Director of Retention

JOB SUMMARY

The Director of Retention will lead coordinated efforts to support student progression and persistence across all SEU populations and modalities. Operating within a collaborative Enrollment Management framework and in partnership with key institutional stakeholders, the Director will work closely across university divisions to remove structural barriers, align communication, and ensure seamless student support from enrollment through completion. This role is essential in leveraging actionable student data and integrating student success technologies to improve overall retention and institutional health.

This role is accountable for measurable improvement in key retention indicators, including but not limited to fall-to-spring persistence rate, stop-out re-enrollment rate, and early-alert response time. Specific annual targets will be established in partnership with the Executive Director for Student Success.

ORGANIZATIONAL RELATIONSHIPS

Reports to: Executive Director for Student Success

Supervisory Responsibility: Retention Staff (as assigned)

Indirect Supervisory Responsibility: Graduate Assistants, Student Workers

ESSENTIAL DUTIES - May include, but is not limited to the following:

Retention Strategy & Progression Support:

• Monitor trends in student progression and registration momentum across the institution to identify areas for intervention.
• Prepare regular retention and progression reporting for university leadership, including trend summaries, intervention outcomes, and recommendations for strategic action.
• Coordinate proactive outreach to students experiencing barriers to persistence.
• Lead and support comprehensive re-enrollment and stop-out recovery initiatives.
• Track outreach responses, registration activity, and engagement indicators related to student progression.
• Monitor timely follow-up and referrals to necessary institutional resources.
• Support student transition into the institution through onboarding and pathway clarification across modalities.

Data Utilization & Technology Integration:

• Leverage institutional systems, specifically Civitas and Element451, to gather actionable student data and identify at-risk students.
• Monitor and respond to patterns in registration behavior, early alerts, and financial clearance.
• Analyze appointment participation, communication engagement, and academic progression indicators to refine ongoing retention strategies.

Cross-Functional Partnership:

• Admissions Partnership: Collaborate on onboarding support, registration readiness, and the seamless handoff of students into ongoing progression support.
• Student Financial Services Partnership: Coordinate responses to financial concerns impacting persistence, registration barriers, payment planning conversations, and stop-out risks.
• Registrar Partnership: Partner to ensure registration readiness, support degree pathways, clarify academic policies, resolve course sequencing concerns, and maintain completion momentum.

Additional Institutional Partnerships

• Academic Affairs: Collaborate with Academic Affairs and academic deans to identify course-level and program-level barriers to persistence, align intervention timing with academic calendars, and support faculty engagement in early-alert response.
• Student Experience: Partner with Student Experience to connect at-risk students with co-curricular support, campus engagement opportunities, and belonging initiatives shown to improve persistence.
• Institutional Research: Partner with Institutional Research to validate retention metrics, support accreditation reporting, and ensure data definitions remain consistent across systems.
• Information Technology: Collaborate with IT and the Director of Student Success Operations to maintain data integrity and system integration across Civitas, Element451, and the student information system, ensuring retention data flows accurately and securely across platforms.

Operational Alignment & Implementation:

• Contribute to recurring coordination meetings with cross-divisional pillar leaders.
• Define shared progression terminology and clarify escalation and referral pathways across departments.
• Develop shared outreach workflows and establish common intervention tracking practices.
• Coordinate broad registration and re-enrollment campaigns with the Directors of Student Success who oversee specific modalities.
• Continuously look for ways to collaboratively refine modality-specific support strategies and adjust operational practices based on evolving institutional needs.

ADDITIONAL/NON-ESSENTIAL DUTIES

N/A

All remaining duties are considered "nonessential" within the context of the ADA, which means that the function could be reassigned to another employee in order to allow a disabled individual to hold the position. Alternatively, the manager could try to provide a reasonable accommodation so that the disabled individual could perform the function.

LOCATION

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