Academic Advising Specialist

About the role

Our Academic Advising Specialists at Bethel University serve as trusted advisors and advocates for our graduate and seminary students throughout their academic journey. This role combines personalized student support, strategic academic planning, and proactive outreach to help students overcome challenges, stay on track toward graduation, and experience a strong sense of belonging within the Bethel community.

What you'll do

• Serve as the primary point of contact for new students, documenting communication and guiding students through successful enrollment.
• Collaborate with academic departments to build individualized academic plans and course schedules for incoming students.
• Create and maintain individualized degree plans that keep students on track for graduation.
• Support new student orientation and transition programming.
• Participate in enrollment events and collaborate with Student Life to foster community and student engagement.
• Conduct degree audits and monitor academic progress.
• Advise students on registration, university policies, graduation requirements, petitions, and appeals.
• Collaborate with faculty, department chairs, and academic leaders to resolve complex advising situations.
• Identify and proactively support students experiencing academic or personal challenges.
• Develop success plans for students on academic probation or those identified through Early Alert systems.
• Serve as a liaison when personal or family emergencies impact student engagement.
• Implement outreach strategies that encourage persistence, re-engagement, and graduation.
• Partner with Admissions, Student Life, Financial Aid, the Registrar, Inclusive Excellence, and the Business Office to provide a seamless student experience.
• Maintain accurate and confidential student records while ensuring FERPA compliance.
• Contribute to continuous improvement initiatives by helping evaluate advising practices and student success outcomes.
• Stay current on advising best practices, university policies, and academic programs.

Qualifications

• Education: Bachelor’s degree required; Master’s degree in a related discipline preferred.
• Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities:
  • Strong critical thinking and the ability to solve problems independently
  • Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to provide individualized service to students in distress
  • Able to communicate and retain complex information with warmth and clarity
  • Outstanding customer service skills are required, with demonstrated ability in human relations and conflict management
  • Strong organizational skills for managing complex degree tracking and documentation.
  • Able to collaborate effectively with faculty, staff, and diverse administrative departments
  • Position requires the ability to manage multiple tasks simultaneously, deal with frequent interruptions, and respond to a high volume of inquiries
  • Able to connect with students in a variety of methods, phone, in person, and online
  • Languages: Bilingual skills preferred to support our diverse student population.
  • Previous Experience in student support services, admissions, or academic advising preferred

Additional Responsibilities

Bethel’s mission is to educate and equip students to lead lives of impact through transformative academics in a Christ-centered community. Bethel’s employee community plays a central role in developing our students as whole and holy persons. To carry out this mission, Bethel uses the foundation of our guiding documents, the Affirmation of Faith, Community Covenant, and Key Policies. Bethel expects all employees to actively participate in creating our Christ-centered community by agreeing with and abiding by our core beliefs in the Affirmation of Faith and supporting all other beliefs as Biblical, responsible, and thoughtful approaches while avoiding dissension and divisiveness. Employees teach and mentor students and help one another uphold our Community Covenant commitments. As a result of these expectations, all University employees act as ministers of the gospel of Jesus Christ by actively partnering with the University to carry out its mission and foster Bethel’s Christ-centered covenant community.

Other Duties

The essential functions, tasks and responsibilities of this position may change from time to time. Bethel University reserves the right to add or omit duties and responsibilities at the discretion of the University or its leadership. Additional tasks or duties required of the position, will be communicated to the incumbent with specificity to ensure the employee may perform their role with complete understanding.

Pay Range

46,000 - 48,175 USD per year (Bethel University)

Work Environment

This job operates in a professional office environment. This role routinely uses standard office equipment such as desktop and/or laptop computers, photocopiers and smartphones.

Physical Demands

The physical demands described here are representative of those that must be met by an employee to successfully perform the essential functions of this job. While performing the duties of this job, the employee is regularly required to talk and hear. Specific vision abilities required by this job include close vision and ability to adjust focus. The job requires extended periods of sitting and traversing the Bethel Campus on a regular basis. Reasonable accommodations may be made to ensure people are able to perform the essential functions.

Expected Hours of Work

Typically, days and hours of work are Monday through Friday, with the expectation to work specific schedules and hours as identified and communicated by management. Occasional evening and weekend work may be required as job duties demand. This is a 40 hour per week, 12 months per year position.

Benefits

Bethel is committed to offering meaningful benefits to our employees including health insurance, retirement plans, and a generous time off package. Learn more about these offerings here.

Diversity Statement

Bethel University is a leader in Christ-centered higher education with approximately 4,700 students from 50 states and 32 countries enrolled in undergraduate, graduate, seminary, and adult education programs. Based in St. Paul, Minnesota, Bethel offers bachelor's and advanced degrees in nearly 100 fields. Educationally excellent classroom-based and online programs equip graduates to make exceptional contributions in life-long service to God and the world.

EEO Statement

Bethel University is committed to offering meaningful benefits to our employees including health insurance, retirement plans, and a generous time off package. Learn more about these offerings here.

Equal Employment Opportunity

Bethel University is committed to offering meaningful benefits to our employees including health insurance, retirement plans, and a generous time off package. Learn more about these offerings here.