Director of Unity Center Job at Rhode Island College
The Office of Student Life offers opportunities that honor the whole self and promote the social, professional, and emotional development of our student community. From orientation to graduation, this office aims to create a sense of belonging that fosters advocacy, connection, and leadership across campus and in the community. Working closely with Student Community Government, our student organizations, and student leaders, we prioritize and value student centered learning, student led initiatives, and most importantly, student voice.
Primary Purpose
Oversee the mission, vision, strategic planning, and operations of the Unity Center. The Unity Center serves as a brave space on campus for all students to engage in meaningful and critical conversations that challenge systems of oppression and affirms and promotes equity for students that have been historically marginalized and disenfranchised. It does this by working with campus and community partners to create a warm and welcoming climate where all students belong and have equitable opportunities and outcomes; offering transformative workshops for student centered spaces; and initiating restorative practices where there has been conflict. The Unity Center houses identity-specific resources for students of color, LGBTQ+ students, students that experience gender disparity, students with compromised citizenship status, first generation students, and students seeking interfaith services. Because trauma and conflict often go hand in hand with many of these communities, the Unity Center is also home to RIC’s restorative practices, and conflict resolution services.
Essential Duties
- Direct the day-to-day operation of the Unity Center, including the supervision, and evaluation of professional, clerical and student staff.
- Develop, manage, and facilitate student employment program with clear development goals for students.
- In collaboration with the college community, develop programs and services based on research and national best practices, local initiatives, and regional/sector priorities designed to increase the recruitment, retention, matriculation, and graduation of multicultural students.
- Responsible for fiscal management of departmental operating budget, including forecasting expenditures and revenues, oversight of internal budgets, maintaining records, and linking program objectives and assessment to the annual budget process.
- Recruit, train, supervise, and/or evaluate professional staff members and a varying number of student employees including graduate assistants and interns.
- Provide leadership and professional development opportunities for staff consistent with professional goals.
- Initiate and join collaborations and coalitions across campus to increase inclusive and equitable practices.
- Work closely with faculty and staff to ensure quality and expertise-based information. Innovate ways to collaborate across the academy and practice.
- Oversee the design, content, and maintenance of the Unity Center blog.
- Knowledge to help students navigate college policies and procedures that are related to the work of the Unity Center. Make recommendations for new policies.
- Sit on the executive committee for Dialogue on Diversity and Inclusion (DDI)
- Work closely with student leaders to design and model peer education and student driven activism.
- Responsible for data collection, tracking, and reporting.
- Work closely with Chaplain and our partnering church.
- Create pathways for students to engage in governance, policy, and committee work on campus that directly relates back to equity, in partnership with Student Community Government
- Work well with students in crisis and be able to direct them to appropriate services and resources. Sit on Bias Incident Reporting Team and HOPE team (Helping Others Pursue Excellence).
- Support New Student Programs Orientation efforts.
- Serve as a resource to the institution, faculty and staff on issues related to diversity, inclusion, equity and safety, and facilitate productive dialogue and discussion on these and other critical matters.
- Serve as an advocate for Multicultural students at all levels of the College including encouraging the selection of Multicultural students for positions in campus organizations, activities and committees.
- Provide effective referrals for counseling, career planning, academic and financial aid assistance for Multicultural students.
- Develop supplemental funding sources for expansion of supportive and educational services for Multicultural students.
- Coordinate, design, and/or implement a wide variety of educational programs that serve to raise consciousness among the faculty, administration, and staff about various traditions, norms, attitudes and beliefs of the many diverse groups on campus.
- Develop meaningful and strategic community partnerships that will help RIC advance equity on campus.
- Perform other tasks as they evolve and are delegated by the Associate Dean of Students.
- Work occasional evening or weekend hours.
- Knowledge of equity-based issues, local and national best practices for organizing and mobilizing, and community-based resources.
- Knowledge in mediation, restorative justice, or conflict resolution services/programs
- Knowledge of current and immediate issues facing queer, BIPOC, and immigrant communities and frontline communities.
- Ability to represent a diverse campus community positively and effectively with prospective students, parents, faculty, staff, and the public.
- Commitment to the principles of ethics, equity, and justice.
- Ability to provide quick and measured response to crisis in order to navigate campus policies and student development landscape.
- Background in conflict resolution, mediation, or restorative justice practices.
- Ability to successfully perform multiple tasks and to prioritize workload in a fast-paced environment.
- Excellent organizational skills, planning skills, and the ability to work independently.
- Ability to work occasional non-standard hours.
- Clear and consistent communication.
- Ability to thrive in a team-building atmosphere.
- Education:
- Master’s degree in student personnel, counseling, higher education or related field.
- Experience:
- Five years’ work experience related to identity-work and student development.
- Experience and interest in pedagogy of student development practices with a lens of equity, restorative practice, and liberation.
- Demonstrated experience in program development and assessment.
- Minimum of three years’ experience in budget preparation and oversight.
- Demonstrated supervisory experience.
- Experience cultivating community-based resources.
- Experience in recruitment, retention, college completion, and building lasting relationships.
- Terminal degree in a related field.
- Demonstrated experience in obtaining grant funding.
- Demonstrated understanding of identity development theory (as it relates to the systemic and institutional factors that support the retention and graduation of multicultural students).
- Fluency in a second spoken language (i.e., Spanish, etc.).
The employee is not exposed to known adverse environmental conditions.
The college requires that all applicants and employees be able to perform the essential functions of the job and will explore reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities.
As an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity institution that values and is committed to inclusion and expanding the diversity of its faculty and staff, the College invites members of protected classes, including minorities and persons with disabilities, to identify themselves as such at the time of application.
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