Office Support Specialist -IMPA Chemistry

College of Liberal Arts & Sciences

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Job Summary

Duties & Responsibilities

• Screen calls and visitors for IMPA area.
• Determine needs and personally handle routine inquiries, requests, or
  problems, provide factual information regarding unit regulations and procedures.
• Coordinate with the area supervisor and participating faculty to arrange weekly seminar programs, and
  prepare schedules for various visitors to the area, and conferences as requested.
  • This includes travel
    arrangements, publicity (both posters, paper schedules, and web announcements), room reservations,
    coordinating appointments, meals, and all follow-up work for reimbursements, honorariums, and precise
    completion of all details.
• Collect and review information regarding miscellaneous reimbursements for faculty, postdocs, and graduate
  students and assists in processing in the Emburse system.
• Collects and reviews information regarding travel reimbursements for visitors, both domestic and foreign, and assists in processing in the Chrome River
  system.
• Makes purchases for faculty, postdocs, and graduate students using T-Card and P-Card.
• Assist the IMPA office with graduate student seminars.
  • This includes informing students of deadlines, assisting
    with scheduling the seminars and practice times, designing posters for literature seminars as well as
    advertising the event on the web with final approval for poster and design by area supervisor.
• Assist with the calendar for several faculty with full access to make appointments.
  • This includes fielding phone calls, walk-ins, and e-mails from faculty, graduate students, visitors, and other campus areas, for setting up group meetings, individual meetings, preliminary exams, final defenses, literature seminars, guest seminars, special events (graduate recruiting, special lectures) and notifying the faculty of scheduling updates.
• Maintain bulletin boards displaying current information on student employment opportunities, course
  announcements, seminars, and notices to faculty.
• Assist with calendar for area conference rooms which are heavily used for meetings, recruiting, presentations,
  seminars, and classes.
• Responsible for organizing and updating complex filing systems using both paper files and computer databases.
  All areas maintain files for faculty, students, publications, research, grants, budgets, reimbursements, and
  various other pertinent information. Many of these files are highly confidential.

Required Qualifications

1. High school diploma or equivalent.
2. Any one or combination totaling two (2) years (24 months) from the categories below:
   A. 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)
   B. Work experience performing office/clerical activities, including the use of computer systems.
3. One (1) year (12 months) of work experience comparable to the second level of this series.

Successful candidates will have:

• Ability to communicate effectively with others.
• Ability to professionally interact with diverse internal and external constituents, including students, faculty, staff, and parents.
• Commitment to creating an inclusive environment.
• Ability to work harmoniously with faculty, staff, and students from a wide variety of disciplines.
• Ability to effectively multitask and stay organized.
• Effective time management skills.
• Ability to maintain confidentiality in all business matters.
• Working knowledge of grammar, spelling, and punctuation.
• Ability to operate MAC and PCs, fax, copy machines, scanners, and poster printers.
• Knowledge of clerical procedures and office routines.
• Ability to use computer programs, including but not limited to Microsoft, FileMaker Pro, ChemDraw, EndNote, Adobe Acrobat,
• Adobe Photoshop, Oracle Calendar, and MathType.
• Knowledge of chemical terminology, including the ability to proofread with accuracy.