Associate Director of Academic Advising & Academic Services

Department

Harris School Academic and Student Affairs Sub Group

Policy with real impact doesn’t evolve from ideology or intuition, or even experience. At the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy, developing effective public policy is a science, based on data and measurable impact. Addressing today’s interconnected, global challenges requires rigorous inquiry. It also requires innovative people who will face the facts, gather data, and understand why current policies exist to improve them.

For more than 30 years, the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy has been steadfastly committed to serving society by advancing analysis- and evidence-informed policy. Guided by this exacting mission, our community of faculty, students, and alumni from the public, private, and nonprofit sectors are taking on the world’s most important problems by using the latest tools of social science.

Harris Public Policy offers a full range of degree and executive education programs and is the academic home to research centers, institutes, and labs that study and engage the public on areas such as conflict, democracy and effective government, economic and political development, education, energy and environment, health, municipal finance, public safety, social policy, and urban policy.

Reporting to the Associate Dean of Students:
Academic Services and Advising within the Harris Student Affairs Dean of Students Office, the Associate Director for Academic Advising will be responsible for advising master’s students in public policy. This position works within a team of academic advisors and will have 115-150 advisees. The role specifically focuses on accommodations for students with documented disabilities: planning testing environments for students with testing accommodations, collaborating with faculty members about the execution of academic accommodations, and assisting with pre‑orientation planning to support incoming students with documented disabilities.

The Associate Director for Academic Advising & Academic Services is integral in helping students achieve their academic and personal goals and will contribute significantly to initiatives that enhance the overall student experience at Harris.

• Serve as Academic Advisor to 115-150 master’s students
• Serve as first point of contact for all needs for assigned advisees; learn essentials of financial aid, billing, registration, and campus services to best assist students
• Conduct intake advising meetings with all advisees at the beginning of the year
• Keep accurate advising notes in a database/CRM system (Salesforce)
• Monitor each student’s progress toward degree completion, intervening appropriately as needed
• Conduct accurate graduation degree audits for all advisees
• Gain expertise about Harris curriculum and courses in other divisions at the University to best guide student course selection
• Collaborate with other student-facing offices to best understand programmatic and career opportunities which enhance the student experience
• Identify and communicate student needs and interests to Harris Administration to help shape curriculum and co‑curricular offerings
• Create official letters and other necessary documentation for students’ scholarship providers and other sponsors as needed
• Monitor all advisee enrollments and update tuition projections each month
• Serve as a support for Harris’ large international student population, including assisting advisees with CPT and OPT paperwork and acting as a liaison to the Office of International Affairs (OIA)
• Create resources for all advisors to share information
• Collaborate extensively with the Harris academic advising team to ensure alignment in practices and give students the best possible service
• Support advisees who are in crisis or experiencing extenuating circumstances
• Collaborate with the Associate Dean of Students or Dean of Students on leaves of absence and other complex student cases
• Serve as the Harris Disability Liaison, meeting with the university’s disability working group and being the point-person for academic accommodations for students at Harris
• Communicate…