Academic Advocate

Student Success Initiatives:

Student Success and Well-Being and the Student Success Initiatives unit create opportunities for undergraduate students to thrive by providing a system of support to foster academic success, persistence, and timely degree attainment. Driven by equitable outcomes for all students, innovation, and excellence, we assist students in achieving their academic and personal goals. Working collaboratively with the colleges and campus partners, a holistic student-centered approach is utilized to empower students to strive for academic achievement and individual growth

The Opportunity: 

The Academic Advocate is responsible for monitoring specific cohorts of FTIC and transfer students for academic distress signals and taking prompt action. They will reach out proactively to students to deliver appropriate support and help students identify and remove barriers impacting timely degree completion.

The advocates will contribute to the implementation and improvement of policies and processes, analyzing data to identify obstacles to student retention and academic advancement.

Responsibilities:

• Monitors progression and completion of specific cohorts of FTIC and transfer student cohorts.

• Serves as the case manager for undergraduate students showing signs of academic distress that might impede their progress toward timely degree completion.

• Serves as the coordinator of the PeerKnights Program. Conducts professional development sessions, workshops, and trainings for staff. Addresses areas where misinformation or new information causes issues with persistence.

• Develops and implements effective intervention programs and early outreach plans to enhance the persistence and completion of students.

• Responds to student referrals, investigates student cases referred by campus colleagues and collaborates with and coordinates among academic and non-academic departments to provide information on and targeted intervention strategies for students identified as "at-risk" of not persisting or completing.

• Resolves individual student issues involving coordination between multiple university offices. Assists students with understanding institutional policy and processes, reviewing available options, and resolving issues.

• Maintains student files, facilitates updates to student academic records, and monitors students' progress to ensure ongoing satisfaction, successful persistence, and completion.

• Uses analytical and evidence-based decision-making skills to develop and interpret reports, analyze and understand trends, and create actionable information drawn from multiple sources, to inform outreach plans, enhance persistence and completion programs, and focus efforts on student populations where greatest needs exist.

• Monitors and recommends changes in academic policy, procedures, and processes related to enhancing undergraduate student persistence and completion across UCF departments and colleges.

• Leads ad-hoc teams or groups to coordinate efforts across colleges and units. Assess and recommend improvements to enhance the effectiveness of persistence and completion programs across the university.

• Serves as a liaison and resource for the university on all retention-related academic information and communicates academic requirements to students, faculty, and staff.

• Presents at meetings, workshops, and other venues for internal and external audiences to disseminate and enhance UCF's retention strategies.

Minimum Qualifications: 

Bachelor's degree and 2+ years of relevant experience, or a Master's degree, or an equivalent combination of education and experience pursuant to Fla. Stat. 112.219. Click here for more information

Preferred Qualifications:

• Master's degree in Higher Education, Student Affairs, or Educational Leadership.

• Two years of experience working with student success initiatives.

Additional Application Materials Required: 

In addition to your online application, please include your resume and a cover letter.

Are you ready to unleash YOUR potential?  

As a next-generation public research university and Forbes-ranked top employer in Florida, we are a community of thinkers, doers, creators, innovators, healers, and leaders striving to create broader prosperity and help shape a better future. No matter what your role is, when you join Knight Nation, you’ll play an integral role at one of the most impactful universities in the country. You’ll be met with opportunities to connect and collaborate with talented faculty, staff, and students across 13 colleges and multiple campuses, engaging in impactful work that makes a positive difference. Your time at UCF will provide you with many meaningful opportunities to grow, you’ll work alongside talented colleagues on complex projects that will challenge you and help you gain new skills and you’ll have countless rewarding experiences that go well beyond a paycheck. 

Working at UCF has its perks! UCF offers: 

• Benefit packages, including Medical, Dental, Vision, Life Insurance, Flexible Spending, and Employee Assistance Program   

• Paid time off, including annual and sick time off and paid holidays  

• Retirement savings options   

• Employee discounts, including tickets to many Orlando attractions   

• Education assistance   

• Flexible work environment 

• And more…For more benefits information, view the UCF Employee Benefits Guide click here. 

Unless explicitly stated on the job posting, it is UCF’s expectation that an employee of UCF will reside in Florida as of the date the employment begins.

#LI-ONSITE

Department

Work Schedule

Type of Appointment

Expected Salary

Job Posting End Date

Equal Employment Opportunity Statement:

The University of Central Florida is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer including Disabled/Vets.  Click on UCF's Equal Opportunity Statement to view the President’s Statement.

The UCF affirmative action plans for qualified individuals with disabilities and protected Veterans are available for inspection in the Office of Institutional Equity, Monday through Friday, from 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., upon request.

As a Florida public university, UCF makes all application materials and selection procedures available to the public upon request. 

The University of Central Florida is proud to be a smoke-free campus and an E-Verify employer.