The Simon Business School invites inquiries, applications, and nominations for the position of Assistant Dean of Students. This is a unique opportunity for a high-energy professional with a shared leadership approach to maximize the talents of a high functioning team in creating vibrant and engaging programs, activities, and student support within the Office of Student Engagement (OSE).
About the University
Founded in 1850, the University of Rochester is a top-tier private research university and a longtime member of the Association of American Universities (AAU). The University’s mission, “Learn, Discover, Heal, Create – and Make the World Ever Better,” is reflected in its Latin motto, Meliora (“ever better”). Meliora is also embodied in the University’s recently adopted values: Meliora, Equity, Leadership, Integrity, Openness, Respect, and Accountability.
The University of Rochester is ranked 29th among national universities in U.S. News & World Report and is the fifth largest private employer in New York State. The University is led by President Sarah C. Mangelsdorf, former provost at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, an experienced academic leader, and professor of psychology.
The University of Rochester enrolls more than 12,000 full-time and part-time undergraduate, graduate, and professional students and employs more than 2,000 full- and part-time faculty. The University’s academic programs are delivered through seven units: the Simon Business School; Arts, Sciences & Engineering (comprising the School of Arts & Sciences and the Hajim School of Engineering & Applied Sciences and the undergraduate College); the Eastman School of Music; the School of Medicine and Dentistry; the School of Nursing; the Eastman Institute for Oral Health; and the Warner School of Education. Academic programs are offered within three locations: the River Campus, which houses Arts, Sciences & Engineering, the Simon Business School, and the Warner School of Education; the Medical Center, which is next to the River Campus and houses the School of Medicine and Dentistry, the Eastman Institute for Oral Health, and the School of Nursing; and downtown Rochester, home to the Eastman School of Music. The physical proximity works to foster interdisciplinary collaborations across schools. The faculty boasts 16 members of the American Academy of Sciences, 16 members of the National Academy of Medicine, 10 members of the National Academy of Sciences, and six members of the National Academy of Engineering. In University history, seven alumni, four faculty, and one senior research associate have been awarded Nobel Prizes. The University also operates the Memorial Art Gallery, one of the few university-affiliated art museums in the country that also serves as the local community’s civic art museum, and the Laboratory for Laser Energetics, a national research facility recognized for groundbreaking work to understand the interaction of light and matter.
The University is fortunate to be located in a community rich in history and promise. The Rochester area routinely ranks as one of the most livable cities in the United States and as one of the best places in the country for families, with outstanding schools, housing, and cultural life. Rochester offers its 1.1 million area residents the amenities of a large metropolitan area with a quality of life not available in many areas of comparable or larger size. The University’s extensive engagement with the Rochester community spans cultural opportunities provided by the Eastman School of Music and the Memorial Art Gallery, to direct involvement with public institutions, such as a successful partnership with East High School, which aims to serve as a model for revitalizing urban public education.
Leadership
Sarah C. Mangelsdorf the 11th president of the University of Rochester on July 1, 2019. An experienced academic leader, she has earned wide recognition for developing important strategic initiatives tailored to the goals of each institution and for taking a leading role in building both financial and institutional support for those goals. She is known for her work on issues of academic quality, educational access, and diversity and inclusion at some of the nation’s leading public and private institutions. Before taking the helm at the University of Rochester, Mangelsdorf served as provost at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is a professor of psychology who is internationally known for her research on emotional and personality development.
The Simon Business School
Simon was the first business school in the nation to offer STEM designation for any specialty of its MBA. An early leader in pre-professional master’s programs, Simon has built an excellent reputation and strong interest and enrollments in its STEM-designated MS programs in Finance, Business Analytics, Marketing Analytics, and Accountancy. Its undergraduate program, offered in partnership with the undergraduate College within Arts, Sciences, and Engineering, is among the largest majors on campus. In addition, Simon recently completed a career-focused curricular reform of its MBA program that moved the school to half semester modules and is nearing the completion of $10 million in renovations to its learning environment set on the beautiful University of Rochester campus.
Simon enrolls approximately 970 students in its full-time, part-time, and executive MBA, MS, and PhD programs. Its faculty consists of 44 tenured and tenure-track faculty and 31 teaching faculty. Simon faculty and alumni are among the most influential scholars in their fields.
Simon MBA students in this year’s entering class hail from 19 countries and represent a broad variety of career stages and ambitions. Most students are already in the midst of promising careers when they enroll at Simon and have the benefit of strong undergraduate foundations.
Simon’s commitment to diversity has always been top-of-mind, and we firmly believe that a diverse, equitable, and inclusive atmosphere benefits all members of our community. We actively seek out and include individuals from diverse backgrounds and origins who carry their own valued and important perspectives. Simon has a long-standing relationship with the Consortium for Graduate Studies in Management (the Consortium). The Consortium is an alliance of leading American business schools and some of our country’s top corporations. It is dedicated to enhancing diversity in business education and leadership by increasing African-American, Hispanic-American, and Native-American representation in member schools’ enrollments and the ranks of management. As the fourth business school to join the Consortium in 1968, we remain dedicated to promoting student diversity to elevate the academic experience and reflect modern business's multicultural nature.
Simon alumni are managing, leading, and contributing across a wide range of enterprises around the world, with current or recent roles at companies such as Coca-Cola, Citibank, Amazon, Google, McKinsey & Co., Morgan Stanley, L’Oreal, Starbucks, Travelers Insurance, and many other industry leaders. They have founded successful entrepreneurial ventures, led Fortune 500 corporations, and brought to their careers a distinctly Simon/Rochester way of doing business: hands-on, economics-based, global, and interdisciplinary in perspective. Simon has built tremendous momentum in alumni relations and fundraising in recent years. The School raised $96 million in the recent Meliora Challenge campaign, surpassing its goal of $85 million and securing a $20 million gift – the largest single gift commitment in Simon’s history. The School has engaged alumni groups around the globe, and its alumni are passionate advocates of Simon’s focus on analytics and economics.
Leadership
Sevin Yeltekin became the eighth dean of the University of Rochester’s Simon Business School on July 1st, 2020. In her role, Dean Yeltekin oversees the administrative and academic functions of the school, shapes the school’s vision and priorities, and serves as the leading advocate of its faculty, programs and students to alumni, the business community and other external constituencies.
Dean Yeltekin joined the University of Rochester from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University, where she was the Rohet Tolani Distinguished Professor of Economics and senior associate dean of education. During her tenure, she oversaw and completed the successful launch of two new specialized master’s programs—Master of Science in Product Management, and Master of Science in Business Analytics. Additionally, she led the business school through its 5-year re-accreditation process, completed the process for MBA and PhD programs to be STEM-designated, and launched a new undergraduate interdisciplinary major, Economics and Politics.
Prior to joining the Tepper School, Yeltekin was a member of the faculty at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. A highly respected macroeconomics scholar, she has served as an associate editor at four journals: Operations Research, Journal of Monetary Economics, Macroeconomic Dynamics, and Quantitative Economics.
About the Position
Reporting to the Sr. Assistant Dean of Admissions & Programs, the Assistant Dean of Students oversees the Office of Student Engagement (OSE). The OSE provides strategic and career-focused academic advising, proactive student life management and personal advising, and support to all students in efforts to improve and enhance the overall student experience.
The Assistant Dean serves as a senior member of the School’s administration, and leads a team of 12 professional staff members who support 220 Full-time MBA students and 500 Full-time MS students with focus on program experience and student satisfaction. The Assistant Dean works in close collaboration with faculty directors, staff colleagues, and in particular Admissions and Benet Career Management Center leaders.
The Assistant Dean fosters a culture of responsiveness, accountability, and support among staff for students’ needs and initiatives. This leader will bring a facility with data, using it to inform decisions both with the team and about the populations the OSE supports.
The Assistant Dean provides vision, leadership, and oversight in the following areas:
Student Life
Oversees the Student Life team responsible for enhancing the overall student experience of full-time MBA and MS students through specialized and proactive programming and providing holistic support. This includes work on extra and co-curricular activities, clubs, special events, guest lectures, community engagement and social impact, and the social side of the Simon experience. Working in close collaboration with the Benet Career Management Center team, the Assistant Dean leads OSE in the delivery of Orientation, Re-Orientation, a winter kick-off event, Town Hall meetings, and other key sessions to bolster the student experience. The Assistant Dean takes a leading role in the integration of the #SimonStrong core values into the student culture.
The OSE runs end-of-year student experience surveys, as well as periodic event surveys – particularly at the conclusion of orientation and Pre-Fall, to continually assess areas of strength and identify areas for process improvement, as well as to confirm meeting program goals and objectives. In addition, the OSE works closely with Simon clubs and organizations to ensure best practices and quality deliverables. In collaboration with Office of Equity and Inclusion, the Diversity/Educational clubs and the Diversity & Inclusion Ambassadors, the OSE plans and supports EDI-focused programming throughout the year. The OSE also supports community service and engagement programs, such as the Simon Volunteers and PIECES programs. In addition to advising various professional, diversity, educational, and athletic clubs, Student Life advises and works closely with the Simon Graduate Business Council, the Masters Advisory Council, and the Consortium, and Forté boards.
Advising
Oversees the Advising Team for the Full-time MBA and four Full-time MS programs, who provide comprehensive support of the student experience through academic advising, coaching, and managing key academic progress processes. This includes execution of the annual process for advising, managing the cohort classroom experience, providing coaching and support for academic study teams, and managing individual student conduct issues and concerns. The Assistant Dean also provides feedback to administration about systemic issues. Finally, the Assistant Dean leads the OSE in working in close collaboration with the Benet Center team on Career Action Teams. The Office also assists students with immigration-related needs and forms processing related to OPT, CPT, and other F1 status regulations.
Experiential Learning
Oversees the Experiential Learning team as it further develops existing initiatives, improves student experiences and processes, creates and develops partnerships with University and non-University entities, and creates new opportunities for all students. This includes sourcing high quality projects, creating and supporting International Immersions, and providing support to students in internal and external case competitions to achieve outstanding outcomes. The team also creates and facilitates student programming around teamwork, leadership, problem solving, ethics, global awareness and communication.
Key Areas of Responsibility and Accountability:
Academic and Co-Curricular Program Management – Onboarding through Graduation
- Design, develop and implement the Program experience for the Full-time MBA and four Full-time Master’s programs based upon program goals and desired learning and career outcomes, in collaboration with Faculty Directors, and key stakeholders across the Business School that provide regular touchpoints during academic year
- Collaborate on timing and programming for signature School-wide events including Diversity Weekend, Women’s Weekend, and Leadership Week
- Serve as the “Voice of the Student” by providing visible leadership and active involvement in student life programming
- Build and maintain relationships with corporate partners, alumni or other key stakeholders to facilitate campus speaking engagements for student events or in support of business development for corporate projects
- Oversee development of the annual OSE Budget including guiding decisions on spending and investments that align with strategic goals and priorities
- Chair the Simon Commencement Committee, including planning the programming and execution of two diploma ceremonies and integration with a University-wide Commencement ceremony.
- Serve on other Simon or University committees related to student conduct, student life, strategic planning, and other initiatives as requested.
Qualifications
Candidates must possess a Master’s degree in higher education, business or a related field is required. A minimum of 10 years of experience in MBA student services or other business-related graduate or undergraduate student life or services, including a minimum of 5 years of leading and managing staff teams.
The candidate’s professional experiences must include:
- Ability to collaborate and communicate successfully with stakeholders including students, faculty, administrators, staff, alumni, members of the professional community, and business partners.
- Experiences demonstrating leadership, strategic planning and operational effectiveness resulting in exceptional outcomes.
- Evidence of a deep and ongoing commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion.
- Record of highly ethical conduct, a sense of respect for confidentiality, a high level of professionalism, collegiality and a strong record of attention to detail.
- Excellent interpersonal communications skills, including excellent presentation skills.
- Strong familiarity with the policies and procedures associated with the area of student affairs in an academic institution.
- Evidence of a successful track record as a leader who inspires and encourages students and is responsive to students’ needs and concerns.
- Record of excellent performance as a skilled manager with the ability to meet budgets, develop people, and work collaboratively.
- Evidence of openness to innovative approaches to achieve goals.
Knowledge and Competencies
The successful candidate will be a strong, outgoing, collaborative, persuasive, charismatic, and articulate leader known for resourcefulness and creativity in developing and presenting sound and well thought out ideas.
Additional attributes include:
- Comprehensive knowledge of best practices as well as success in creating a seamless experience for students.
- Ability to keep leadership well informed.
- High emotional intelligence including the ability to recognize and make full use of the expertise of staff members within the OSE office.
- A proven record of responding promptly both verbally and in writing to issues of the day.
Finally, the successful candidate will be one whose values align with those of the Simon community as a caring, understanding, inclusive and connected school.
How to Apply
Interested candidates should send, as two separate documents, a resume and a letter of application that relates skills, abilities, knowledge, and professional experiences to the stated qualifications for the position and notable achievements. The packet should be sent to ADOSE@wspelman.com. Confidential inquiries may be made by contacting Megan Spelman by email to Megan@wspelman.com or by telephone at 585-750-7091. The process will continue until the position is filled. The University of Rochester has a strong commitment to principles of diversity and, in that spirit, actively encourages applications from groups underrepresented in higher education. The University of Rochester is an equal opportunity employer.
