Academic Associate

In alignment with the mission of Academic Affairs to ensure academic equity, integrity, and quality; the Office of Academic and Community Standards (OACS) Associate partners with university stakeholders during the intake, acknowledgment, investigation, resolution, and communications related to learner complaints and policies for which OACS is the operational owner or acts as the university decision-making designee. This includes but is not limited to university policies related to academic integrity and honesty, grade appeals, learner code of conduct, professional ethics and standards, academic standing, learner grievance, and discrimination and harassment/assault.

Essential Duties & Responsibilities:

Daily Workflow: 

School-specific case management and resolution within Service Level Agreements of: 

• Academic policy violation and appeal procedures (Academic Integrity and Honesty, Learner Code of Conduct, Professional Ethics and Standards, Grade Appeals, Learner Grievance, Discrimination, Harassment/Assault). 

• Facilitation of Independent Review Panels. 

• Academic Complaints procedures.  

• Other school-specific requests. 

Management and resolution of Executive-level and 3rd Party complaints. 

• Interaction with the university, company executive leadership, and legal team. 

• Provide written responses to the Better Business Bureau and U.S. Department of Education. 

• Regular interaction with Capella legal team. 

• Management of Red Card process and other crisis protocol implementation.

• Research, consultation, and advice to all university staff on unique or challenging learner experience issues.  

Cross-Functional Work:

Residency Support  

• Occasional travel to residencies and commencement to provide policy and experiential support. 

• Policy training for all learner-facing groups. 

• Other duties and projects as needed.

Quality Assurance Work:

• Policy and process improvement projects. 

• Employ root cause analysis and formal problem-solving techniques to help facilitate improvement strategies related to policies and processes for which OACS is the operational owner, institutional designee, or partner.  

• Pro-active support for Capella strategic innovation. 

• Maintain adherence to Service Level Agreements. 

• Identify problems to eliminate waste, improve the value and mitigate risk to the institution. 

• Collect and apply data to make well-informed decisions.

Job Skills:

• Must be able to perform the essential functions of the position.

Required Qualifications 

• Highly developed critical thinking and influencing skills. 

• Solid reasoning and judgment capabilities.

• Ability to facilitate projects and training efforts. 

• Ability to handle conflict and de-escalate emotional learner situations. 

• Superior organization, prioritization, and self-motivation skills. 

• Excellent verbal and written communication skills. 

• Ability to travel for event support. 

• Collect and apply data to make well-informed decisions.

Preferred Qualifications 

• In-depth knowledge of Canvas, Blackboard, SalesForce, PeopleSoft, CRM, and internal processes.  

• Superior knowledge of MS Office, Teams, and Zoom.

Work Experience:

• Minimum of 3 years experience in academic administration, advising, or transferable experience.

Education:

• Bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution.

Other:

• Must be able to travel up to 10% of the time.

• Must be able to lift 25 lbs.

• Work within a typical office setting onsite and/or remote.

• Mobility within the office including movement from floor to floor.

• Travel via plane, car, and metro may be required to perform this job.

• Must be able to work more than 40 hours per week when business needs a warrant.

• Access information using a computer.

• Effectively and professionally communicate, verbally and written, both up and down the management chain.

• Effectively cope with stressful situations.

• Strong mental acuity.

• Regular, dependable attendance and punctuality are essential functions of this job. 

• Other essential functions and marginal job functions are subject to modification

If you require a reasonable accommodation to complete our application process, please contact our Human Resources Department at [email protected].