The Department Administrator and Assistant to the Director manages the day-to-day operations of the Graduate School of Geography (GSG). Provides administrative support to the director and departmental faculty. Supervises departmental staff (2.75 full-time positions). Oversees non-grant departmental budgets, including the operating budget, endowments, faculty start-up funds, program budgets, and special accounts. Provides administrative assistance for faculty review committees (reappointment, promotion, and tenure) and faculty search committees. Prepares and manages departmental course listings each semester. Oversees departmental spaces, including coordination of renovations, repairs or upgrades. Oversees departmental assets, including upgrades and major purchases.

Major Responsibilities:  

Administrative Support to the Director

• Collection and/or preparation of information and data as requested by the Director (and/or Administration) for everyday business and academic decisions as well as departmental reports and requests, for purposes such as TA/RA assignments, course planning, budget proposals, and departmental procedures. 
• Preparation of travel reimbursements and purchases for the Director as needed.
• Scheduling meetings for the Director as requested.

Staff supervision

Direct supervision of departmental staff (Administrator of Degree Programs, Office Coordinator). Includes day-to-day managing, hiring, firing, preparing performance evaluations, and training/mentoring.  Approval of bi-weekly time sheets and monthly leave reports.  
Assists with other staff tasks when other staff are out or positions are open.

Faculty and Programmatic Support

• Staffing of departmental committees (faculty reappointment, promotion and tenure review, faculty searches) and participation on other department committees, as needed.  
• Coordination of Geography undergraduate/graduate course schedule and lab/classroom requests each semester. Requires extensive interactions with faculty in GSG and IDCE (MS-GIS) to pull together all required information to prepare for submission to the Registrar's office by deadline. Coordination and submission of new course proposals each semester and revision of course descriptions as needed via ACALOG for the online catalogue.  
• Coordination of AY schedule for departmental meetings in coordination with other faculty meetings and assemblies. Notifying faculty, staff, and student representatives of the schedule, and sending out the agenda and documents prior to each scheduled departmental meeting. 
• Maintaining records for the department (including faculty reviews, faculty searches and hires, staff searches and hires, TA/RA funding and assignments, sabbaticals, faculty teaching plans, meeting minutes, and new course proposals and approvals). 
• Oversight of Office Coordinator's ACALOG online academic catalogue updates with the Administrator of Degree Programs as required and permitted by the Registrar's office. Requires a comprehensive review in the spring semester and updates/corrections as needed.  
• Preparation of information and spreadsheets for part-time teaching contracts, often involving graduate students teaching stand-alone courses and/or assisting the director with PT faculty searches. 
• Maintains records of doctoral students who have met the requirements to teach as PT instructors. Prepares requests for those students with teaching experience, who would like to waive the certificate course and submits them to the Deans for special permission. 
• Prepares graduate student remissions spreadsheets for the Graduate School each semester.
• Distributes funding requests and TA/RA assignment preference forms to graduate students and creates spreadsheets and assignment drafts for review by the director each semester. 
• Prepares graduate student assignment letters each semester and emails them separately to corresponding students, faculty, and staff.  
• Coordination of annual full-day Geography faculty/staff retreat with the Director and Office Coordinator, normally occurring in late summer. Includes reserving a conference room, catering arrangements for a continental breakfast and lunch, preparation of an agenda, logistics for group photograph, and a PowerPoint presentation (with Geography staff and review by the director) that captures data related to the status of the department.    

Management of departmental budgets

• Working with Budget Manager, has oversight of the Geography and other program operating budgets and accounts, endowment funds, faculty start-up funds, and special accounts (ongoing)
• Preparation (with Director and Budget Manager) of yearly budget proposal for Geography, including operating budgets, endowment accounts, faculty workload and 2-3 year course projections, anticipated needs for course field trips, labs, and TAs, IT needs assessment for faculty, staff and graduate students, building/space assessment, including needs for upgrades (paint, carpet) and refurbishing (furniture). (Yearly, normally February)
• Keeps records/information on donations to Geography and drafts thank you letters from the director.
• Approves any statements for departmental credit cards carried by staff.
• Purchase and oversight of departmental assets, including graduate student Clark-owned computers and printers and assisting with problem resolution as needed.  Involves coordination with Office Coordinator and ITS staff.  

Other duties and Responsibilities

• Assistance with departmental special events and projects as needed (e.g. Atwood and occasional conferences)
• Oversight of physical plant issues throughout the department  
• Assists other staff and faculty as needed
• All positions at Clark University share in the responsibility for building a community that values diversity and the uniqueness of others by exhibiting integrity and respect in interacting with all members of the Clark community to create an atmosphere of fairness and belonging. 

• Bachelor's degree preferred
• 3-5 years related experience, preferably in management and higher education
• Strong attention to detail, critical thinking skills, ability to make decisions and have a proactive attitude in resolving problems and issues
• Excellent verbal and written communication, interpersonal, time management, problem solving, organizational, and customer service skills
• MS Office (including Outlook, Word, PowerPoint, and Excel); Acalog, WordPress for web changes; knowledge of Banner and SmartBuy Plus preferred
• Demonstrated ability to work independently, collaboratively, and across teams
• Prior experience working with and contributing to a diverse workplace with the ability to interact with a broad range of constituents on campus
• Strict confidentiality is required

As of June 1, 2023 Clark University no longer requires employees or students to be vaccinated against COVID 19. However, Clark urges all community members to follow CDC guidelines for COVID-19 vaccination, which recommend that everyone stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccines including booster doses. This is important for your own personal health as well as the health of our community.

Clark University embraces equal opportunity as a core value: we believe that cultivating an environment that embraces and promotes diversity is fundamental to the success of our students, our employees and our community. This commitment applies to every aspect of education, services, and employment policies and practices at Clark. Our commitment to diversity informs our efforts in recruitment, hiring and retention. All positions at Clark share in the responsibility for building a community that values diversity and the uniqueness of others by exhibiting integrity and respect in interacting with all members of the Clark community to create an atmosphere of fairness and belonging. We strongly encourage members from historically underrepresented communities, inclusive of all women, to apply.

Clark University offers a generous benefit package for full and, if applicable, part-time employees that include; paid time off, generous retirement plan, group health and dental insurance, life insurance, and tuition, along with use of many campus amenities. For a complete list of benefits for eligible employees visit here.

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About Clark University

Founded in 1887, Clark University is a liberal arts-based research university committed toscholarship and inquiry that addresses social and human imperatives on a global basis. It is the place where Robert Goddard invented the modern rocket, where Sigmund Freud delivered his only lectures in the United States, and where current students stake their claim to the Clark motto, “Challenge Convention, Change Our World,” which is the rallying cry that inspires our community every day. Located in Worcester, Massachusetts, Clark University educates its undergraduate and graduate students to be imaginative and contributing citizens of the world, and to advance the frontiers of knowledge and understanding through rigorous scholarship and creative effort. The University’s engages students in such areas as biology, chemistry, economics, geography, psychology, urban education, management, environmental science and policy, Holocaust and genocide studies, and international development and social change. Clark University’s pioneering model of higher education, LEEP (Liberation Education and Effective Practice) compels undergraduate students to thrive in authentic world and workplace settings, and prepares them for lives and careers of consequence.

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