Senior Program Specialist, Engineering Student Centre

We would like to take this opportunity to acknowledge the traditional territories of the people of the Treaty 7 region in Southern Alberta. The City of Calgary is also home to Métis Nation of Alberta, Region III.

Position Overview

The Engineering Student Centre in the Schulich School of Engineering is currently seeking a Full-time Temporary Relief Senior Program Specialist for approximately 2 years.

The Senior Program Specialist reports directly to the Associate Director, Student Services, and supports all areas in the Engineering Student Centre, supporting student experience and the administration of both the UGRD and MEng programs. This position is a part of the AUPE Collective Bargaining Unit, normally works 35 hours per week, is based primarily on campus. Due to constantly shifting priorities and a high volume of work during peak periods flexibility is required with some overtime and evening and weekend work required.

The Senior Program Specialist will work as a part of a team of Student Affairs professionals in the Engineering Student Centre to facilitate student success by leading key processes essential to the undergraduate journey. This includes Scheduling, Enrolment Management, Academic Review, Academic Misconduct, Scholars Program and nominated Awards, Graduation, Deferred Exams, Supplemental Exams and more. 

The incumbent will support advising systems, technology, processes, and reporting systems support. They act as a resource to the Associate Director (Student Services), Manager (Advising) as well teammates in addressing complex advising issues and will act as a support during peak advising periods. They will work closely with senior administrators across the Schulich School in resolving student issues and supporting strategic initiatives. 

The position provides guidance and mentorship on policies and procedures related to all aspects of timetabling and is the main SSE timetabling point of contact for the Registrar's Office. The position is also responsible for monitoring course reservation capacities, verifying requisites in PeopleSoft, and troubleshooting and testing course set-up, student enrolment and waitlist issues for courses in the UGRD and MEng programs. This requires collaboration with time tabling staff across the Schulich School as well as staff in partner faculties and other student support units across campus.

The position provides data-informed expertise using data analytics tools (PowerBI, Cognos, Access, Excel) to derive and analyze student progression and course enrolment and make recommendations to anticipate future demand. The incumbent is responsible for creating queries, analyzing data, identifying needs and enrolment issues, producing detailed statistical reports from which efficient, effective, and strategic timetabling decisions can be made, and providing recommendations. 

Position Description

Summary of Key Responsibilities (job functions include but are not limited to):

Leadership, Program Delivery and Process Management:

• Support all academic related processes of undergraduate student support (timetabling, academic review, ATP, academic misconduct, deferred/supplemental exams, program requirements, graduation list, prerequisite check) for both the UGRD and MEng programs.
• Support the leadership team on undergraduate strategic initiatives, troubleshooting on UGRD and MEng issues/opportunities dealing effectively with complex issues
• using expertise, judgement, and professionalism.
• Foster and maintain cooperative and trusting relationships with the Admissions Office, Enrolment Services and other student affairs and service offices across campus in order to provide seamless and efficient student support processes.
• Support student advising. This may include one-on-one or group advising concerning SSE or university policies or procedures.
• Support the Engineering Student Centre in implementing institutional changes, system upgrades as well as new technology solutions to enhance the capacity and efficiency of engineering student services. 
• Participate as a contributing member on several SSE committees and university-wide committees.
• Work with the Manager (Advising) to interpret faculty advising policies and procedures within the School, recommending changes and ensuring they are developed in accordance with university processes, policies, and procedures.
• In consultation with the Manager (Advising) resolve any escalated student program conflicts as they arise
• Administer the annual Academic Review and the Academic Turnaround Program for the Schulich School of Engineering. 
• Work closely with support staff from participating faculties and support units to manage the program; monitor and continually develop processes to ensure the program runs seamlessly.
• Represent SSE and actively participate in the Academic Review and ATP in meetings and working groups. 
• Identify students with GPA or progress problems, advise students, and recommend appropriate courses of action (e.g., academic probation, dismissal).
• Prepare and distribute letters associated with the Academic Review.
• Disseminate information to students and other advising staff.

Course Scheduling and Approvals/Enrolment Tracking:

• Foster and maintain collaborative and trusting working relationships with the Registrar's Office and other scheduling units across campus and within the Schulich School of Engineering. 
• Communicate and inform on university scheduling policies and procedures as they pertain to the SSE course offerings, UGRD and MEng.
• Evaluate the current schedule for effectiveness and accuracy, document student high time-conflict pinch points and recommend day/time course changes to ensure schedules remain accessible to students.
• Review each areas draft scheduling submission for program-specific and core course conflicts and offer options to correct. Negotiate as needed to remove or reduce course-offering overlaps/conflicts.
• Monitor the submission and approval of online scheduling requests (concurrent courses, new topics, non-standard dates, non-standard patterns, requisites, reserve caps, supplemental fees, TBA courses). Follow-up on outstanding items and support corrections as needed. 
• Support the development of supplemental fee submissions, and ensure that they are added correctly to appropriate courses.
• Run registration reports as required by time of year (two or three times per day during peak registration periods) and monitor and evaluate course registration effectiveness throughout the registration cycle. 
• Review enrolment numbers to determine if there is a need to increase or decrease lectures, lecture enrolment caps, room size, seats available, and/or waitlist caps .
• Troubleshoot undergraduate and graduate registration issues and assist or escalate for resolution.

Systems Configuration and Enrolment Management:

• Provides functional and process expertise for Engineering Student Centre technology platforms, and provides training and support for various ESC systems including; Elevate, Qless, D2L, Academic Advisement, Power BI, Lantiv, Ad Astra. 
• Completes and adjusts configurations and changes, within the domain of the Schulich School of Engineering and collaborates with analysts and specialists in other units on campus to resolve escalated issues. 
• Plans and executes system access and removal requests for platforms that are managed by the Engineering Student Centre and can advise on which units to connect with when access to platforms outside of our control are required. 
• Examines new and emerging technologies and applications to support innovation and scaling of student services in the Engineering Student Centre. Remains current in knowledge of new and emerging learning technologies and practices in higher education.
• Maintain detailed and current knowledge of SSE program requirements, course offerings and upcoming Academic Calendar changes, as well as yearly enrolment management targets. 
• Review new and existing undergraduate courses to ensure that they have been and remain correctly set up with approved changes, and the relevant requisites have been entered.
• Ensure historical requisites are linked to current courses to prevent registration issues for continuing students.
• Watch for changes to requisites and ensure that these are updated in various systems and communicated as needed. 
• Provide technical expertise and support for new course registration processes and degree audit course requirement exceptions.
• Create, maintain and update PowerBI dashboards throughout the year. Collect enrolment reports, clean and add internal data to existing data marts where applicable, and analyze performance measures.

Qualifications / Requirements:

• An undergraduate degree is required, a masters degree (or other advanced credential) would be considered an asset. A combination of education and experience may be considered. 
• Minimum 5 years of experience within student affairs or program advising required, preferably within the University of Calgary.
• In-depth knowledge of university policies and procedures associated with the portfolio supported is required, including academic calendar, student misconduct, academic appeals and Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy. 
• Advanced Computer skills including MS Office Suite (including Word, Outlook, PowerPoint, and Excel) required.
• System experience with applications such as Elevate, QLess, Ad Astra, Cognos, Power BI and Tableau is an asset.
• Previous experience with PeopleSoft (Student Administration) is required.
• Experience working in a large, dynamic team with proven personal effectiveness and productivity is required. 
• Positive, team-oriented outlook and willingness to collaborate with all colleagues. This is a highly team-oriented role involving interaction with several cooperating departments, and with exposure to many units across campus.
• Highly self-motivated and self-managed; evidence of personal leadership, self-motivation, self-direction, and an ability to work independently and as part of a team, required.
• Demonstrated ability to work independently to tight timelines, maintain confidentiality and deal effectively with overlapping and changing deadlines is required.
• Proven ability to perform comfortably and effectively in a fast paced, highly complex environment with multiple projects, a high degree of independence, and competing deadlines.

Application Deadline:  June 26, 2023

We would like to thank all applicants in advance for submitting their resumes. Please note, only those candidates chosen to continue on through the selection process will be contacted.

Additional Information

This position is part of the AUPE bargaining unit, and falls under the Specialist/Advisor Job Family, Phase 3.

To find out more about management and staff opportunities at the University of Calgary and all we have to offer, view our Management and Staff Careers website . For more information visit Careers in the Schulich School of Engineering .

The University strongly recommends all faculty and staff are fully vaccinated against COVID-19.

About the University of Calgary

The University of Calgary is Canada’s leading next-generation university – a living, growing and youthful institution that embraces change and opportunity with a can-do attitude. Located in the nation’s most enterprising city, the university is making tremendous progress on its Eyes High journey to be recognized as one of Canada’s top five research universities, grounded in innovative learning and teaching and fully integrated with the community it both serves and leads. The University of Calgary inspires and supports discovery, creativity and innovation across all disciplines. For more information, visit ucalgary.ca .

The University of Calgary has launched an institution-wide Indigenous Strategy in line with the foundational goals of Eyes High , committing to creating a rich, vibrant, and culturally competent campus that welcomes and supports Indigenous Peoples, encourages Indigenous community partnerships, is inclusive of Indigenous perspectives in all that we do.

As an equitable and inclusive employer, the University of Calgary recognizes that a diverse staff/faculty benefits and enriches the work, learning and research experiences of the entire campus and greater community. We are committed to removing barriers that have been historically encountered by some people in our society. We strive to recruit individuals who will further enhance our diversity and will support their academic and professional success while they are here. In particular, we encourage members of the designated groups (women, Indigenous peoples, persons with disabilities, members of visible/racialized minorities, and diverse sexual orientation and gender identities) to apply. To ensure a fair and equitable assessment, we offer accommodation at any stage during the recruitment process to applicants with disabilities. Questions regarding [diversity] EDI at UCalgary can be sent to the Office of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion ([email protected] ) and requests for accommodations can be sent to Human Resources ([email protected] ).

We encourage all qualified applicants to apply, however preference will be given to Canadian citizens and permanent residents of Canada.