YORK UNIVERSITY Position Description -YUSA 2
Position Title: Research Administrator
Department: The City Institute at York University (CITY)
Term of Employment: Contract — one year
Band Level / Rate of Pay: $19.87/hour
Hours of Work: 23 hours per week (schedule to be determined once hired), 4 days per week
Reports to: Anna Gordon, HR Business Partner, Office of the Vice President Research and Innovation
*Send cover letter and resume to Lia Cavaliere (lia@yorku.ca) by Thursday January 21 at 4:30 pm.
Job Purpose
The Research Administrator will be responsible for providing secretarial and administrative support to the City Institute at York University (CITY) and CITY’s research projects.
Established in 2006, the City Institute brings together the university’s urban scholars conducting both applied and theoretical research across a broad range of fields and throughout each of its Faculties. For information about CITY, see www.yorku.ca/city.
The Research Administrator will be providing support to the “Global Suburbanisms” Research Project (www.yorku.ca/suburbs). This multi-year international, comparative research project seeks to better understand the challenges suburbanization poses in a globalizing world. It involves a network of academics, policy makers and community stakeholders based in Asia, Africa, Europe and the Americas.
Job Duties:
A. Financial administration
• Responsible for general accounting, including set up of honoraria, bursaries, accountable advances, ETFs, and journal transfers. Prepares a variety of financial forms including purchase orders, cheque requisitions, expense reimbursements, wire transfers and payment of accounts. • In consultation with the CITY’s Coordinator, prepares, reviews and reconciles monthly, quarterly and annual financial reports. Assists with the preparation of budgets and compiles data for forecasts in accordance with specific guidelines and requirements of York and external funding agencies. Monitors budgets by maintaining records of all transactions. Reconciles budgets and informs CITY’s Coordinator of discrepancies and follows-up to resolve problems.
• Monitors CITY’s operating and project accounts budget expenditures.
• Liaises with the Finance Department, Research Accounting, Payroll and external funding/accounting departments.
B. Programmatic
• Assists with the coordination and logistics of CITY’s conferences, workshops, meetings and other events, ensuring that appropriate arrangements including correspondence with the presenters, room bookings, catering, accommodation, audio visual equipment, advertising, travel, etc. are made.
• Assists with the preparation and distribution of event materials such as posters, programs and handouts.
• Assists with managing the Institute’s communication strategy including updating both CITY and the MCRI’s websites, updating social media (Facebook and Twitter) for the “Global Suburbanisms” project and creating flyers, brochures and other promotional material.
• Assists with managing conference and other event financing, including the receiving and depositing of payments and payment of event expenses.
C. Office administration
• Responsible for preparing correspondence; provision of information to researchers, partner organizations, students, affiliated universities, committees and advisory boards.
• Arranges for technical support for members in residence at the City Institute including calls for maintenance of the office equipment; orders paper and printer toner cartridges, as needed.
• Makes arrangements for CITY’s visiting scholars including setting up computer accounts, preparing letters to grant access to York’s libraries and arranging for swipe cards/keys.
• Assists with informational requests from affiliated faculty members, staff, and students including maintaining up-date membership information, researching information, resources, and contacts to support affiliated activities.
• In consultation with the Director of CITY or the PI of the “Global Suburbanisms” project, provides support in preparing research project and conference funding proposals, such as copy editing applications.
• Schedules meetings, takes notes and prepares/distributes minutes for City Institute or research project meetings.
• In consultation with the Coordinator, assists with preparing reports such as an annual activity report for the City Institute, or reports to granting agencies of research project activities.
D. Other responsibilities as assigned
Educational Requirements
Minimum of two years of post-secondary education related to Business administration, Environmental Studies, Urban Studies, Urban Planning or Geography would be an asset or equivalent work experience.
Experience Requirements
Minimum of two years of recent related administrative experience including maintaining and reconciling budgets and event coordination in an educational or non-profit environment preferred.
Required Technical Skills
• Experience working with electronic mail and scheduling applications.
• Intermediate knowledge of MS Office (Word, PowerPoint and Excel).
• Experience working with various computer applications (i.e. WordPress, Photoshop etc.) to develop promotional material and maintain websites etc is required. Graphic design skills would be an asset, but is not required.
Required Skills
• Excellent oral and written communication skills to elicit and interpret information from a variety of sources;
• Strong financial administration skills (spreadsheet bookkeeping and reporting);
• Demonstrated ability to organize events with a wide array of constituent groups;
• Ability to work as a member of an inter-disciplinary team and independently to identify and accomplish project(s) objectives;
• Flexibility and adaptability;
• Self-directed with demonstrated initiative;
• Minute taking skills;
• Excellent organizational skills, including ability to multitask, set priorities and meet tight deadlines;
• High level of accuracy and excellent attention to detail;
• Ability to maintain confidentiality.
