Director of Student Life & Campus Culture

Job Details

About Hebrew Union College: Founded in 1875, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion is North America's leading institution of higher Jewish education and the academic, spiritual, and professional leadership development center of Reform Judaism.

HUC-JIR educates leaders for service to American and world Jewry as rabbis, cantors, experts in Jewish education, and Jewish nonprofit management professionals, and offers graduate degree programs to scholars and clergy of all faiths. With centers of learning in Cincinnati, Jerusalem, Los Angeles, and New York, HUC-JIR's scholarly resources comprise renowned library, archive, and museum collections, biblical archaeology excavations, and academic publications. HUC-JIR invites the community to an array of cultural and educational programs that illuminate Jewish identity, history, and contemporary creativity, and foster interfaith and multiethnic understanding.

HUC Employee Benefits: Hebrew Union College recognizes employees as one of the most valuable assets to the success of the college. That is why we make it our highest priority to offer a competitive benefits package. Some of those benefits include, but are not limited to:

• Medical, Dental, Vision
• Life Insurance, Long Term Disability
• Retirement Savings Plan -403b
• Paid National and Jewish Holidays
• Paid Vacation and Sick Day
• Paid Parental Leave
• Tuition Remission
• Employee Assistance Program

Core Values

Employees are expected to model Hebrew Union College’s Core Values:

• Honesty and Integrity
• Kindness and Decency
• Openness and Transparency
• Responsible Empowerment
• Trust and Security
• Diversity and Inclusion

Position Summary

The Director of Student Life and Campus Culture is a member of the campus leadership team. The director plays a key role in organizing, shaping, and enhancing the student experience; collaboratively planning and facilitating School and faculty events; organizing the annual Fall Kallah (retreat) and operational responsibility for Graduation/Ordination; sharing educational administrative responsibilities; managing the campus calendar; helping coordinate allocations of program space; and promoting a collegial, inclusive culture of learning on campus for students, faculty and staff.

In leading student life, the director will need to partner effectively with the many stakeholders of the College-Institute including students, faculty, and administrators, to coordinate and shape programming and develop a calendar that supports that programming. While the director position frequently provides student advising, it also serves as an educational administrative liaison between the students and the national administration’s oversight of ADA, Title IX, and DEI processes.

The position reports directly to the dean of the campus and works in partnership with the school directors and the facilities supervisor, to ensure the Jack H. Skirball Campus’ successful pursuit of its mission, in the spirit of collegiality and common purpose.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities

The essential functions include, but are not limited to the following:

1. Executive Committee on Academic and Student Affairs (ECASA), the primary executive body of the campus
   1. Bring agenda items from students and staff
   2. Execute or delegate the resolutions of ECASA, together with the dean
2. Executive Committee on Operations (ECO)
   1. Partner with Facilities Supervisor Walter Jackson in community communication
   2. Attend staff meetings
   3. Liaise between staff and dean
3. Calendar
   1. Maintain campus calendar
   2. Help to realize goals of the program calendar, negotiating with academic directors and dean for finite slots during the year
   3. Present academic calendar to directors annually for consideration and approval
   4. Plan, budget, and execute all campus-wide programming throughout the year
4. Budget
   1. Collaborate with the dean for the annual budget
   2. Special focus on the synagogue for tefillah programming
5. Student life
   1. Regular meetings with student leadership, as a bridge to administration
   2. Non-academic office hours for student access: check-ins, referrals for all health issues, non-academic advisement
   3. Maintains communication and collaborates with the National Director of Human Resources on all Title IX, DEI and ADA concerns
6. Major events
   1. Budget, manage and execute graduation and ordination exercises
   2. Budget, manage and execute annual Fall Kallah
7. Perform other duties as assigned.

Minimum Qualifications

Education

• BA required MA or Ph.D. preferred

Experience

• 5-7 years in an academic, educational, or communal setting

Knowledge, Skills & Abilities

• The successful candidate must demonstrate a track record of organizational leadership and superior interpersonal relations. Much of the work listed as responsibilities in fact depends on setting a tone of communicativeness and trust.

Technology

• Microsoft Suite, especially Outlook Calendar

Supervisory Requirements

• Ability to collaborate with a team to organize, plan, and prioritize work by developing specific goals and plans
• Ability to listen to students, not supervisorily, but in order to help guide them to the best resources for academic, DEI, ADA or Title IX consultations
• Ability to develop and build function teams among the students, working toward the same goals, such as designing the annual retreat

Work Environment & Physical Demands

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this position. Reasonable accommodations may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the functions.