through structured advising frameworks and coordinated communication with graduate leadership.
6. University-Wide Student Advisory Committee Network
   • Provide executive oversight of the Student Advisory Committees established in each school/college.
   • Establish standardized reporting expectations and meeting cadence across committees.
   • Synthesize recurring themes, concerns, and recommendations emerging from each school-level committee.
   • Present consolidated reports and strategic recommendations to the Provost and senior leadership.
   • Ensure student-identified needs are evaluated, prioritized, and addressed through appropriate institutional channels.
   • Maintain visible feedback loops so students understand how their input informs institutional action.
7. Seamless Student Touchpoints Across Units
   • Design coordinated student touchpoints so students can move efficiently between advising, tutoring, faculty support, enrollment services, and other academic units.
   • Establish handoff protocols, shared documentation standards, and cross-unit communication practices.
   • Eliminate duplication and structural service gaps to improve the overall student experience.

Competencies:

• Strategic leadership in student success, retention, persistence, and degree completion initiatives
• Deep understanding of the student lifecycle, including onboarding, advising, academic progress, engagement, and graduation
• Data-informed decision-making, including use of student success, enrollment, and assessment analytics
• Strong collaboration and influence skills across academic affairs, student affairs, enrollment management, and institutional research
• Commitment to student-centered practices, equity, access, and inclusive excellence
• Change management and organizational development expertise within complex academic environments
• Budget management, resource allocation, and financial stewardship.
• Policy development and interpretation related to academic progress, advising, and student support services
• Exceptional written, oral, and executive-level communication skills
• Ability to represent the institution with external partners, governing bodies, and accrediting agencies

Supervisory Responsibility:

Oversight of the Center for Student Success, including all academic advising operations, early alert and coordinated intervention systems, and persistence initiatives

Work Environment:

• Professional, fast-paced higher education administrative environment
• On campus office-based with regular meetings across campus units
• Frequent collaboration with faculty, deans, senior administrators, and student-facing teams
• Periodic evening or weekend commitments tied to student events, leadership meetings, or campus initiatives

Physical Demands:

• Ability to remain seated or stand for extended periods during meetings and presentations
• Regular use of computers, video conferencing platforms, and digital data systems
• Ability to move across campus to attend meetings and events
• Occasional lifting or carrying of light materials (e.g., documents, laptops, presentation materials)

Environmental Conditions:

• Typical indoor office and classroom settings
• Climate-controlled workspaces
• Minimal exposure to environmental hazards
• Occasional presence at large gatherings, events, or conferences

Position Type/Expected Hours of Work:

• The standard work schedule is Monday-Friday, 8:30am-4:30pm, with some variability based on events.
• This is an on-campus facing role five days a week.
• Occasional evening or weekend work may be required to meet the demands of the role.

Travel:

• Moderate travel may be required.

Required Education and Experience:

• Master's degree required; advanced degree preferred.
• Minimum 10 years of progressive leadership experience in higher education student success, advising, academic administration, or student support operations.
• Demonstrated success leading institution-wide advising or retention initiatives.
• Experience implementing early alert systems and structured intervention frameworks.
• Strong executive communication skills, including experience presenting to senior leadership and governance bodies.
• Demonstrated ability to translate student feedback and retention data into institutional action.
• Proven ability to lead cross-functional collaboration and organizational change.

Preferred Education and Experience:

• Familiarity with accreditation standards, state and federal regulations, and assessment frameworks
• Experience managing budgets, personnel, and large-scale institutional initiatives
• Proven record of leading cross-functional initiatives that improve student outcomes

Other Duties

Please note this job description is not designed to cover or contain a comprehensive listing of activities, duties or responsibilities that are required of the employee for this job. Duties, responsibilities and activities may change at any time, with or without notice.

In compliance with NYC's Pay Transparency Act, the annual salary range for this position is $200,000 - $220,000. St. John's University considers factors such as (but not limited to) scope and responsibilities of the position, candidate's work experience, education/training, key skills, internal peer equity, as well as market and organizational considerations when extending an offer.