Associate Vice President for Student Affairs & Dean of Students

Western Connecticut State University•Danbury, CT

1d•$140,721 - $175,901•Hybrid

About The Position

WestConn invites applications, nominations, and expressions of interest for its Associate Vice President for Student Affairs & Dean of Students. WESTERN RISING FOCUSED STRATEGY (2026-2028) Weaving our Strengths. Building our Futures. The Western Rising Focused Strategy (2026-2028) serves as a tactical roadmap to sharpen the university’s collective efforts over the next three years, ensuring financial sustainability while honoring its core academic mission. Led by President Jesse M. Bernal, the strategy was forged through a highly collaborative process involving hundreds of faculty, staff, students, and community leaders to synthesize existing planning into actionable priorities. This community-guided approach balances necessary fiscal stewardship with a deep commitment to student success, belonging, and regional impact. For the Associate Vice President for Student Affairs & Dean of Students, Western Rising calls for a forward-looking leader who can help design a more connected, creative, and responsive student experience, one that supports persistence, strengthens community, and advances WestConn’s mission as an engine of opportunity. Five Institutional Commitments and Associate Vice President for Student Affairs & Dean of Students Leadership Strengthening Foundations: The AVP & Dean of Students helps build the student-ready systems that make thriving possible, from seamless orientation and mentoring pathways to responsive case management, housing, wellness, conduct, and involvement structures. This leader strengthens the foundation beneath the student experience so services are coordinated, modern, and dependable. Distinctively WestConn: The AVP & Dean of Students shapes a student experience that feels unmistakably WestConn, relationship-rich, equity-driven, and grounded in belonging. Through vibrant campus life, strong transition programs, intercultural engagement, and meaningful leadership opportunities, this role helps students find community, purpose, and momentum from their first days on campus through graduation. Regional Anchor & Opportunity Engine: The AVP & Dean of Students extends WestConn’s mission beyond the classroom by building partnerships that connect students and families to the region’s opportunities and supports. This includes community-based wellness resources, school and nonprofit relationships, and student engagement models that help WestConn serve as a trusted pathway to opportunity and upward mobility. Culture of Shared Leadership & Renewal: This role calls for a collaborative builder who listens well, earns trust, and brings people together around student-centered change. Through strong partnership with Academic Affairs, operational leaders, staff, and students themselves, the AVP & Dean of Students helps redesign how the institution supports students, with clarity, care, accountability, and a spirit of continuous renewal. Creating an Environment for Student Thriving: The AVP & Dean of Students stewards a campus environment where safety, wellbeing, belonging, and accountability are lived realities. By integrating prevention, care, restorative practices, student voice, and identity-affirming support into daily practice, this role helps create the conditions in which all students can grow, persist, and thrive. Importantly, Western Rising is more than a plan, it is a moment. Over the next three years, WestConn is building on hard-won momentum to strengthen its foundation, modernize how it serves students, and position the institution for long-term success in service of its academic mission. This focused strategy reflects a university that is moving with purpose, clear-eyed about its realities, confident in its direction, and ambitious about what comes next. POSITION SUMMARY Reporting directly to the President, the AVP & Dean of Students serves as a senior leader who helps shape the student experience from transition to graduation through integrated oversight of student life, support, wellbeing, and engagement. They also serve as a member of the Senior Leadership Team and the President’s Council. The AVP & Dean of Students is expected to be imaginative, technology-forward, and data-informed, leveraging modern systems, student feedback, and responsible use of emerging tools, including AI-enabled capabilities where appropriate, to redesign service delivery, strengthen coordination, and elevate the student experience while maintaining privacy, compliance, and human accountability. This role leads key functions that support students’ success and sense of belonging, partnering closely with academic leadership and other senior leaders to align orientation, mentoring, housing, wellness, conduct, and involvement into a coherent ecosystem of support. This position supervises Professional and Support staff.

Requirements

A master’s degree in Higher Education, Student Affairs, Counseling, Social Work, Public Administration, or a related field or a combination of education, credentials, and progressively responsible leadership experience that provides comparable preparation for this role.
Progressively responsible leadership experience in student affairs/student success/student services within a complex organization, including supervision of professional staff and cross-functional collaboration.
Demonstrated ability to lead and improve student-facing services with a student-centered, equity-minded approach.
Demonstrated capacity to manage complex situations involving student support, wellbeing, and/or conduct with sound judgment, care, and appropriate escalation.
Demonstrated ability to communicate effectively with diverse audiences (students, families, faculty, staff, community partners) and build durable partnerships.
Demonstrated commitment to working effectively in a diverse campus community and fostering belonging and student thriving.
Demonstrated ability to use data and technology to inform decisions, assess impact, and improve service delivery.

Nice To Haves

Earned doctorate (Ed.D. or Ph.D.) in a related field.
Seven (7) years of progressively responsible experience in student affairs in higher education.
Senior student affairs leadership experience in public higher education, and/or experience supporting a diverse student body, including at an HSI or similarly mission-driven institution.
Direct oversight experience in multiple relevant functional areas such as housing and residence life, dean of students/case management, student conduct, counseling/health promotion, intercultural affairs, student involvement, first-year programs, mentoring, and/or campus recreation.
Experience leading crisis response, behavioral intervention/care processes, and complex student support cases.
Familiarity with key compliance frameworks affecting student affairs operations (e.g., FERPA, Clery, ADA/504, Title IX processes as applicable, professional ethics and privacy standards).
Demonstrated experience modernizing student services through process redesign, system implementation, analytics, and/or responsible adoption of AI-enabled tools.
Experience advancing inclusive excellence through identity-affirming programs, culturally responsive practice, and effective community partnerships.