Standard Job Description

A standard job description describes work at a high level and connects UW job titles to similar job titles in the market. It is a general set of responsibilities, without regard to any specific employee, that describes the work an employee performs and their role and impact to the organization.

Salary information for jobs outside of salary ranges 15-35 is located on the UW System Compensation Appendices webpage.

Title Details
Job TitleRetention Specialist
Job CodeAE107
Scaled JobNo
Salary Grade18
Family NameAcademic Services and Student Experience
Sub Family NameAcademic Advising
Job Overview
Job SummaryOversees retention and/or transfer efforts for students who are considered at risk of failing, dropping out of school, or transferring to another school or program. Serves as a resource to faculty, staff, and students.
Job Responsibilities
  • Partners with academic advisors, faculty, staff, students, and administrative personnel to track analytics, and help identify risk indicators to support data-informed retention and transfer strategies
  • Monitors, plans, and facilitates student academic progress, student programming, and success plans
  • Makes recommendations to improve retention efforts
  • Advocates for campus-wide retention initiatives
  • Provides referrals to appropriate campus resources
  • Maintains accurate student records including contact logs, case notes, and files
  • Adheres to the established plan of operation, curriculum, process policy, program procedures, and all other related federal regulations
  • Communicates, assists, and monitors progress of students
  • May assist with Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) completion and/or provide financial aid/scholarship information
Additional Information
Employee CategoryAcademic Staff (AS)
Supervision RequiredNo
FLSA ExemptExempt
Education*Bachelor's Degree - Preferred Minimum

*All preferred education can be fulfilled with comparable experience, unless education is listed as required for the job.

Scaled Jobs in the Library

The title and salary structure continues the idea of creating additional job titles for some jobs found systemwide or university-wide based on a small, medium, and large designation. We call this scaling. If there is a scaled job available, universities should choose that job for their employees.

  • Scaling is not title progression.
  • Scaling is a type of further refining the market pricing for a job.
  • For example,

    Title

    TTC Title

    ASSOC DIR, ATHL/L

    Athletics Assoc Dir

    ASSOC DIR, ATHL/M

    Athletics Assoc Dir (B)

    ASSOC DIR, ATHL/S

    Athletics Assoc Dir (C)

Key

Institution Scale
System A – no ( )
Milwaukee A – no ( )
Eau Claire (B)
La Crosse (B)
Oshkosh (B)
Platteville (B)
Stevens Point (B)
Stout (B)
Whitewater (B)
Green Bay (C)
River Falls (C)
Parkside (C)
Superior (C)

Scale is based on the size and budget of a university.

(Inst)

(Inst) typically designates institution-wide or systemwide scope and a non-institution version of the same job title typically indicates use at a School/College/Division/Department-level.

Minimum Education Requirements

The minimum preferred education represent the systemwide shared minimum elements of each job description. When posting for an open position, universities can add additional requirements or preferences to their specific recruitment.

[updateD September 12, 2022]