Vice President for Institutional Integration and Collaboration en Excelsior University

Excelsior University is building partnerships with other colleges and universities. In some cases, those partnerships are developing into mergers or acquisitions; in other cases, they are limited to shared programs, shared administrative services, or shared facilities. The success of all these partnerships rests on the interpersonal relationships of the individuals involved. Trustees, faculty, administrators, and staff are vital to the success of a partnership, and managing those relationships well is key to success.

The Vice President for Institutional Integration and Collaboration (VPIIC) leads institutional integration of various partnerships, mergers, acquisitions and other inter-institutional opportunities. He/she must be able to garner the respect of institutional constituencies and must be comfortable working across them. Exceptional communication, emotional intelligence, systemic and critical reasoning, project management/execution, comfort with ambiguity, the ability to influence and mobilize others to carry out the necessary work, and resilience are the essential skills and character qualities required for success in this role. The VPIIC must be as comfortable working with faculty as he/she is comfortable speaking with administrators or staff. He/she must be able to reduce an issue to a 60-second explanation for a trustee and elaborate on it broadly for a faculty senate. He/she must know how to build rapport and trust with custodial staff as well as with the members of the president’s cabinet.

The VPIIC supports the development of institutional partnerships from their inception, evaluating potential partners, building early trust and rapport, and finding common ground. He/she then builds on the budding relationships, strategically engages others, and forms a joint understanding of the benefits of the partnership.

As partnerships evolve, the VPIIC leads the integration of the various aspects of the partnership: services, curricula, faculty, staff, etc. and ensures that the effort is set up for successful implementation.

The VPIIC tracks the progress of remote sites, ensuring that sites are functioning well and meeting performance metrics.

The VPIIC is a member of the President’s Cabinet and thus a member of the senior leadership team of the University. He/she actively participates in strategy development and execution; engages with units across the University; and serves as a collaborator, thought partner, and implementor with other senior leaders.

Essential Duties and Responsibilities include the following: Other duties may be assigned

• Establish, build, and manage partnerships between Excelsior University and other higher education institutions.
• Lead the process to eliminate or maximally minimize bureaucratic friction for students pertaining to the partnership. E.g., eliminate credit loss during credit transfer, create simple curricular pathways across the partnership, create simple processes for students to study in multiple modalities across partnering institutions, etc.
• Work with faculty and academic leaders to integrate curricula.
• Work with legal counsels, regulators, and governance bodies to streamline and expedite partnership development.
• Oversee the integration of IT, financial management, human resources, and other combined services.
• Track progress of remote sites with clear performance metrics and develop strategies and tactics to improve performance.
• Continually communicate formally and informally with all key stakeholders to ensure understanding of partnerships and to build trust.
• Lead strategy development for partnerships and remote site expansion.
• Serve as an overarching project manager for partnerships by continually monitoring and evaluating key aspects of partnership progress, including integration metrics, financial metrics, timelines, etc.
• Identify and address integration challenges in systemic ways.

Qualifications

To perform this job successfully, an individual must be able to perform each essential duty satisfactorily. The requirements listed below are representative of the knowledge, skill, and/or ability required. Reasonable accommodation may be made to enable individuals with disabilities to perform the essential functions.

Excelsior University has a hybrid work environment. The President’s Cabinet is generally in the Albany, NY office Tuesday to Thursday each week and works either on site or remotely on Mondays and Fridays. The VPIIC is expected to adapt to this schedule. In addition, given the nature of the role, the VPIIC is also expected to travel to partnering institutions and remote sites as needed throughout the year.

Required:

• PhD or other terminal degree.
• Minimum of 7 years of senior administrative experience.
• Minimum of 5 years’ experience leading academic programs or other large university projects.
• Minimum of 5 years’ experience managing academic professionals.

 Required Cognitive Aptitudes

• Superior oral and written communication skills
• Demonstrated ability to analyze and synthesize complex ideas and processes to create holistic solutions to systemic challenges
• Comfort with ambiguity and the aptitude to leverage ambiguity to institutional benefit
• Sustained emotional intelligence and interpersonal skills; and the demonstrated ability to apply it in practice
• Strong project management skills
• Willingness to take calculated risks and resilience in times of failure
• Demonstrated ability to debate, negotiate, and find common ground
• Appreciation of and ability to apply humor and play in daily work

The hiring salary range for this position is $190,000.00 - $225,000.00. The hiring salary range above represents the University's good faith estimate at the time of posting