Director of Financial Aid

ZRG has been engaged to recruit a Director of Financial Aid for The University of Montana (UM), a learning community made of outdoor enthusiasts, scientists, artists, writers, and more.

The Director of Financial Aid will report to the Executive Director of Student Financial Services and direct the aid office in the administration of institutional, state, and federal financial aid, including the general scholarship programs totaling more than $100 million per year.

After a decade of enrollment decline, UM systematically rebuilt the enrollment enterprise and is now on a solid trajectory of growth. The size of UM’s incoming class has grown 40% in the last three years, far outpacing other four-year universities. Net tuition revenue for the incoming class has grown 36%, while at the same time UM has awarded more institutional aid to more students.

The multi-year growth in incoming students and the increase in retention led to an overall enrollment growth of 3.7% in fall 2024, which is the largest single-year enrollment increase for UM in 14 years.

Fall 2024 enrollment at UM reached 10,811 students, reflecting a stable trajectory of enrollment growth. Headcount was 6,494 at the undergraduate level on the four-year campus; 2,116 at the graduate level; and 2,198 in two-year and/or partnership programs. Incoming UM students in fall 2023: more than 59% were Montana residents, 25% of undergraduate students were first-generation college students, and 21% were offered Pell grants.

UM’s 2024 retention rate is 75% and 8% improvement in the last five years and the highest in UM history.

With this growth, the Director of Financial Aid and the Financial Aid team play a critical role in their enrollment and continuation of student populations.

• Strategically direct the Office of Financial Aid, with a key focus on enhancing enrollment and retention rates through innovative financial aid solutions and student support initiatives;
• Provide campus-wide leadership and support for financial aid programs at the University of Montana by managing a staff of approximately nine people to provide timely and accurate financial aid to students;
• Partner with peers in Student Financial Services (SFS), including leaders of systems, customer service, and student accounts functional areas, to ensure compliance, efficiency, and a student-centered approach to awarding and disbursing aid;
• Work with the Executive Director of SFS in the overall operation of Student Financial Services and enrollment, including staffing, office budgeting, and campus recruitment and retention;
• Provide the leadership to determine the cost of attendance, awarding, disbursement, reconciliation, and reporting of need-based aid from all sources; includes the institution, state, and federal agencies that deliver aid to all undergraduate, graduate, and professional students, as well as the distance education programs and the two-year technology programs;
• Serve as the functional and analytical leader in developing cost-efficient approaches for the delivery of aid to applicants in a user-friendly manner while also encouraging and stimulating the creative delivery of aid with new technology as available;
• Maintain a comprehensive knowledge of Title IV federal aid to ensure compliance with regulations and to ensure availability of aid, and see that staff are trained accordingly and adhere to policies;
• Demonstrate fiscal management and ensure a smooth process with audits, program reviews, and filing federal reports;
• Work with other campus departments and external agencies such as Vocational Rehabilitation, Veteran’s administration, academic departments, student services, ROTC, and the NCAA to enhance aid for students and maintain compliance;
• Resolve specific student, departmental, and institutional financial aid questions with evidence of leadership skills that elicit consensus and acceptance among a variety of audiences;
• Collaborate with various campus departments to provide statistics and other reporting information for institutional, state, and federal needs;
• Demonstrate evidence of strong interpersonal, oral, and written communication skills and be the…