Undergraduate Program Manager

Overview The Department of Anthropology seeks an Undergraduate Program Manager (UPM) who is responsible for independent, proactive, and self-motivated administration of all aspects of the undergraduate program. The position acts as liaison between anthropology and various university academic and administrative units. The UPM represents the department to undergraduate students, faculty and staff in other departments, the registrar and dean of the college offices, residential college deans, and other units across the university.

The UPM is charged with coordination of departmental efforts to meet undergraduate education goals. This position is the initial point of contact for program inquiries from students, deans and other departments. It is also the department locus for faculty, lecturers, and visitors seeking information about department and university processes and regulations related to the undergraduate program. As such, the UPM must be a curious information seeker with a proactive quest for knowledge.

The UPM is responsible for advising students on requirements for each of the four tracks in the department. UPM is also charged with ensuring each track offers courses that meet requirements for graduation. UPM negotiates cross-listings when needed for this purpose. The Undergraduate Program Manager is responsible for effectively communicating guidelines and deadlines to students and faculty. The UPM facilitates the meeting of departmental and university requirements by undergraduate majors in their progress towards graduation and by instructors (ladder faculty, visiting faculty, lecturers, Als, and visiting global scholars) in their conduct of courses.

Review of applications will begin immediately.

Responsibilities This position reports directly to the Manager, Finance and Administration; works closely with the Director of Undergraduate Studies (DUS) to advise undergraduate students and meet their needs; consults with and gathers information for the Department Chair on demand, including assisting with the distribution of undergraduate student advising and the planning of course offerings; advises department faculty to help them with their teaching and advising; and collaborates with staff colleagues in departmental operations. As a staff member of the curriculum committee, the UPM is responsible for knowing and conveying specific curricular items of the department and the course requirements for each track in the major, as well as overall university rules and procedures for completion of the AB degree. As the position is also tasked with maintaining certain departmental documents and records and/or generating reports, the UPM should stay abreast of extant university resources that could be helpful sources of information and data, when needed. When problems related to individual students arise, the UPM must be proactive to problem solve and to help the DUS gather all stakeholders together, while being sensitive to and careful about confidentiality.

60% Student related:• Oversees the degree progress of 72 undergraduate concentrators. Owns, maintains, and updates the Canvas for undergraduate concentrators (source of current calendar-year information for department majors), including making changes in content or design.• Manages the courses offered in each of the four tracks in anthropology major. Negotiates cross listing courses with other departments/programs that are needed for this purpose.• Manages undergraduate independent work (junior papers and senior theses), including drafting annual calendars; coordinating advising assignments; tracking interim deadlines; collecting final submissions; and coordinating grading. Organizes writing workshops for majors (e.g., senior seminar, I-Workshops). Coordinates the recognition of outstanding IW and the awarding of prizes.• Coordinates and communicates information to students and faculty regarding senior thesis fieldwork-related processes and timelines. Monitors student funding requests submitted by undergraduate majors in the Student Activities Funding Engine (SAFE), proactively informs students and advisors about procedural matters, enters awards in the SAFE system, and pays awards following established protocol.• In consultation with the DUS and the curriculum committee, maintains and updates annually the Guide to Independent Work for junior and senior majors. Works with the department chair on the annual update to the department's section in the university's Undergraduate Announcement (UA) and ensures alignment of information on the department website with the UA.• In consultation with the DUS, prepares and conducts the annual Sophomore Concentration Declaration and the Senior Departmental Exam; prepares information for faculty to use in the conferral of honors to members of the graduating senior class; maintains the undergraduate pages of the department's website (Drupal platform) that function as an online handbook for the undergraduate program, including proactively identifying any need for website updates (for example, in response to changes in university systems or policies) and implements the changes independently.• Works with the Chair and the DUS to coordinate participation by the Undergraduate Advisory Committee in department business. Cooperates with the Communications and Events Manager in this regard.• Manages several undergraduate-focused events throughout the year, such as the Academic Expo for first-year students before the fall term begins; separate meetings for junior and senior majors at the beginning of the fall term; a senior-thesis planning meeting at the beginning of the spring term; the Sophomore Open House immediately after spring break, Princeton Preview in April; the department's IRB boot camp in April, and Class Day for graduating seniors. Is responsible for all content planning; shares implementation with the department's Events Manager.• Alerts the Communications and Events Manager to undergraduate student content for social media use.• Composes drafts of written communications or documents on behalf of the DUS from time to time.

30% Curriculum related:• Independently drafts initial plans for course offerings for each semester, two years in advance, by assessing student curricular needs along with faculty availability and preferences. For each semester, also drafts an overall departmental class schedule. Continually updates each semester's course plan and class schedule according to new information and changes that occur, until the term's courses have been submitted for university review and approval. This is a complex task that requires accommodation of competing needs and wants and takes synthesis of department knowledge through consultation with the Chair and the Manager of Finance and Administration (e.g., faculty LOA, reduced teaching time, other contingencies or exceptions).• Each semester, solicits course information from instructors and checks for adherence of their course information to university requirements before scheduling the courses in the Registrar's CAP/CUP course scheduling system.• Works with the Graduate Program Administrator (GPA) to assign graduate Als and secure classroom assignments. Exercising diplomacy is critical in dealing with course scheduling and classroom requests. Proactively troubleshoots any possible conflicts with faculty teaching times and classroom scheduling.• Works with the registrar's office to keep its degree progress tracking tool updated, as appropriate, when new courses are introduced. Performs an annual summer review of the department's degree progress information upon receipt of request from the Registrar.• Oversees student enrollment in the department's courses, including differential management of waitlists and over- or under-subscribed courses, depending on instructor, student, and course variables.• Helps instructors with Canvas or other course related matters, when needed.• Serves as primary onboarding consultant to new teaching faculty. This is essential and can be very time consuming.• Keeps track of course offerings over time and alerts the curriculum committee to potential course decommissions or OTO-to-PRM conversions. If curricular proposals are warranted, shepherds the timely submission of required documents to ODOC before its deadline.• Composes drafts of written communications or documents on behalf of the Chair from time to time.

10% Other:• Participates in special projects assigned by the direct supervisor or the department chair. Drafts documents as requested. Assists with copy editing.• Participates as committee member in university projects, by invitation from other units (e.g., in the development or redevelopment of university-wide systems, or as focus group member for testing)• Collaborates with or assists staff colleagues with departmental work• Performs general office maintenance duties as a member of the staff team

Qualifications
Essential Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree or equivalent experience
• 5+ years of related work experience
• Exceptional analytical, problem-solving, and decision-making skills; high attention to detail partnered with the ability to think and execute strategically
• Highly effective organizational and project management skills
• Very Strong written communication and editing skills
• Superior interpersonal skills (customer service) including the ability to identify mutual interests and needs, work collaboratively, and create consensus among departmental groups
• Desire to work with students and faculty.
• Demonstrated ability to gather, analyze, interpret, and present data (quantitative and qualitative) for varying constituencies and purposes
• Ability to exercise good judgment, maintain confidentiality . click apply for full job details

---