Retention Advisor

Purpose

The Retention Advisor owns the highest-risk window of the student journey — the middle of the program, where most attrition occurs. Working in Pod 2 (Persistence & Intervention) of the Student Success & Progression lifecycle model, this is a crisis-intervention and academic-recovery role focused on keeping students enrolled and progressing through SAP challenges, course failures, and life disruptions. The mandate is to convert would-be withdrawals into documented recoveries or approved pauses, and to reach students before the last date of attendance rather than after the drop. The role serves students in both Campus and Online modalities; Pod assignment is by journey phase, not modality. Responsibilities, performance metrics, and owned procedures are drawn from the Student Success & Progression Institutional Policy, SOP & Implementation Manual.

  Essential Duties & Responsibilities (those that must be performed with or without an ADA Accommodation):

• Manage the SAP Warning and Probation caseload and build a documented Academic Recovery Plan for each student (SSP-P-06, SSP-S-03).
• Process course withdrawals and Interruption of Training (IOT), converting avoidable withdrawals into approved pauses with a defined re-entry pod (SSP-P-07).
• Run midpoint GPA intervention and re-engagement campaigns; work the MIA list daily from the 7-day non-participation trigger (SSP-P-05, SSP-S-02).
• Contact every at-risk student in the caseload weekly and document the attempt.
• Conduct synchronous video recovery check-ins and monitor GPA and attendance signals continuously.
• Participate in the Weekly At-Risk Student Review and trigger recovery mechanics for failed courses (SSP-S-05).
• Log 100% of contacts in the SIS the same day and execute clean handoffs into and out of Pod 2 (SSP-S-04, SSP-S-08).
• Meet Pod 2 accountability KPIs — retention rate, term completion, SAP Probation recovery, and MIA/at-risk contact coverage — as defined in the SSP scorecard framework (SSP-P-04).
• Follow owned SOPs: SSP-S-03 SAP Warning/Probation Intervention, SSP-S-02 MIA Outreach & Re-Engagement, SSP-S-05 Weekly At-Risk Student Review, SSP-S-04 POD Handoff Checklist, and SSP-S-08 Metric Logging & Scorecard Maintenance.

Non-Essential Duties & Responsibilities (those that must be performed with or without an ADA Accommodation):

The following are performed by this role but are not essential functions. They may be reassigned, redistributed, or removed without fundamentally altering the position. They are not used as hiring criteria and are not scored in performance review. An employee may request reassignment or removal of any function in this section as a reasonable accommodation.

• Facilitating or co-facilitating student workshops on study skills, time management, and academic recovery.
• Contributing to intervention scripts, recovery-plan templates, and outreach language.
• Case consultation and peer coaching for newer advisors.
• Assembling documentation samples for internal audit or ACCSC evidence requests.
• Pilot and acceptance testing of early-alert or predictive student-success tools.
• Temporary coverage of another Pod 2 advisor's caseload during planned absence.
• Representing Student Success & Progression in cross-functional working groups, including scheduling, catalog, and 5-Block implementation, when advising input is requested.
• Supporting re-engagement campaigns for previously withdrawn or IOT students outside the current caseload.
• Attending commencement and other institutional events.

Other Responsibilities:

• Other duties as assigned by Manager, provided they do not displace or materially reduce capacity for the essential functions of the role.

Supervisory Responsibilities

None

Competencies | Knowledge | Skills | Abilities:

• Intervention and de-escalation.
• Resilience under pressure.
• Analytical triage — prioritizing across a high-risk caseload.
• Documentation rigor.
• Persistent, empathetic outreach.

Education | Experience:

• Required: Bachelor's degree.
• Required: 2–3 years in retention, academic advising, case management, or crisis-intervention and student-support roles.
• Required: Demonstrated ability to stay calm under pressure and manage a high-stakes, high-volume caseload.
• Required: Data-driven approach to identifying and prioritizing at-risk students, with comfort building and documenting recovery plans.
• Preferred: Working knowledge of Satisfactory Academic Progress and Title IV implications.
• Preferred: Experience with at-risk, first-generation, or non-traditional student populations.
• Preferred: Familiarity with early-alert or predictive student-success platforms.
• Preferred: Motivational-interviewing or coaching training; bilingual (English/Spanish) a plus.

Computer Skills:

• Proficiency with a Student Information System (CampusVue/Anthology) with cross-modality capability across Campus and Online.
• Preferred: familiarity with early-alert or predictive student-success platforms.

Environmental Factors (are those that are required and performed with or without an accommodation):

Standard office environment with phone, text, and video advising; home-base location does not limit the students advised. Highest-intensity pod by caseload risk, with a sustained outbound and synchronous advising load and some schedule flexibility to reach students in crisis windows.

Physical Demands (are those that are required and performed with or without an accommodation):

• Ability to sit and work at a computer for extended periods.
• Frequent use of a computer, keyboard, mouse, and other office equipment.
• Ability to communicate verbally and in writing.
• Occasional standing, walking, bending, reaching, and lifting/carrying of office materials or equipment as needed.
• Ability to perform the essential functions of the position with or without reasonable accommodation.

Emotional & Mental Demands (are those that are required and performed with or without an accommodation):

• Sustained exposure to student distress. Mid-program students are frequently in academic, financial, medical, or personal crisis, often several at once; exposure is continuous rather than occasional.
• Persistence in the face of avoidance. Students in SAP jeopardy commonly disengage, deflect, or go silent precisely when contact matters most, requiring continued non-punitive outreach to students who are actively avoiding it.
• Delivering unwelcome information without distortion. Communicating probation status, financial-aid consequences, and withdrawal implications accurately, without softening the facts to reduce discomfort and without escalating alarm.
• Emotional regulation under conflict. Absorbing frustration, anger, or blame directed at the advisor or the institution while continuing to advocate for the student and remaining factually accurate.
• Continuous triage under finite time. Repeatedly prioritizing among students who are all genuinely at risk, and accepting that prioritization means some students receive less attention in a given week.
• Recovery from unsuccessful outcomes. Some students withdraw despite sound intervention. The role requires carrying that result without disengaging from the next case and without absorbing it as personal failure.
• Boundary discipline under sustained empathy. Maintaining care for the student while leaving ownership of the student's decisions with the student.

• Boundary of the role. This is not a counseling or clinical position. Academic recovery planning is in scope; mental-health treatment, crisis counseling, and adjudication of complaints are not — recognizing that line and escalating rather than absorbing is an essential function of the role.

This is not necessarily an all-inclusive list of job-related responsibilities, duties, skills, efforts, requirements or working conditions. While this is intended to be an accurate reflection of the current job, management reserves the right to revise the job or to require that other or different tasks be performed as assigned.