The Placement Exchange Job Board

• Job Type: Officer of Administration
• Bargaining Unit:
• Regular/Temporary: Regular
• End Date if Temporary:
• Hours Per Week: 35
• Salary Range: $90,000 to $100,000

Position Summary

Working under the guidance of the Director of Academic & Student Affairs (DASA), the Associate Director of PhD Services is responsible for managing all departmental processes and program activities for PhD students in the Department of Computer Science in The Fu Foundation School of Engineering and Applied Science (SEAS), from their application and admission, through student life and academic progression, to graduation and career placement upon leaving the program. This role provides high-level guidance and faculty support for academic administration, including accreditation, curricular planning, and records management.  This role administers the budget allocated by the department for PhD student program events, and functions as a key liaison, along with the Director of Academic & Student Affairs, with other Columbia offices and key stakeholders in SEAS Student Affairs, the Registrar, ISSO, and others in connection with PhD student matters. The Associate Director oversees student events and programming, the monitoring of academic progress, and preliminary graduation clearances for PhD students

Responsibilities

• (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

• (5%) Performs other tasks, duties, and responsibilities as assigned

Minimum Qualifications

• Bachelor???s degree or its equivalent, or a commensurate combination of education and experience, with a minimum of 4 to 6 years of related experience.

• Experience in an academic setting is greatly preferred. Must be able to work with a diverse student body, faculty, and administrators. The ability to exercise discretion and judgment in sensitive and confidential matters is required. 

• Must have excellent interpersonal, excellent spoken and written communication, organizational, and leadership skills. Great attention to detail; Ability to establish priorities, work under pressure, and exercise independent judgment and discretion is necessary; Willingness to take direction and feedback; Ability to react quickly and effectively to other inquiries from a variety of management levels with comprehensive and accurate information in a wide variety of contexts and changing priorities is needed; Strong time management skills. Must have strong proficiency with MS Office, including Word and Excel and their G-Suite equivalents. Must have database query-development abilities.

• Positive, forward-thinking, mission-oriented attitude and a sense of humor are a must. 

Equal Opportunity Employer / Disability / Veteran

Columbia University is committed to the hiring of qualified local residents.

About Columbia University

Columbia University is one of the world's most important centers of research and at the same time a distinctive and distinguished learning environment for undergraduates and graduate students in many scholarly and professional fields. The University recognizes the importance of its location in New York City and seeks to link its research and teaching to the vast resources of a great metropolis. It seeks to attract a diverse and international faculty and student body, to support research and teaching on global issues, and to create academic relationships with many countries and regions. It expects all areas of the university to advance knowledge and learning at the highest level and to convey the products of its efforts to the world.

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