Department Operations and Undergraduate Programs Assistant

University of British Columbia · Kelowna · CA$4,981–CA$5,713/month (stated in the posting)

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Note: Applications will be accepted until 11:59 PM on the Posting End Date.

At UBC, we believe that attracting and sustaining a diverse workforce is key to the successful pursuit of excellence in research, innovation, and learning for all faculty, staff and students. Our commitment to employment equity helps achieve inclusion and fairness, brings rich diversity to UBC as a workplace, and creates the necessary conditions for a rewarding career. 

Job Description Summary

The incumbent will provide student, faculty and financial related administrative support to the Department Head, faculty and staff in the department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (EESC). This includes: assisting with the Education Plan management, determining Teaching Assistant allocations, managing and coordinating student hires, assisting with the recruitment of new Faculty, Sessional and Staff hires. It also includes supporting the Appointment, Reappointment, Promotion and Tenure process, providing administrative support for Graduate Students, assisting with departmental financial processes and organizing seminars, workshops, conferences and other events. The incumbent exercises initiative and judgment to assess and respond to issues and to resolve administrative problems, works effectively using database and web-based programs and performs general routine office procedures.

Organizational Status

The Dean of the Faculty is the primary administrator. The Dean s Office includes several Associate Deans and various staff members. The Irving K. Barber Faculty of Science (FoS) is divided into a number of Administrative Units (each with a Department Head) that house the many disciplinary and interdisciplinary degree programs. This position works under the Department Head for day-to-day department administrative support tasks, and receives supervision and guidance from the Department Manager with regards to conditions of employment and University, Faculty and Departmental policies and procedures. This position interacts with students, staff, faculty members, Enrolment Services, Student Development and Advising, Human Resources, Finance Operations Okanagan, Facilities Management and other faculties and schools administration.

Work Performed

1. Provides administrative support to the Department Head by:

• Assisting with the Education Plan management, in accordance with established guidelines, by performing appropriate budget calculations to determine Teaching Assistant (TA) allocations for each term, providing updates to Sessional faculty allotments for each discipline, based on vacancies resulting from study leaves, sick leaves and secondments of faculty members. Managing and updating required information into spreadsheets for the Dean s Office. Participating in Scheduling Committee meetings, and ensuring the Education Plan is scheduled appropriately.
• Preparing Registration Reports and interpreting course changes for Head s review.
• Managing and coordinating TA hires, allocations and assignments in accordance with established guidelines. This requires advertising the positions, meeting with coordinators in all disciplines to determine allocations of marking and laboratory demonstration hours for particular courses, as well as handling all details of TA contracts and job offers.
• Managing course scheduling by adding, requesting labs and/or closing labs as required in accordance with established guidelines (such as Faculty work load agreements). This involves close monitoring of enrolment and waitlists of courses; moving classes into appropriate classrooms (due to size and facilities).
• Assisting with student registration; recording appropriate changes to student records in the Workday, managing waitlists and pre-requisite requirements, course conflicts and various registration requests from students.
• Preparing and distributing field school course/s requirements, advertisements, waivers and restricted registration. Accounting of field school budget for Sessional/s, TA/s, travel and supplies.
• Assisting with the recruitment of new Faculty, Sessional and Staff hires. Creation of adverts for internal and external advertising; making travel arrangements and scheduling interviews as appropriate; coordinating onboarding by setting up offices and entering appropriate IT and Facilities requests; liaising with new hires to meet their specific needs. Ensuring access to Canvas and Workday.
• Adding Instructors and TA s to Student Evaluation of Teaching (SEOT) for evaluation purposes.
• Preparing and distributing agendas, documentation and minutes for Department meetings, caucus meetings and various committees. Attending meetings; taking minutes.
• Coordinating and scheduling appointments with department members, University members, students and general public.
• Responding to inquiries from students, faculty members, staff, other UBC departments and the general public.
• Supporting operations of the department Student course unions.
• Receiving and assisting official visitors.

2. Provides administrative support with respect to student hires by:

• Managing the administration of all student hires including Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTA), Undergraduate Teaching Assistants (UTA), Graduate Academic Assistants (GAA), Undergraduate Academic Assistants (UAA), Work Study and Work Learn students.
• Collecting, recording, uploading, filing and/or appropriately disposing of all confidential documents required for student hires (taxes, personal data, and direct deposit).
• Providing set-up information to student employees (CWL, PIN and UBC email information).
• Assigning student hires to appropriate courses in Workday and collecting and entering student hire duties into Workday.
• Coordinating onboarding by setting up office space (if required) and entering appropriate IT and Facilities requests; liaising with new hires to meet their specific needs.
• Providing ongoing assistance to TAs, AAs, Markers and Work Study/Work Learn appointments with issues pertaining to payroll, facilities, equipment and supplies.
• Preparing and posting Teaching Assistant positions for Head s review, and tracking appointments, including salary.

3. Provides administrative support for Graduate Students by:

• Serving as the resource person for faculty, staff and students regarding policies and procedures surrounding admissions, programs of study, awards, research assistantships, graduation, and other related matters.
• Coordinating and publicizing graduate student research seminars.
• Coordinating graduate student office allocations, and onboarding.
• Administering Environmental Sciences (ENVI) Special Topic 551 course creation for graduate students, which includes forms, approvals, and registration.
• Maintaining graduate student information database to track applicant information, degree progression, grades, thesis, biographical, financial and award information.
• Monitoring student progress in consultation with faculty supervisors and the Graduate Program Coordinator; checking transcripts and filing prior to defense to ensure that all credit and special requirements have been met.
• Announcing thesis defenses and processing related tasks.
• Ensuring that all documents necessary for graduation have been received and processed, and forwarding documentation confirming degree completion to the College of Graduate Studies, in collaboration with the Graduate Program Coordinator.

4. Supports Appointment, Reappointment, Promotion and Tenure (ARPT) process by:

• Attending ARPT meetings; taking and composing minutes in an accurate and timely manner.
• Preparing approved copies of confidential dossiers for distribution to Faculty ARPT Committee members.
• Maintaining related confidential faculty ARPT files.
• Providing quality assurance of Faculty member reports (Annual Activity Report, Annual Planning Document, study leave application, Merit and Performance report) by checking for completeness, signatures and formatting.

5. Assists with Department financial processes by:

• Initiating and processing requisitions for payment/expenses.
• Managing and reconciling a department VISA card.
• Reconciling financial expenses for Department staff or faculty, if delegated by that individual.
• Collecting and securing hard copies of all financial transactions for entire Department for audit purposes.
• Coordinating the monthly and year-end tracking and reconciliation of Department expenditures.
• Processing and ensuring accuracy of Faculty Professional Development Funds.
• Creating Purchase Orders for Unit expenses; follow up with payment procedures.
• Collecting Student software fees/purchases, cash deposits and accounting requirements.

6. Performs other related duties as required.

Consequence of Error/Judgement

The employee in this position is expected to perform professionally and make proper and sound decisions. Adherence to detail is critical. This position has access to confidential correspondence, student exams, financial records and personal information for staff and faculty. This position has access to sensitive student record information. Errors have a direct impact on student academic records. Poor judgment or errors in processing confidential materials and correspondence could have an adverse effect on the work of the Department Head. Access to this wide range of information requires the employee to exercise judgment in maintaining the confidentiality of the information. A breach of privacy and policy may have financial, legal and reputational implications for the University. Must be able to exercise a great deal of judgment and initiative in dealing with administrative matters where there are no established policies, procedures or guidelines.

Supervision Received

This position works under the Department Head for day to day department support tasks, and receives supervision and guidance from the Department Manager with regards to conditions of employment and University, Faculty and Departmental policies and procedures. This position carries out familiar phases of work independently and in accordance with established procedures; however, is expected to be able to take initiative, problem-solve, determine course of action and then follow through independently without supervision.

Supervision Given

The position is not responsible for the supervision of others.

Minimum Qualifications

• Willingness to respect diverse perspectives, including perspectives in conflict with one’s own
• Demonstrates a commitment to enhancing one’s own awareness, knowledge, and skills related to equity, diversity, and inclusion

Preferred Qualifications

• Undergraduate Degree in a relevant discipline.
• Over three years of related experience or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Experience in a university setting providing administrative assistance to executives is preferred.
• Ability to effectively manage multiple tasks and priorities.
• Excellent organizational skills are required.
• Ability to ensure efficient records management procedures and practices required.
• Incumbent must have intermediate proficiency in MS Office software which includes Word, Excel, Access, Publisher, Outlook and PowerPoint.
• Must have knowledge of Adobe PDF.
• Incumbent must have demonstrated ability to work both independently and within a team environment.
• Ability to take and transcribe accurate minutes and ability to perform word processing at 60 words per minute.
• Knowledge of University policies and procedures is an asset.
• Excellent oral and written communication using clear concise business English is required.
• Ability to maintain accuracy and attention to detail.
• Ability to exercise confidentiality, sensitivity, tact and discretion.
• Ability to prioritize work, multi-task and work under pressure to meet deadlines in a hectic environment.

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