Responsibilities of the Position
Reporting to the assistant vice chancellor (AVC) for university housing, the director for residence education is responsible for the leadership of the university housing’s residence education unit. They must develop a compelling and supportive living-learning environment for approximately 7,600 students who live in university residence halls and nearby apartment communities. The director is responsible for creating and enhancing networks and partnerships across the university housing areas, and with academic and student affairs colleagues and departments to support a positive living environment for students.
They will directly supervise six full-time professional staff, and indirectly supervise 24 additional full-time staff and approximately 200 student employees. The director for residence education oversees an area budget of approximately $2.2 million and serves on the executive team for university housing that develops, leverages, and manages an annual departmental budget of $72 million.
The director for residence education must lead and develop a clear vision to create a best-in-class residential educational program that will lead the University of Arkansas (U of A) residence education into the future. The director must empower a team and, in tandem, create an organizational culture centered on trust, with all members focused on meeting the needs of a changing student body and their families.
The director is responsible for developing a successful on-call system that serves as the safety protocol for responding to all residential student concerns. They are also a vital member of the RAZORCAT team—U of A’s student behavior intervention team that provides care to students of concern across the university.
In addition, the director for residence education will:
- Directly supervise one associate director, four assistant directors, and one administrative specialist.
- Represent university housing across the division of student affairs and the university.
- Identify a clear vision for the future of residence education, create internal residence education buy-in, develop a five-year plan to achieve the vision, and communicate the vision broadly.
- Strategically align the department of residence education with the goals and priorities of university housing, the division of student success, and the U of A, which include access, well-being, and belonging.
- Focus on the well-being of the residence education organization by looking at the overall organizational structure and work distribution across the unit.
- Be a visible member of the community.
- Identify opportunities to strengthen communication patterns internal to residence education, external to other units in university housing, and across the division of student affairs.
- Identify department growth opportunities, including staff development, expectations, organizational structure, and culture.
- Enhance relationships between the residence education unit and other units in university housing by developing strong communication lines with other director-level peers.
- Learn and manage the inherent politics across the university and leverage relationships to create a safe and inclusive experience for U of A residential students.
- Empower the appropriate staff to build a student and staff training program to support professional growth and allow all employees to serve the mission of university housing.
- Be the face of residence education and utilize that platform to share with colleagues across the university how residence education is supporting student success.
- Along with the AVC for university housing, serve as the liaison between residence education, and both university and local law enforcement.
Qualifications and Characteristics of the Successful Candidate
A master’s degree in higher education, student personnel, or a related field, and at least six years of experience in a unit or department within a higher education setting with progressive responsibilities are required. Qualified candidates must have experience in student conduct, supervision of full-time staff, program development, crisis management, and budgeting. Ten years of progressive supervision of residence life staff is preferred.
Other preferred qualifications include:
- Evidence of developing and maintaining successful academic initiatives and partnerships, including living-learning communities and faculty in residence.
- Evidence of success with assessment and utilizing data to shape program development.
- Evidence of successful working relationships and accomplishments with individuals and communities of staff, students, and faculty of diverse backgrounds and perspectives.
- A proven ability to develop purposeful networks and partnerships with housing, dining, student affairs, academic staff, faculty, and student groups.
In addition to the qualifications stated above, key stakeholders identified the following capabilities and attributes of a successful candidate:
- Communicates effectively—able to deliver timely and essential information to all staff and stakeholders.
- Remains level-headed through crises and complex situations.
- Makes intelligent and timely decisions.
- Builds strong teams through proper team and relationship building.
- Strengthens individual and team accountability by delivering appropriate expectations, training, accountability, and continuous feedback.
- Assesses and prioritizes competing needs and expectations in the department and across the division.
- Creates and maintains collegial, harmonious working relationships with colleagues throughout the university.
History of the Position
The former director for residence education served university housing for many years before her departure in the summer of 2023 to pursue an opportunity in the Fayetteville community. The assistant vice president for university housing serves in the interim leadership role, while Spelman Johnson supports the University of Arkansas in finding their next director for residence education.
Opportunities and Challenges of the Role
In transitioning to the U of A, the director for residence education will encounter the following opportunities, priorities, and challenges, as shared by key campus stakeholders:
- Over the past four years and throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, the U of A—including university housing—has kept the care of staff at the forefront. During this period, there have been no furloughs or reductions in staffing. The university housing team, particularly the residence education team, played a significant role in getting the university through this challenging time. Compounded by staffing shortages and leadership changes, the workforce remains productive albeit fatigued. The new leader must pay close attention to employee work satisfaction and make essential decisions regarding the future of work in residence education.
- Steady, and potentially increasing, enrollment for the foreseeable future is providing stability for the U of A and new opportunities for growth in university housing. Plans for additional capital projects are underway. The next director will have a role in how the growth of the housing footprint will take shape, and must look at the department of residence education holistically to ensure the program can withstand the growth with current processes and procedures.
- The next director will encounter a leadership team in residence education who possess institutional knowledge that will be helpful to them. They will also encounter a relatively new residence education team, which provides an opportunity to uncouple current processes from institutional inertia and think of better ways to do the work of residence education in the future.
- The associate director for residence education position is currently vacant, which provides the new director the opportunity to assess the position and launch a national search to fill a position that best meets the needs of the department.
- In the summer of 2024, the division of student affairs will begin the process of moving forward with a new strategic plan. The next director will be active representing university housing on this strategic planning team.
- For the past year, the U of A division of student affairs has begun transitioning to a shared resources philosophy. The new director will come in when many processes across university housing need fresh eyes to determine best working practices within a shared resources model.
- The U of A and university housing maintain its commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). They continue to serve its diverse student populations with great care. The new director must see themselves as a holistic advocate for the tenets of DEI and belonging and address the pressing DEI and belonging needs through a personally adopted philosophy that ensures all students and staff are cared for. Additionally, they must lead the team to always think through the lens of DEI when making broad sweeping policies, programs, curricula, and protocols.
- Assess existing academic partnerships for effectiveness and capitalize upon engagement opportunities with students, and growth opportunities to enhance partnerships with living-learning communities, faculty in residence, etc.
Measures of Success
The items listed below will define the new director’s success throughout the first year of employment:
- The director is a known entity on campus, making a positive name for themselves as a collaborative, communicative colleague, and as an advocate for the residential experience on the U of A campus.
- They have a strong understanding of internal university housing policy and how they interact with broader university and division of student affairs policies.
- The director has made significant strides in understanding the culture of residence education and they have made ongoing decisions that impact the culture positively.
- The department understands the new direction of residence education, and the staff is clear on expectations moving forward.
- The director has prioritized understanding the roles of the resident assistants (RAs), the coordinators for residence education (CREs), and the leadership team; all positions are beginning to align with best practices and the new residence education vision.
- The director has led residence education down a reflective path to reimagine or enhance the current curricular model, academic initiatives, and living-learning programs. A new plan for achieving the goals of residence education has been determined, and an implementation plan is in place.
- The director has contributed to the design of new residence halls to ensure the social, academic, and emotional well-being needs of residents are served.
Overview of the Department of University Housing
The university housing department provides a home and support for over 7,000 students in various campus communities. University housing comprises four areas to support all residents:
- Administrative services
- Business and technology
- Residence education
- Residential facilities
As a part of university housing, the residence education unit focuses on the education and community aspects of residential life for students. Residence education offers several programs to support student success and development for all residential students. The primary goals in residence education are to have engaged and educated residents and an engaged, competent, and knowledgeable staff.
To this end, residence education works with several key individuals, programs, and departments to support and cultivate:
- Faculty involvement, including faculty-in-residence
- Living-learning communities
- Diversity education
- Leadership development
- Recruitment, training, and development of all levels of staff
- Student rights and responsibilities
- Counselors-in-residence
Residence education is a part of university housing, which is part of the division of student affairs, where the focus is to ensure every student’s success. Students benefit from multiple support services, programs, and initiatives focused on community engagement, activities and entertainment, standards and conduct, fraternity and sorority life, student media, housing, dining, mental and physical health promotion, and career development.
Jon Shaffer
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University Housing Leadership
Jon Shaffer assumed the role of assistant vice chancellor for university housing on May 15, 2023. Before joining the U of A, Shaffer led university housing at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, Illinois, where he oversaw a department of 500 full- and part-time staff members and a 5,000-bed housing operation. Earlier in his career, Shaffer served the students and staff at Ferris State University in Big Rapids, Michigan.
Shaffer is originally from Michigan and attended Northern Michigan University (NMU) in Marquette, Michigan, as an undergraduate, majoring in psychology and sociology. At NMU, he served two years as a resident assistant. He held leadership roles, including founding father of the Theta Iota Chapter of Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity and as a teaching, research, and laboratory assistant in the psychology department.
Shaffer earned a master’s degree in counseling and student personnel administration from James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, where he served as a hall director and coordinator of the first-year experience program. Later, Shaffer earned his doctorate in higher education leadership from Western Michigan University. The title of his dissertation, “The Role of Residence Hall Staff in Offering Early Warning Academic Intervention,” illustrates research and experience from his career.
Overview of the Division of Student Affairs
The division of student affairs touches the lives of every student at the University of Arkansas, no matter their major.
Student affairs creates innovative programs that educate and inspire, support Arkansan, first-generation, underrepresented, and veteran students, and contribute to their post-graduation success.
The mission of the division of student affairs is to “support the whole student by cultivating transformative experiences and environments that promote student well-being, sense of community, and success.”
To learn more about the division of student affairs’ alignment with the university’s strategic plan, click here.
Jeremy Battjes
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Divisional Leadership
Jeremy Battjes has served as the vice chancellor for student affairs since February 1, 2023. Battjes is responsible for the 25 departments comprising the student affairs division.
Battjes joined the U of a in 2003 as a graduate assistant in university recreation and has since held progressive leadership roles. In 2016, Battjes was named assistant dean for finance and administration in the college of education and health professions. When university recreation realigned under the division of student affairs in 2020, Battjes was named an assistant vice chancellor for student affairs and executive director for university recreation. In May of 2021, Battjes became the associate vice chancellor for finance and administration for student affairs.
Battjes earned a doctorate in higher education and a master of education in recreation management from the University of Arkansas, and a bachelor of science degree in education from Central Michigan University.
Institutional Overview
The University of Arkansas, consistently ranked among the nation’s top public research universities and best values, is the land-grant, flagship campus of the University of Arkansas System. The university’s ten colleges and schools enroll over 32,000 students representing more than 49 states and more than 100 countries in more than 265 academic programs. The U of A is located in Fayetteville— nestled in northwest Arkansas near the Ozark Mountains—a community consistently rated among the best places to live in the United States.
The Student Body
Enrollment: 32, 140 (Fall 2023)
Undergraduate: 27,472
Graduate: 4,272
Student-to-faculty ratio: 20:1
Male: 44.5%
Female: 55.5%
White: 71.9%
African American or Black: 4.1%
Hispanic or Latino: 10.3%
Asian: 2.8%
Two or More Races: 4.4%
Unknown: 1.8%
Non-Resident: 3.7%
Donald R. Bobbitt
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Institutional Leadership
Donald R. Bobbitt began his term as president on November 1, 2011. Previously, Bobbitt served as provost and vice president for academic affairs at the University of Texas at Arlington from 2008-2011. In 2003, he was named dean of the J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Arkansas. After earning a doctorate in chemistry from Iowa State University in 1985, Bobbitt became an assistant professor in the department of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville.
For five years, he received the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation Teacher-Scholar Fellowship from 1988-1993. He has received over $13.8 million in funded support from national corporations and organizations—including the R.W. Johnson Pharmaceutical Research Institute, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the U.S. Department of Agriculture, and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He is also the author or co-author of 56 refereed publications and has, on several occasions, been an invited speaker at meetings of the American Chemical Association.
Charles F. Robinson
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Institutional Leadership
Charles F. Robinson is the seventh chancellor of the University of Arkansas. He leads the university’s land-grant mission to provide opportunity and transform lives through education, research, and service.
Robinson was appointed chancellor on November 16, 2022, after serving as interim chancellor since August 16, 2021. In that time as interim, he championed a new emphasis on the university’s land-grant mission. He prioritized supporting student success, augmenting the institution’s research enterprise, and becoming an employer of choice.
Robinson has served the University of Arkansas for more than 23 years, beginning as an assistant professor of history in 1999. Teaching and mentoring students has always been a priority, even after being promoted to positions of increasing responsibility, including serving as provost and executive vice chancellor for academic and student affairs. He has also served the university as vice provost for diversity, vice chancellor for student affairs, and director of the African and African American studies program.
Throughout his tenure at the University of Arkansas, Robinson has consistently led institutional progress in diversity recruitment, student success, and retention and graduation efforts, while articulating new academic initiatives and development goals to serve the campus better and meet the needs of students.
As vice chancellor for student affairs, Robinson pioneered a significant restructuring of the division of student affairs, better positioning the unit to focus on student success.
Robinson holds a bachelor’s degree in history from the University of Houston, a master’s degree in history from Rice University, and a doctorate in history from the University of Houston.
Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Statement
“The University of Arkansas is an equal opportunity, affirmative action institution. The university welcomes applications without regard to race/color, sex, gender, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability, religion, marital or parental status, protected veteran or military status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other characteristic protected under applicable federal or state law. Persons must have proof of legal authority to work in the United States on the first day of employment. All applicant information is subject to public disclosure under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.
It is the policy of the University of Arkansas to provide an educational and work environment in which thought, creativity, and growth are stimulated, and in which individuals are free to realize their full potential through equal opportunity. The university should be a place of work and study, which is free of all forms of discrimination and exploitation. Therefore, it is the policy of the University of Arkansas, to prohibit discrimination and to make every effort to eliminate discrimination within the university community.
Therefore, the University of Arkansas is committed to providing equal opportunity for all students and applicants for admission and for all employees and applicants for employment regardless of race/color; national or ethnic origin; age; religion; disability; sex; sexual orientation; gender; gender identity and expression; marital or parental status; military or veteran status; genetic information; and any other characteristic protected under applicable university policy, state or federal law/executive order.”
Benefits Overview
To learn more about the benefits offered by the University of Arkansas Fayetteville, please click here.
Application Process
Review of applications will begin immediately, 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.
The salary range for this position is $99,000.00 – $109,000.00 annually, commensurate with experience.
Visit the University of Arkansas website at https://www.uark.edu/
The University of Arkansas is an Affirmative Action/EOE institution committed to achieving diversity in its faculty and staff. We encourage applications from all qualified candidates, especially individuals who contribute to diversity of our campus community. The university welcomes applications without regard to race/color, sex, gender, pregnancy, age, national origin, disability, religion, marital or parental status, protected veteran or military status, genetic information, sexual orientation, gender identity or any other characteristic protected under applicable federal or state law. Persons must have proof of legal authority to work in the United States on the first day of employment. All applicant information is subject to public disclosure under the Arkansas Freedom of Information Act.
It is the policy of the University of Arkansas to provide an educational and work environment in which thought, creativity, and growth are stimulated, and in which individuals are free to realize their full potential through equal opportunity. The University should be a place of work and study, which is free of all forms of discrimination and exploitation. Therefore, it is the policy of the University of Arkansas, to prohibit discrimination and to make every effort to eliminate discrimination within the university community.
Therefore, the University of Arkansas is committed to providing equal opportunity for all students and applicants for admission and for all employees and applicants for employment regardless of race/color; national or ethnic origin; age; religion; disability; sex; sexual orientation; gender; gender identity and expression; marital or parental status; military or veteran status; genetic information; and any other characteristic protected under applicable university policy, state or federal law/executive order.