I served as the sole administrative staff person for this small but very busy graduate program, which meant I was responsible for both day-to-day office operations, as well as unit management. During my time there, the program had between 80-95 students, 8-10 faculty, an active alumni network, as well as a regular public events program consisting of public lectures and conferences. We also had a large percentage of international students, which made the admissions process more complex. These students often required extra informal support to successfully navigate an unfamiliar culture and the Canadian post-secondary environment. As the sole staff person, I was often the first point of contact with our program for these and all other students, which meant I played a key role in orienting and supporting them.

All this made for a fast-paced work environment with frequent interruptions and the routine need for me to respond to shifting priorities and to exercise diplomacy, tact and good judgement. Also, I served in this role in a temporary capacity while the program’s only previous manager was on leave, which gave me the opportunity to document the role’s responsibilities in a way that had not been needed before. This prompted me to create a written manual for the manager’s role and to substantively expand and revise the program’s student handbook. I also responded to the challenges of student advising by creating a form to help me capture all our program requirements and the key decision points for our students.

My responsibilities included the following:

• responding to inquiries and requests (via email and phone) from students, applicants, faculty, alumni and other SFU units, such as the dean’s office, the faculty of graduate studies, finance, HR and payroll
• budget planning and tracking the program’s overall budget across multiple accounts with varying spending restrictions
• vetting and then processing the admission applications that were approved by faculty, a process with multiple steps and deadlines 
• reviewing and approving faculty expense claims for supplies and travel and research costs
• ensuring students were informed of upcoming academic deadlines, requirements and awards
• advising students on their academic plans, including the requirements and options for earning either a master’s or graduate diploma in urban studies, and how to transfer between the two programs
• tracking and troubleshooting student enrollment and academic progress issues
• coordinating and sending a bimonthly newsletter
• posting and processing academic appointments, from teaching and researching assistants to adjunct and permanent faculty positions
• supporting the program director and graduate chair through consultation and administrative assistance
• supervising part-time communications and co-op staff
• arranging, participating in and taking minutes for monthly meetings of the program’s faculty steering committee
• responding to the quickly changing pandemic environment and conditions for switching to running the program entirely in person to entirely online and back again
• providing administrative support and input to a variety of events and special projects