Academic Advising Specialist

Our Academic Advising Specialists at Bethel University serve as trusted advisors and advocates for our graduate and seminary students throughout their academic journey. This role combines personalized student support, strategic academic planning, and proactive outreach to help students overcome challenges, stay on track toward graduation, and experience a strong sense of belonging within the Bethel community.

Working closely with faculty and campus partners, you'll provide individualized guidance, coordinate academic plans, connect students with resources, and help remove barriers to student success. If you're passionate about student success, enjoy building meaningful relationships, and thrive in a collaborative environment, we'd love to meet you.

• Serve as the primary point of contact for new students, documenting communication and guiding students through successful enrollment.
• Collaborate with academic departments to build individualized academic plans and course schedules for incoming students.
• Develop personalized academic plans and semester schedules in collaboration with academic departments.
• Support new student orientation and transition programming.
• Participate in enrollment events and collaborate with Student Life to foster community and student engagement.

• Create and maintain individualized degree plans that keep students on track for graduation.
• Conduct degree audits and monitor academic progress.
• Advise students on registration, university policies, graduation requirements, petitions, and appeals.
• Collaborate with faculty, department chairs, and academic leaders to resolve complex advising situations.
• Identify and proactively support students experiencing academic or personal challenges.
• Develop success plans for students on academic probation or those identified through Early Alert systems.
• Serve as a liaison when personal or family emergencies impact student engagement.
• Implement outreach strategies that encourage persistence, re-engagement, and graduation.
• Partner with Admissions, Student Life, Financial Aid, the Registrar, Inclusive Excellence, and the Business Office to provide a seamless student experience.
• Maintain accurate and confidential student records while ensuring FERPA compliance.
• Contribute to continuous improvement initiatives by helping evaluate advising practices and student success outcomes.
• Stay current on advising best practices, university policies, and academic programs.

Education: Bachelor’s degree required;
Master’s degree in a related discipline preferred.

• Strong critical thinking and the ability to solve problems independently
• Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to provide individualized service to students in distress
• Ability to communicate and retain complex information with warmth and clarity
• Outstanding customer service skills are required, with demonstrated ability in human relations and conflict management
• Strong organizational skills for managing complex degree tracking and documentation.
• Ability to collaborate effectively with faculty, staff, and diverse administrative departments
• Position requires the ability to manage multiple tasks simultaneously, dealing with frequent interruptions, and responding to a high volume of inquiries
• Ability to connect with students in a variety of methods, phone, in person, and online
• Languages:
  
  Bilingual skills preferred to support our diverse student population.
• Previous Experience in student support services, admissions, or academic advising preferred

The essential functions, tasks and responsibilities of this position may change from time to time. Bethel University reserves the right to add or omit duties and responsibilities at the discretion of the University or its leadership. Additional tasks or duties required of the position, will be communicated to the incumbent with specificity to ensure the employee may perform their role with complete understanding.

This job description is intended to describe the general level of work being performed; it is not intended to be all-inclusive.