Associate Director of Academic Administration and Student Services

(50%) Student Affairs and Services:

Admissions Applications Process. Under the guidance of the PhD Admissions Committee, and the Director of Student & Academic Affairs (DASA), the incumbent manages the admissions processes for graduate students in the Ph.D. program; provides application information to prospective applicants through web posting and query response, designs and implements admissions processes to facilitate and assist faculty review and consideration of applicants; advocates for diversity in the admissions process and promotes inclusion across student populations, including diversity-oriented recruiting programs; processes decided applications, including creating funding letters for admitted students as well as processing negative answers for declined applicants and for declining admits.

Recruiting of prospective PhD students: Along with the faculty campus visit committee, plans and executes the annual campus visit for prospective students. Handles event logistics, travel, scheduling, volunteers, and communications with prospective students for the visit. Supports prospective students in their decision process by providing information beyond the visit as required.

Registration & Enrollment: Provides departmental point of contact for incoming PhD students. Plans and deploys semiannual new student orientation. 

Advising. Under the guidance of the PhD Program Chair and their respective faculty advisors, advises PhD students regarding progress through the milestones of the program, general degree requirements, course imports, program options, administrative policies and procedures, career development, immigration and personal issues. Refers students to their respective faculty advisors to address electives, career-related questions, and other issues.

Internships. Helps PhD students navigate their requirements by the PhD Program, ISSO and SEAS while on external internship placements.

Student Life: Supports building a strong sense of community within the CS PhD student population through social events, community service and related programming.

Monitoring of Academic Progress: PhD Semesterly Review.  Coordinates the PhD Semesterly Review Process. Before the review, ensuring the Mice Record system is accurate and current, collecting faculty attendance or proxy representation, assigning room support, collecting information on PhD student status, and flagging student progress through milestones. During the review, providing room support, supporting logistics and exceptional situations, and collecting necessary information for Semesterly Review letters. After the review: following up any unusual cases and compiling PhD Semesterly Review letters. Oversees the coordination of candidacy exams, thesis proposals and thesis defenses.

Student Difficulties: Partners with Faculty Advisors, the Graduate Student Affairs office and SEAS Wellness to resolve academic standing issues, negative outcomes (probation and dismissal) of the Semesterly Review, academic disciplinary issues, and Wellness concerns. 

Graduation: Plans and executes PhD graduation event. Maintains contact list of PhD alumni.

Events and Programming.  Orchestrates and executes a wide variety of academic and career themed PhD student events  to attract admitted students and to promote an outstanding education experience for current students.  This will involve various events and workshops, including networking student socials, recruiting socials, alumni events, pre-work sessions, English Proficiency support, professionalism workshops, research project fairs, open house programs, and graduation-related events. May develop and deploy online programming, including videos.  Provides support and guidance for other student populations as needed by colleagues

(30%) Academic Administration:

Administration of Academic Programs. Advises departmental faculty and provides direction in the design, implementation, and maintenance of the Department’s PhD programs and policies. 

Accreditation. Under the guidance of the DASA, champions departmental efforts to pursue and maintain relevant accreditations. Collaborates closely with the Dean’s Office and other stakeholders to ensure compliance with accrediting organization requirements.

PhD Students’ Records Management.  Creates databases, maintains PhD student records, analyzes data, and creates regular and ad hoc reports on registration and course data. Maintains diversity data regarding the PhD student population. Interprets, evaluates, maintains, and updates PhD academic records, establishes scheduling, coordinates all aspects of registration and graduation clearances for PhD students; prepares PhD program advising schedules. Maintains analytics and relevant data on the PhD student population with regard to space requirements, and shares them with the department as needed.

Liaison for the PhD program. Under the guidance of the PhD Program Chair and DASA, Communicate with faculty regarding processes and exceptions; liaise with SEAS Student Affairs; provide external and internal point of contact regarding challenges for PhD students with regard to immigration, housing, personal emergencies, and DEI

(15%) Reporting and Data Analysis 

Provides semesterly student registration reporting for the administrative team used to verify that  student officer appointments match registration types

Runs reports to help the finance unit in the department to determine if faculty advisors qualify to draw student support from departmental financial programs (ie, ER Pilot, Free TA etc.)

Updates departmental database (MICE) with relevant student academic information

Compiles and uploads academic survey data

Reconciles and reports program academic progress for administrative/faculty advisor review