Director, Student Centers
The University of Houston is a culturally diverse public urban institution seeking to become one of the nation’s top
research universities. The University is located on 567 beautifully landscaped acres near downtown Houston. The
University has 40,000 students pursuing undergraduate, graduate, and professional degrees. The student population has
more than 60% minority students (African American, Asian, Hispanic, and Native American) and 9.4% are
international students representing more than 100 countries.
The newly renovated and expanded Student Centers(SC) offers a variety of services for students, staff, faculty, and
guests to connect, eat, relax and shop. In addition to housing administrative offices supporting student engagement and
student services, the Student Center South offers meeting rooms and event spaces, study rooms, dining options and
lounge spaces. The Student Center food court, Barnes & Noble @ the University of Houston, Cougar Byte Technology
Store, CreationStation, TDECU – Your Credit Union, ATMs, Cougar Xpress Mini-Market, the Games Room and
Conference and Reservation Services are all located in the Student Center South. The Student Center North is the oncampus destination for registered student organizations, activities, events and programs. Offices and programs in the
Student Center North support student engagement, student success and a variety of additional student services. Offices
housed in this building include: the Student Government Association, Center for Student Involvement, Center for
Fraternity and Sorority Life, Center for Student Media, Veterans Services Office, the Women and Gender Resource
Center, the LGBT Resource Center and the Office of International Student and Scholar Services. Additionally, located
centrally on campus, the Student Center Satellite (SCS) offers a large Food Court, Starbucks, Smoothie King, the
Satellite Games Room, the C3 Convenience Store, and various lounge and seating areas. In total the Student Centers
are comprised of over 345,000 square feet of space to support the UH community.
The Director of the Student Centers serves as the senior administrator for the Student Centers. The Director provides
leadership, guidance, and support for the department to ensure strategic initiatives are achieved and programs and
services are maintained at a high quality to provide an environment that contributes to increased student engagement,
student learning, and student success. Reporting to the Assistant Vice President for Student Affairs, the Director of the
Student Centers is a member of the Division of Student Affairs and Enrollment Services senior leadership team.
JOB DUTIES:
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Provides leadership, supervision, and management of programs, services, facilities and personnel for Student
Centers’ departmental units: SC Event Services including: SC Conference & Reservation Services Office,
Audio-Visual Services, and SC Setup Services; SC Facilities and Operations including: Facilities and
Operations Services Coordination, SC Information Center and SC Customer Relations Managers; SC
Administrative Services and Operations Office; SC Leisure Services including: SC & SCS Games Room
Programs and Operations, Shasta’s Cones & More, and Little Shasta’s Retail Operations.
Functions as the senior liaison to UH Facilities Management to support the facilitation and coordination of
Level 1 maintenance and housekeeping services, billable work orders, service level agreements for contracted
facilities services, minor planned projects, capital improvements plans, and renovation/construction projects
for all Student Centers’ facilities.
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Administers, analyzes, adjusts and monitors the financials for a multi- million dollar annual departmental budget;
works with UH Business Services on Student Centers’ budget planning and forecasting. Oversees departmentall
contract negotiations and financial agreements. Works with designated UH staff to focus on
development/fundraising initiatives to benefit Student Centers’ facilities, services and programs.
Provides leadership, guidance, and support for the development, implementation and achievement of Student
Centers’ strategic initiatives and action steps. Provides leadership and oversees the development and
implementation of Student Centers’ assessment planning, departmental and/or special reports, documents,
contracts/agreements, and proposals.
Provides leadership, direction and support for the development of departmental staff training programs focused
on meeting personnel needs, enhancement of Student Centers’ facilities, operations, customer service functions
and safety and emergency preparedness for all Student Centers’ facilities. Oversees departmental inventory
property management, emergency planning and response coordination, and initiatives related to environmental
health and safety.
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Director,
Student Centers continued
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Functions as the Administrator/Liaison for contracted lease operations housed within
Student Centers’ facilities to include but not limited to: food services, bookstore, and specialty
retail functions (banking, information technology services and amusement services). Provides
support, assistance, and consultative services as needed or requested.
Serves on departmental, divisional and University-wide committees, advisory boards, task forces
and work teams. Serves as the Student Affairs’ liaison on the UH Internal Logistics Committee.
Provides leadership and support for the development and implementation of programming and
service outreach efforts designed to foster student enrichment and engagement, and increase
utilization of the Student Centers’ facilities serves as a UH community building organization.
Provides innovative leadership for the Student Centers to ensure the department serves as a
catalyst for student development by fostering a learning environment that empowers students to
engage and participate in a diverse array of enriching opportunities.
Manages operational budgets, including revenue generation for retail services, for the Student
Centers of approximately $5.0M annually.
Create and engage strategic partnerships (student organizations, campus departments, faculty,
staff, students and alumni) that create a greater variety of Student Centers’ initiatives that focus
on the development of a vibrant campus life and positively impact student retention and
graduation rates.
Provide leadership, direct and support for the development, implementation, interpretation,
enforcement, and approval of Student Centers’ facilities use policies and procedures.
Develops a Student Centers-specific staff training/development program that advances the
professional competencies for student affairs practitioners; in conjunction with the Student
Center’s management team, set performance goals for all Student Centers’ staff, and provide
regular feedback and evaluation on performance; establish performance expectations for
Student Centers’ student staff, and provide on-going training and development.
Performs other job-related duties as assigned.
REQUIREMENTS:
Bachelor’s degree required, with a strong preference for a Master’s degree in student development,
counseling, or related discipline; requires a minimum of (7) seven years of directly-related job
experience. Previous experience as a Director of a Student Center and/or significant supervisory
experience at a large public institution is preferred. Occasional evening and weekend work is
required. Successful candidates will embrace a student-centered philosophy and the ability to work
with a diverse student population.
APPLICATION PROCESS:
Complete a UH application on-line at https://jobs.uh.edu and select posting number S003452.
Include a cover letter, resume and references when submitting the on-line application. Review of
applications will begin on Friday, September 4, 2015.
The University of Houston strives to be an employer of choice by offering a full range of benefits to
our full-time staff members. Tuition scholarships, a retirement plan, dental and full medical coverage,
are only a few of the benefits offered to employees at the University of Houston. From our award
winning faculty to our active student body, UH offers the most diverse research university in the
country.
The University of Houston is an equal opportunity, affirmative action employer. Women, minorities,
veterans and persons with disabilities are encouraged to apply.
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