Responsibilities of the Position
Reporting to the vice president for student life (VPSL), the associate vice president for business services (AVP) serves as a senior executive leader and chief financial officer for the division, overseeing financial, human resources, and technology functions that advance student life’s mission at the University of Michigan (U-M). The AVP leads long-range financial planning, resource allocation, budget strategy, fiscal stewardship, and operational planning to ensure alignment with divisional and institutional priorities.
The AVP serves as a key partner to senior leaders, helping establish divisional goals, guide decision-making, and advance continuous improvement across student life. The AVP provides executive oversight for three core operational units (student life budget and finance, human resources, and technology solutions), each led by a director, with a combined staff of approximately 80 employees. Through this leadership, the AVP promotes operational excellence, accountability, collaboration, and innovation while ensuring compliance with university policies and regulatory requirements. The role also includes communicating financial outlooks, operational priorities, and key performance data to support effective planning, informed decision-making, and the division’s long-term sustainability. Additionally, this role works in close collaboration with the executive director of student life development as a trusted advisor and strategic partner. Through thoughtful, organization-wide leadership, the AVP strengthens student life’s capacity to support student learning and a thriving campus environment.
Position Responsibilities
Steward Resources and Fiscal Sustainability (30%)
Oversee and guide the student life budget and finance director in order to:
- Provide leadership for student life financial operations, budgeting, planning, and the responsible use of university resources.
- Develop and oversee student life’s annual budget in alignment with divisional and university priorities.
- Lead financial planning, forecasting, and analysis to support financial and people-related decision-making.
- Allocate resources across student life departments, programs, services, and initiatives.
- Monitor financial performance and recommend adjustments as needed.
- Oversee financial reporting, accounting practices, audits, and compliance with university policies and applicable regulations.
- Identify and address financial, operational, and compliance risks.
- Support multi-million-dollar capital projects planning for the building of new facilities and renovation priorities through the development of financial pro forma in collaboration with the university treasury.
- Ensure capital planning and debt service needs can be supported by student life operations.
- Guide student life’s achievement of capital campaign and fundraising priorities, working closely with the leadership of the university development office.
Strengthen Organizational Capacity and Effectiveness (20%)
Oversee and guide the student life human resources director in order to:
- Provide executive oversight for student life human resources (HR).
- Oversee HR functions, including but not limited to staffing, employee relations, performance management, workforce planning, compensation, and recruitment and retention of key staff and leadership roles.
- Partner with student life leaders on organizational structure, staffing needs, and succession planning.
- Ensure HR practices align with university policies, applicable laws, collective bargaining agreements where relevant, and divisional values.
- Support leadership development and organizational improvement efforts across the division.
Advance Digital, Data, and Decision Support Capabilities (15%)
Oversee and guide the student life technology solutions director in order to:
- Provide executive oversight for student life technology services, data tools, and decision-support functions.
- Oversee technology strategy, systems, third-party technology vendor selection and project management sponsorship, infrastructure, digital services, and data resources.
- Guide technology planning to improve operations, service delivery, accessibility, compliance, and user experience.
- Support the use of data and business intelligence to inform planning and assessment, drive efficiencies, and achieve resource optimization.
- Promote responsible data governance, privacy, security, and access practices in coordination with university partners.
- Evaluate technology needs and recommend investments that support student life priorities, innovation in business delivery systems to enrich the student experience.
Support Strategy, Planning, and Institutional Alignment (15%)
- Serve as a member of the student life senior leadership team and support division-wide planning and decision-making.
- Advise the VPSL and senior leaders on financial, operational, human resources, and technology matters.
- Help translate divisional priorities into financial, staffing, technology, and operational plans.
- Represent student life in university-level meetings, committees, and planning efforts.
- Lead or support special projects assigned by the vice president for student life.
- Prepare the VPSL and the office of the provost with budget strategies related to room and board rates, various fees, and long-range planning to forecast assumptions and ensure affordability.
Ensure Operational Stewardship and Accountability (10%)
- Oversee key administrative, operational, and compliance activities that support student life programs, services, and facilities.
- Collaborate with student life and university partners on facility planning, renovations, space use, and major operational initiatives.
- Support financial and operational planning for facilities, auxiliary operations, and service units.
- Oversee administrative support for grants, contracts, sponsorships, and other external funding arrangements.
- Ensure related activities comply with university policies and applicable regulations.
- Review processes and recommend improvements to strengthen service, efficiency, and accountability.
Cultivate Partnerships and Communicate Priorities (10%)
- Build strong working relationships with internal and external partners to advance student life priorities.
- Maintain relationships with university leadership, student life staff, campus partners, students, vendors, and external stakeholders.
- Communicate student life’s financial strategy, budget priorities, resource needs, and fiscal health.
- Represent student life with university administration, campus partners, external organizations, and vendors.
- Partner with stakeholders to address financial, operational, HR, technology, and compliance issues.
- Provide timely updates and recommendations to support informed decision-making.
Qualifications and Characteristics of the Successful Candidate
- Advanced degree in business administration, finance, public administration, higher education, or a related field, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
- Significant and progressively responsible leadership experience, typically ten (10) or more years, in finance, resource planning, administration, or operations within a large, complex organization.
- Demonstrated experience providing strategic oversight for multiple administrative or operational functions.
- Extensive knowledge of financial management, budgeting systems, forecasting, planning, analysis, reporting, compliance, risk management, and internal controls.
- Experience collaborating with senior leaders and stakeholders to develop and implement strategic, financial, operational, and organizational plans.
- Demonstrated ability to advise on resource allocation and optimize resources across diverse units, programs, services, or initiatives.
- Proven ability to guide and develop high-performing teams, including directors, managers, and other professional staff.
- Experience supporting organizational effectiveness, workforce planning, talent development, leadership development, employee engagement, and continuous improvement.
- Experience guiding complex projects or initiatives with significant financial, operational, organizational, or stakeholder implications.
- Exceptional communication and interpersonal skills, with the ability to build relationships and work collaboratively across organizational boundaries.
- Strong analytical, critical thinking, problem-solving, and decision-support skills.
In addition to the qualifications stated above, key stakeholders identified the following capabilities and attributes of a successful candidate:
- Demonstrate the courage and judgment to make difficult decisions while providing thoughtful, data-informed recommendations to senior leaders.
- Build trust and credibility through transparency, collaboration, and an active willingness to listen and seek diverse perspectives.
- Balance compliance, policy, and fiscal responsibility with creativity, diplomacy, and strategic problem-solving.
- Delegate effectively and empower experienced staff while leveraging the expertise of subject matter specialists across the organization.
- Navigate complex organizational dynamics with strong political acumen, influencing skills, and the ability to build consensus around shared goals.
- Lead with a learning mindset, demonstrating humility, adaptability, and a willingness to challenge assumptions and reimagine processes.
- Foster a positive and supportive culture while bringing energy, optimism, and strategic vision to the role.
History of the Position
The AVP position is available due to a planned retirement. The incumbent has served the U-M student life division for nearly 20 years, providing steady leadership and helping shape many of the operational, financial, and organizational systems that support the division today.
This transition presents an opportunity for a new leader to build on a strong foundation while guiding student life through a period of significant change and opportunity.
Opportunities and Challenges of the Role
With responsibility for a $339 million portfolio and oversight of finance, human resources, and technology functions, this role offers a unique opportunity to shape strategy and operations within one of the nation’s leading public universities.
In transitioning to the University of Michigan, the AVP will encounter the following opportunities, priorities, and challenges, as shared by key campus stakeholders:
- Provide strategic leadership during a period of significant financial pressure, helping student life develop sustainable long-term financial models while balancing competing priorities and limited resources.
- Lead succession planning and talent development efforts as several key finance team members approach retirement over the next one to three years.
- Support major capital projects and facility investments that will shape the future of student life and increase the visibility of the division across campus.
- Guide the division through significant organizational and technological change, including the future implementation of a new enterprise HR and finance platform.
- Continue strengthening collaboration, centralized decision-making, and operational alignment across a large and complex division while maintaining strong relationships with campus and university partners.
- Build credibility and influence in a complex environment that continues to evolve toward greater coordination and shared decision-making while honoring the expertise and autonomy of individual departments.
- Partner effectively with leaders across a highly unionized environment, balancing operational needs, employee engagement, compliance obligations, and organizational priorities.
Measures of Success
The items listed below will define the AVP’s success throughout the first year of employment:
- Establish credibility and trusted partnerships with the VPSL, divisional leadership, and key university stakeholders, including the provost’s office and central finance leadership.
- Develop a comprehensive understanding of the financial model for student life and present data-informed recommendations that support long-term sustainability.
- Create strategies to address anticipated finance staff retirements and ensure continuity of knowledge and operations within the division.
- Foster strong collaboration among the budget and finance, human resources, and technology solutions teams while promoting a culture of partnership and service.
- Establish a strategic roadmap for major capital projects, technology modernization initiatives, and future enterprise system implementation efforts.
- Demonstrate effective decision-making by balancing stakeholder input, regulatory requirements, and organizational priorities.
- Position finance, human resources, and technology functions as strategic partners that help student life achieve its mission and goals.
Overview of the Department and Division
Student life assists students to find their own niche on campus; connect with fellow students within or beyond their residence hall, organization, or academic program; get involved in student organizations, leadership opportunities, and campus jobs and internships; and choose the housing, dining, and living options that work best for them.
The AVP will join the student life executive leadership team in advancing the mission and core work of the division, which includes 26 departments/units, 1,700+ full-time staff, and 4,000+ student employees. Student life’s mission is to facilitate transformational student experiences by advancing student learning and development, fostering well-being, and cultivating an inclusive and equitable campus community.
Divisional Leadership
Martino Harmon
Martino Harmon has served as vice president for student life since 2020. A longtime advocate for student success, Dr. Harmon has led U-M’s division of student life through the launch of major capital projects to improve and enrich the student experience, including the Hadley Family Recreation and Well-Being Center, the new Wolverine Village Residential Development, and the Ginsberg Center for Community Service and Learning. His passion for students’ holistic well-being was instrumental in U-M’s adoption of the Okanagan Charter—ranking U-M among the first seven U.S. universities to commit to becoming a health-promoting institution—and the creation of the Well-being Collective in partnership with the office of the provost. Under his leadership, the division of student life has also advanced strategic priorities that include sustainability, financial modeling, communications, and marketing.
Dr. Harmon previously served as the senior vice president for student affairs at Iowa State University, where he provided strategic oversight of the student affairs division, with a budget exceeding $300 million, 800 staff members, and 36 departments.
Mission, Core Work, Core Values, and Strategic Priorities
Institutional Overview
Since 1817, the University of Michigan has provided a national model of a complex, diverse, and comprehensive public institution of higher learning that supports excellence in research, provides outstanding undergraduate, graduate, and professional education, and demonstrates a commitment to service through partnerships and collaborations that extend to the community, region, state, nation, and around the world.
The outstanding quality of the university’s 19 schools and colleges, internationally recognized faculty, and departments with 267 undergraduate and 421 graduate-level degree programs make the University of Michigan a leading institution advancing academic excellence. With 676,000+ alumni, exceptional faculty and staff, and a devotion to student success, the University of Michigan continues to be a powerful force for positive change.
The Student Body
Total Enrollment: 53,488
Undergraduate: 35,358
Graduate: 18,130
Male: 53%
Female: 46%
African American/Black: 6%
Asian: 21%
Hispanic/Latino: 13%
White: 53%
Two or More Races: 7%
Non-Resident: 15%
Institutional Leadership
Domenico Grasso
Domenico Grasso (PhD ’87) has served as the university’s 16th president since May 8, 2025.
As president, he has elevated the Look to Michigan vision, positioning U-M as the nation’s leading public interest university through its leadership, service, and talented graduates. This includes establishing the Center for American Dialogue, which encourages civil discourse and empowers people to work effectively across differences.
President Grasso also serves as professor of civil and environmental engineering at UM-Ann Arbor and holds a secondary appointment in public policy and administration as a professor of sustainable engineering at UM-Dearborn.
Grasso the sixth chancellor at the University of Michigan-Dearborn. He began Aug. 1, 2018. He also serves as professor of public policy and administration and professor of sustainable engineering at UM-Dearborn
Benefits Overview
The University of Michigan offers a number of benefit options for its employees, including health, dental, vision, life insurance, legal services, short- and long-term disability, and retirement. For more on the benefits available, see here.
Application
Review of applications will begin July 8, 2026, and continue until the position is filled. To apply for this position, please click on the Apply button, complete the brief application process, and upload your resume and position-specific cover letter. Applicants needing reasonable accommodation to participate in the application process should contact Spelman Johnson at 413-529-2895 or email info@spelmanjohnson.com.
Visit the University of Michigan website at https://umich.edu/
The university is committed to providing equal opportunity in employment and advancement to all qualified individuals. Consistent with Executive Order 11246, as amended, the Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA), and Section 503 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1974, the University will not discriminate against any employee or applicant for employment based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, or veteran’s status in its employment practices. The University also will not discriminate against applicants or employees because they inquire about, discuss, or disclose their compensation or that of others, subject to limitations permitted by law.
As part of the University’s equal employment opportunity policy, the University will also take affirmative action, as called for by Executive Order 11246, Vietnam Era Veterans’ Readjustment Assistance Act (VEVRAA) and Secon 503 of the Rehabilitation Act with respect to individuals based on sex, race, protected veteran status, and status as an individual with a disability.
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