Special Assistant to the Vice President of Academic Affairs

Position Description Summary

Henry Ford College presents an opportunity for a Special Assistant to the VP of Academic Affairs.

Reporting to the Vice President of Academic Affairs (VPAA) and serving as point-of-contact for the Academic Affairs Division Office, the Special Assistant performs highly specialized administrative support and project work that requires independent judgement with exceptional decision-making skills and excellent attention to detail. The position interacts with executive-level leadership, partners, and agencies both within and outside of the college. The Special Assistant responds appropriately to a diverse range of requests, situations, and conflicts involving all constituencies served by the Division Office. The position requires an individual who exhibits a high degree of trustworthiness, resourcefulness, and autonomy while also responding positively and proactively to the VPAA’s direction. We seek someone who demonstrates strong initiative, a professional demeanor, excellent follow-through, and a commitment to service excellence.

Hours: The generally scheduled workday is from 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM, Monday through Friday; however, as an exempt employee, evening and weekend projects may arise from time to time.

Core Competencies and Qualifications

Any Education, experience, and training that demonstrates proficiency and the ability to perform the essential duties will be evaluated for equivalency to the education, competencies, and experience qualifications listed below.

• Associate degree or higher from a regionally accredited institution.
• At least five years of progressively responsible administrative, academic, or student-related support experience in higher education.
• Proven experience in a dynamic, highly visible, and challenging work environment with the demonstrable ability to manage competing priorities.

• Attention to Detail: Is thorough and attentive when performing work and conscientious about individual needs, technical and technological competency, professional knowledge base, regulatory compliance, and other details required to provide excellent, timely, competent, accurate service.
• Decision Making: Makes sound, well-informed, and objective decisions; perceives the impact and implications of decisions; commits to action, even in uncertain situations, to accomplish organizational goals; causes change.
• Organizational Awareness:Knows the organization's mission and functions, and how its social, political, and technological systems work and operate effectively within them; this includes the programs, policies, procedures, rules, and regulations of the organization.
• Problem Solving:Identifies problems; determines accuracy and relevance of information; uses sound judgment to generate and evaluate alternatives, and to make recommendations
• Self-Management: Sets well-defined and realistic personal goals; displays a high level of initiative, effort, and commitment towards completing assignments in a timely manner; works with minimal supervision; is motivated to achieve; demonstrates responsible behavior
• Technical Credibility:Understands and appropriately applies principles, procedures, requirements, regulations, and policies related to specialized expertise.

• Bachelor’s degree from a regionally accredited institution
• Command of Microsoft Office 365, particularly Word, Excel, SharePoint, and PowerPoint
• Ability to manage multiple projects and meet deadlines while handling frequent interruptions.
• Experience operating a student/academic information system (such as Ellucian Colleague), an academic operations system (such as Coursedog), and/or a learning management system (such as Moodle).

• Communication: Ability to carry out verbal and written directions and to effectively communicate to HFC stakeholders. Understanding and adherence to HFC policies and procedures.
• Creative Thinking: Uses imagination to develop new insights into situations and apply innovative solutions to problems; designs new methods where established methods and procedures are inapplicable or are unavailable.
• Customer Experience: Anticipates and meets the needs of both internal and external constituents, including students, faculty, staff, and the community. Delivers and continuously improves high-quality, responsive service.
• Flexibility & Adaptability: Open to change, new ideas, new information, new processes, and adjusts plans and behaviors to better suit a given situation. Open-minded and compromise when needed.
• Keeping Others Informed: Keeps others well-informed through a variety of means, including productive and informative group and individual meetings and targeted written communications; highlights important information in communications and avoids flooding others with irrelevant information.

• Public Service Motivation – Shows a commitment to serve the public. Ensures that actions meet public needs; aligns organizational objectives and practices with public interests.
• Respect – Demonstrates collaboration and teamwork; values diversity and inclusiveness; practices transparency; shows compassion and empathy; and remains engaged and committed to shared goals.
• Passion – Displays enthusiasm for teaching and learning; seeks diverse perspectives and ideas; creates a student-centered environment; and pursues excellence in all that we do.
• Ingenuity – Is agile, flexible, and responsive; pursues discovery and innovation; uses data and evidence to guide decisions; and continuously reimagines the future.
• Integrity – Upholds high ethical standards; maintains trust; and recognizes the impact of one’s actions on the institution and community.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities including but not limited to

• Provides specialized administrative assistance to the VP of Academic Affairs (VPAA), including but not limited to extensive calendar management, records management, and the preparation of materials for reports, meetings and events.
• Responds to and directs inquiries from faculty, students, administrators, Trustees, college partners, and others related to matters under the jurisdiction of the VPAA.
• Performs and continually improves essential routine processes, functions, activities, and tasks managed through the Academic Affairs Division Office, including but not limited to processing requisitions for purchases, P-Card reconciliations, student complaints and appeals, articulation agreements, contract reviews, and probationary teacher evaluations.
• Assists the VPAA by composing and/or editing correspondences, communications, documents, and reports. Produces high-quality finished documents that are accurate, grammatically correct, and represent the professional image of the division. Compiles monthly division-wide update reports to the President/Board of Trustees. Maintains and updates various resources and directories.
• Exercises confidentiality, discretion, and judgment in providing excellent customer service and executive support to the VPAA.
• Functions with substantial independence, prioritizing matters addressed to the VPAA, and applying policies and procedures as appropriate.
• Works collaboratively with administrative and faculty leadership in the four Academic Schools, the Office of Academic Operations and Systems Administration, K-12 Relations, and other departments across campus to ensure consistency, compliance, and the continuous improvement of academic policies, practices, and services.
• Establishes and maintains organized/efficient files and records for the Division Office (both physical and digital); gathers, enters, and/or updates data to maintain and share records, files, resources, and databases as appropriate.
• Participates in and serves as recorder at meetings of the Academic Affairs Leadership Council, the Expanded Academic Affairs Leadership Council, the Academic Council, and other academic committees as assigned.
• Works cooperatively with other Special Assistants to ensure efficient operations of all executive offices when absences occur. Provides supplemental support to the Executive Assistant to the President as necessary, assisting with faculty and student concerns or routing inquiries to facilitate positive resolution.
• Operates a variety of computer programs and systems relevant to Academic Affairs, including but not limited to Ellucian Colleague, Coursedog, HFC’s Learning Management System (LMS), Informer, SharePoint, and Smartsheet.
• Performs other duties as assigned.

Additional Information

While we have attempted to capture the core functional responsibilities in the role, the statements contained in this job announcement reflect general details as necessary to describe the principal functions of this job, the level of knowledge and skill typically required, and the scope of responsibility. It should not be considered an all-inclusive listing of work requirements. Therefore, performing additional job-related duties not listed above may be required as assigned. For applicants viewing this ad from an external site, please go to hfcc.edu/jobsto apply.