Job Details

Assistant Director for TRIO McNair
Office of Minority Student Affairs
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

• Provide purposeful advising that identifies McNair scholars' academic strengths and challenges, gauges their adjustment to the academic and social life on campus, and provides guidance regarding the pathways that lead to enhanced student success.


• Ensure that scholars remain on target for graduation, and graduate school enrollment by providing ongoing academic monitoring, mentoring, and by helping the scholars complete their graduate admissions, funding, and enrollment process.


• Help scholars navigate the academic policies and procedures that govern successful degree completion.


• Develop and implement innovative, empirically grounded academic support services for the McNair scholars.


• Identify and develop proactive intervention strategies to assist participants experiencing academic difficulties.


• Partner with other units in Student Affairs and the broader campus to ensure seamless academic and student support services. Teach the McNair Scholars orientation and introduction to research methods course.


• Guide scholars as they prepare research abstracts and proposals for conference presentations. Review and provide feedback on scholar's undergraduate research papers and projects.


• Conduct workshops and seminars related to the goals and objectives of the program. Remain abreast of trends and best practices in graduate admissions and for securing funding for graduate education.

• Recruit, screen, and recommend eligible participants to the project director for acceptance to Ronald E McNair annually.


• Cultivate relationships with prospective faculty mentors.


• Cultivate relationships with prospective students and the student organizations or activities likely to yield future TRIO McNair Scholars.


• Identify, recommend, and supervise participant travel to conferences, graduate fairs, and other programmatic events.


• Partner with other TRIO programs to provide coordinated service for participants.


• Participate in assigned state, regional, and national associations.

• Assist the project director in implementing the Plan of Operation and Evaluation for the approved TRIO McNair grant. Ensure, at least, 90% of program participants are served annually.


• Complete the Annual Performance Report and produce monthly and annual reports on the effectiveness of the programs service delivery.


• Assist with the development and tracking of the programs budget.


• Assist in meeting the program's operational needs by performing other duties as assigned including, but not be limited to writing, presenting, and advocating for resource to meet the programs objectives.


• Conduct evening, weekend, and summer activities to ensure the participation and development of the McNair Scholars.


• Participate in departmental, campus, and other meetings as assigned.

• Conduct the recruitment, screening, onboarding, professional development, evaluation, and supervision of part-time program staff.


• Recommend part-time staff member's advising caseloads to the director or her/his designee for approval.


• Coordinate data entry, filing, and organization of student files and information Serves as a coach to assist hourly staff in meeting performance goals.


• Approve payroll for hourly staff.

• Three years minimum of full-time management experience related to the position in an academic or not-for-profit environment is required. Only employment after baccalaureate degree will be counted.


• Supervisory experience of permanent staff is required.


• Three years' experience designing, managing or implementing student support programs, especially for educationally disadvantaged students.


• Evidence of strong organizational, planning, oral, and written communications skills.


• Experience using Microsoft Office suite, especially excel features; and ability to navigate the Internet.

• Excellent public speaking/presentation skills; organizational and time management skills.


• Ability to follow detailed instruction and strong problem-solving skills.


• Ability to diffuse stressful situations before a crisis ensues.


• Ability to handle interpersonal interactions at all levels and handle highly sensitive situations.


• Excellent service skills with the ability to maintain a friendly attitude and work effectively with students, faculty and staff and the public.


• Knowledge of education issues, barriers, trends, and/or research related to student success.


• Ability to think critically and creatively.


• Ability to adapt to planned and unplanned change, fast-paced, and data-driven environment.


• Ability to work with minimum supervision.


• Proficiency with Microsoft Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and Internet.

• A Ph.D. or other doctorate degree from an accredited university in the United States.

• Experience in TRIO, NSF, pre-doctoral, SROP, or related student service programs.

The University of Illinois is an Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action employer that recruits and hires qualified candidates without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, age, national origin, disability or veteran status. For more information, visit go.illinois.edu/EEO.