Department of Materials Science and Engineering

The Grainger College of Engineering

Office Support Specialist

The Department of Materials Science and Engineering (MatSE) seeks applicants for an Office Support Specialist position. Primary responsibilities include providing administrative support to the Materials Science and Engineering departmental office and Undergraduate Student Affairs office. This position is responsible for performing a variety of critical administrative tasks using experience, knowledge, initiative and independent judgement.

Duties and Responsibilities

• Maintain the department schedule: Send weekly emails to the listserv and post on the bulletin board. Contact speakers and obtain information to generate a poster, coordinate the lecturer’s itinerary, make reservations for hotel and dinner, coordinate appointments with professors, and escort as needed on their visit. Facilitate reimbursements. Produce flyers to be posted. Help organize the Racheff Lecture reception and Birnbaum Lecture reception by contacting caterers, reserving space, etc. Contact speakers for Hard and Soft Material Seminars for titles. Post speakers on the roster to go out be sent to students enrolled in courses and to the MatSE website. Use Webtools to manage faculty participation.

• Arrange the teaching schedule with direct communication with Dept. Head to coordinate specifics, create new sections, schedule rooms and final exams each semester. Update Banner as needed for class scheduling. Update Academic Catalog in CourseLeaf. Organize the waitlist each semester and coordinate with course scheduling. Tasks require direct contact with professors for details such as increasing/decreasing the maximums allowed into their courses, requesting larger rooms if class size increases in Banner, contacting students about their classes requested, and giving overrides if required. Work with Chief Advisor to ensure course descriptions, restrictions, and prerequisites are updated each semester in Banner and academic catalog. Supply overrides as needed for students to enroll in courses.

• Manage Chief Advisor’s calendar. Maintain the mailing listserv for undergraduates each semester and as needed. Send informational emails to the undergrad listserv as necessary. Maintain an advisor list each semester and post on bulletin board. Enter new advisors in Banner for incoming students and change advisor assignments as needed.

• Provide main office support: Maintain reservations for use of conference rooms for professors’ office hours and TAs. Answer telephones, directs calls, and/or take messages. Greet visitors in the department office. Field questions, ensuring questions are sufficiently answered, and/or provide a referral to the appropriate person or place. Maintain t-card. Handle undergraduate files electronically.

• Support faculty candidate visits: Assist in the planning of faculty candidate visits, working with the Assistant to the Head to draft the agenda, including but not limited to the following tasks: book room reservations, arrange transportation to and from campus, arrange tours, secure reservations and/or orders for meals, and assist with reimbursement information. Escort candidates to appointments. Obtain information from the candidate to include on flyers. Post in Webtools and on the bulletin board.

• Provide other academic support: Collect information each semester from professors about textbooks needed for their classes, keeping track of relevant information including updated requirements, changes, and inclusion of e-books. Communicate information to the Illini Union Bookstore. Manage form setup for students to add their names to the list of classes that have prerequisites. Update Academic Catalog in CourseLeaf. Collect information every other year for ABET Accreditation Program, keep electronic copies, redact samples, and maintain the files. Contact TAs each semester for compliance.

• Perform other duties as assigned, including:

o Perform walking errands as needed.

o Copy classwork and exams for faculty.

o Maintain departmental bulletin boards (posting and clearing).

o Distribute campus and U.S. mail.

o Maintain department mailboxes.

o Help with mailings as needed.

o Coordinate faculty meeting lunches.

POSITION REQUIREMENTS & QUALIFICATIONS

Minimum Qualifications

• High school diploma or equivalent.
• Any one or combination totaling two (2) years (24 months) from the categories below:
  • College coursework in any curriculum, as measured by the following conversion table or its proportional equivalent:
    • 30 semester hours equals one (1) year (12 months)
    • Associate’s Degree (60 semester hours) equals eighteen months (18 months)
    • 90 semester hours equals two (2) years (24 months)
    • Bachelor’s Degree (120 semester hours) equals three (3) years (36 months)
  • Work experience performing office/clerical activities, including the use of computer systems.
• One (1) year (12 months) of work experience comparable to the second level of this series.

Knowledge, Skills, and Abilities

• Ability to independently organize and prioritize routine, daily office tasks

• Demonstrated ability to make sound judgments to determine what information can be given out, to whom, and when. Experience dealing with confidential information

• Ability to discern the importance of requests involving time commitments for the Department Head

• Flexibility to adapt to sudden changes in planning and activities

• Attention to detail and good time management skills

• An effective working knowledge of computer operations and databases