Office Support Specialist - Department of Economics

Duties and Responsibilities

Student Registration & Records Management

• Creates and updates the MSPE course schedule (Excel document).
• Maintains the Banner departmental advising holds on each MSPE student.
• Organizes the student advising appointments each semester for the Associate Director.
• Identifies, assists, and/or solves registration-related issues such as student holds, dropped sections of courses, etc. Keeps the Associate Director and/or Administrative Assistant informed of these issues.
• Verifies student registration per the students’ approved registration changes each semester. Reports discrepancies and/or problems to Associate Director.
• Updates and maintains the accuracy of correlating student registration changes in the internal Access database, as well as in GradRecs.
• Facilitates the collection of MSPE student midterm grade results for Associate Director.
• Responsible for Graduate College Degree Certification process, which generates/updates graduation/degree lists for the Graduate College.
• Monitors the Slate portal and keeps Associate Director advised of the statuses of students’ petitions and late course change forms.
• Primarily data manager and report generator for the extensive MSPE database.
• Creates pictorial and website directories of MSPE students by downloading iCard photos from the GradRecs system.
• Maintains MSPE course syllabi collection each semester.
• Maintains an orderly filing system for quick retrieval of digital and physical documents including digitally archiving alumni files.
• Provide input to enhance GradApps and/or GradRecs programs.

Program Support

• Prepare correspondence for, and on behalf of, the Director, Associate Director, and Administrative Assistant, in an accurate and timely fashion while maintaining confidentiality.
• Assist the Office Manager with tasks related to three student field trips that occur over the academic year.
• The Office Support Specialist may be required to attend some of the student field trips to assist Office Manager and/or Administrative Assistant with logistics. When the Office Manager or Administrative Assistant is unavailable, this position may be responsible for leading some student field trips. Field trips vary from a day trip to a nearby Illinois city; a trip that requires a two-night stay in a Midwest city (e.g., Chicago, St. Louis, Indianapolis); and/or a week-long spring break trip to either Washington, DC or New York City. Some overtime or compensatory time may be required.
• Assist the Administrative Assistant with program event coordination.
• Request room reservation for midterm exams and/or make up classes on behalf of faculty teaching MSPE courses.
• Responsible for coordinating professional photographer schedules and transferring digital event photos from photographer to MSPE website photo gallery.
• Serve as liaison between students and department/college for convocation coordination including ceremony notification, form processing, regalia assistance, and follow-up questionnaires.
• Assist Office Manager with tasks associated with annual communications such as recruiting and holiday greetings.
• Maintain digital display within office suite.

General Office Support

• Maintain the student lounge, including making coffee and daily tidying, ordering the necessary coffee supplies and preparing Chrome River related transactions.
• First point of contact for walk-in guests, incoming phone calls, and unit’s MSPE general email inbox.
• Collect and distribute daily mail.
• Assist in gathering data and resources for the program’s webpage and intranet. Assist in updating both sites under the direction of the Associate Director and Administrative Assistant.
• Maintain and order office supplies for the MSPE office.
• Responsible for photocopy machine maintenance requests to vendor; sending meter reads to vendor.
• Assist in general organizing and tidiness of office suite.
• Perform other duties as assigned to further the mission of this unit.