The Dean of Students at Beacon College is dedicated to enriching the residential life experience and fostering a dynamic community among students.  Please see the full job profile.

Department: Student Affairs
Reports to: Vice President of Student Affairs

Job Summary
The Dean of Students at Beacon College is dedicated to enriching the residential life experience and fostering a dynamic community among students. This role is pivotal in leading initiatives designed to create positive, supportive living environments that promote holistic development and active engagement tailored to the needs of students with learning differences.

Key Responsibilities

Program Development and Leadership

• Supervise and oversee the strategic design and management of residential life programs that align with the educational and developmental objectives tailored for students with learning and attention issues.
• Recruit, hire and oversee the professional development of residential staff, including Resident Directors, Resident Assistants, and Engagement Leaders, equipping them with specialized strategies to effectively support a diverse student body.

Student Support and Advocacy

• Act as a chief advocate for residential students, ensuring their specific needs are addressed and their perspectives are considered in college policies and decision-making processes.
• Oversee the conduct process for residential life, ensuring it is fair, transparent, and accommodating to the needs of neurodivergent students.

Policy Development and Implementation

• Develop and enforce residential life policies that are explicitly designed to be inclusive and accommodate students with learning and attention issues.

Community Building and Engagement

• Develop and promote community engagement initiatives that bolster student interaction and enhance social connectivity across the residential community.
• Implement a tailored roommate mediation process to nurture understanding and develop interpersonal skills among a neurodiverse student population.

Crisis Management and Response

• Lead and coordinate the response to residential emergencies, providing expert crisis management support in collaboration with other campus services to ensure comprehensive safety and well-being of all students.
• Serve as on-call back-up support for elevated issues, providing guidance and decision-making assistance during after-hours and critical situations to ensure student safety and well-being.

Assessment and Evaluation

• Conduct regular evaluations of the effectiveness of residential programs and services, utilizing feedback from students and staff to inform data-driven enhancements to the residential experience.
• Stay informed about the latest trends and best practices in residential education for students with learning and attention issues, and implement innovative ideas to enhance the residential experience.

Budget Management

• Manage the budget for residential education programs, ensuring resources are used efficiently and align with strategic objectives focused on inclusivity and support.

Title IX

• Update and implement the College’s Title IX policies and procedures.
• Provide training for students, faculty, staff and administrators on Title IX policies, procedures and rights
• Oversee the investigation and resolution of Title IX complaints, ensuring a prompt, thorough and impartial process

All other duties as assigned

• Master’s degree in Higher Education Administration, Student Affairs, Counseling, or a related field.
• Minimum of 5 years of experience in residential life or a related field, with a proven track record in leadership and program development
• Strong understanding of the dynamics of residential communities and student development theories, particularly as they relate to students with learning and attention issues.
• Excellent interpersonal, communication, and conflict resolution skills, with the ability to adapt communications for inclusivity.

About Beacon College

Beacon College is a uniquely positioned national institution of higher education with a global reach. The Institution is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC) to award Bachelor and Associate degrees. Over the past decade, Beacon has gained recognition for its distinct mission: affording a competitive liberal arts-based undergraduate education exclusively to collegians with neurodiverse learning profiles. In recent years, the Institution has broadened its span of influence, innovating with leading-edge pre-college transitional programming, and carefully engaging in targeted domestic and international partnerships. Collegians with learning disabilities, ADHD, and other learning differences are attracted to our Leesburg, Florida campus from 32 states and nine countries. These students and their families are drawn to Beacon because of the community’s fidelity to delivering holistically a serious undergraduate curriculum in the arts and sciences, business, and technology. As a consequence, student outcomes for our distinct profile of learners – in the arenas of persistence, four-year graduation, and post degree employment – are... unparalleled in American higher education. By design, our traditional undergraduate FTE on campus is kept small with Beacon achieving its ideal enrollment of 500 (mostly residential) students in the fall of 2023. Class sizes customarily do not exceed 15 students; the student/faculty ratio is 13:1. In a “high tech” world, our collegians benefit from instruction and services that are individualized and of the “high touch” variety. Mastery of collegiate content and success in negotiating emerging adulthood are facilitated by the delivery of multi-modal instruction in the classroom coordinated with the “wrap-around” services and support delivered by learning specialists, transition counselors, residential staff, and licensed wellness professionals. The principles of Universal Design in learning (UDL) pervade the delivery of the Beacon curriculum and surrounding service environment. Beacon was chartered in 1989, founded by a group of visionary educators and parents who recognized that, although talented and ambitious, college-ready students with learning and attention issues were being poorly served by the “traditional” institutions that admitted them. For these collegians, persistence and graduation rates were dismal, repeating the challenges and lost opportunities that were so familiar to them in their K-12 experience.

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Connections working at Beacon College