Departmental Assistant

St. Thomas University; Fredericton; On-site; CAD 39,000 - 54,000; Full time

Job summary

St. Thomas University in Fredericton, NB, is seeking a Departmental Assistant to provide administrative, secretarial, and clerical support for multiple departments.

This permanent, full-time role offers a 35-hour work week and a salary range of CAD 39,058–53,841. The position requires a relevant college/university program with at least two years of automated office experience, strong MS Word and spreadsheet skills, and excellent communication and organization abilities.

Qualifications

• Two years of experience in a professional, automated office environment.
• Knowledge of administrative practices relating to academic departments.
• Excellent oral and written communication, interpersonal, and customer service skills.
• High level of accuracy and strong attention to detail.
• Ability to coordinate workflow and ensure tasks are completed efficiently.

Responsibilities

• Develop office practices and procedures to improve productivity and efficiency.
• Maintain manual and computerized filing systems and prepare specialized reports as requested.
• Distribute and track mail; organize couriers, faxes, etc.
• Act as receptionist, handle calls and inquiries from faculty, visitors and students.
• Maintain schedules and circulate agendas/minutes; schedule meetings.
• Assist with course materials preparation, attendance sheets, and course allocations data entry.
• Prepare letters, memoranda and reports; review for accuracy and consistency.
• Assist with External Reviews and hiring processes, including travel coordination and file management.
• Prepare promotional materials for department events and coordinate speaker/venue logistics.
• Order office supplies and operate/guide others on office equipment and internal systems.

Skills

Office administration

Communication

Microsoft Word

Spreadsheets

Customer service

Independent work

Education

Relevant college or university program

Tools

Colleague

Ellucian

Job description

Reporting to the Dean of Humanities and Dean of Social Sciences, the Departmental Assistant provides administrative, secretarial, and clerical support for all faculty members in the Anthropology, Biology, Business and Social Entrepreneurship, Catholic Studies, Economics, Human Rights, Math, Religious Studies, Romance Languages, & Sustainability and Environmental Studies. The Departmental Assistant also provides administrative support to CRC's in these Departments / programs and assists other university departments as needed.

Position Type: Permanent, Full-Time

Hours of Work: 35 hours per week

Classification: Band 1

Salary Range: $39,058 - 53,841

Closting Date: Wednesday, October 28, 2026

Qualifications

• Graduate of a recognized, relevant, community college or university program combined with a minimum of two years of experience in a professional, automated office environment, or an equivalent combination of education and experience.
• Knowledge of administrative practices and processes relating to academic departments.
• Exceptional oral and written communication, interpersonal and customer service skills.
• High level of accuracy and strong attention to detail.
• Ability to coordinate workflow of the office to ensure tasks are completed efficiently and in a timely manner.
• Ability to work independently with minimal supervision, to begin or to follow through with a plan or task without being promoted.
• Judgement is required to assess situations; solutions sought must meet standard procedures or precedents that are well defined.
• Knowledge of modern office equipment and software packages, especially the Microsoft Word suite.
• Should have experience with word processing and spreadsheet programs.

Responsibilities

• Develop office practices and procedures to contribute to the productivity and efficiency of the office- i.e. organize and expedite flow of work through the office and initiates follow-up action.
• Maintains manual filing system and computerized filing system of word processing files. Enters, manipulates and retrieves data to prepare specialized reports as requested.
• Distributes, copies, and tracks incoming mail; organizes outgoing mail, couriers, faxes, etc.
• Acts as a receptionist, answering the telephone, relaying messages, and dealing with faculty, visitors and students.
• Inputs and maintains computerized spreadsheet/ledgers of Anthropology, Biology, Business and Social Entrepreneurship, Catholic Studies, Economics, Human Rights, Math, Religious Studies, Romance Languages, & Sustainability and Environmental Studies as required.
• Keeps up-to-date schedule of faculty office and class hours; schedules meetings and circulates agenda and minutes as required.
• Assist faculty members with preparation of course materials which includes typing course outlines, scanning and photocopying materials for distribution to students, preparing class attendance sheets.
• Assists with the course allocation process by ensuring that data is entered into the online course allocations timetable.
• Types correspondence, minutes, reports, and other documents from written drafts. Composes routine letters and memoranda based on general instructions, and reviews and edits correspondence and reports for accuracy and consistency. Materials may be confidential in nature.
• Assists the departments in the preparation of External Reviews, as well as full and part-time hires. Both activities require help with administrative and logistical aspects including being the first point of contact for organizing travel, booking meetings, maintaining files and records, etc.
• Prepares promotional materials (newsletters, posters, etc.) for Department/faculty sponsored events from specific instructions. This may include assisting faculty members with speaker and performance presentations and conference organization (which could involve constructing and maintaining mailing lists, arranging catering and facilities, etc.).
• Orders office supplies from Facilities Management for faculty.
• Operates and assists others with the operation of office equipment. May occasionally give guidance to others on internal systems (i.e. Colleague, Ellucian).
• Provides administrative support for CRC's associated with Anthropology, Biology, Business and Social Entrepreneurship, Catholic Studies, Economics, Human Rights, Math, Religious Studies, Romance Languages, & Sustainability and Environmental Studies.
• Performs related duties for other academic departments when required.

• Regular requirement to work under pressure to meet deadlines.
• Frequent interruptions (phone calls, emails, faculty and students walk ins) that come from working in a public office.
• Need to manage daily operations independently, while at the same being aware of and simultaneously managing a variety of activities and requests.
• Conflicting demands, work volume and quantity of information may cause stress.
• Occasionally required to deal with minor conflicts and complaints with tact and patience but difficult and challenging interpersonal conflicts should be referred to others for resolution.
• Moderate level of mental effort at a moderate frequency (i.e. from proofreading, data entry, budget calculations, typing course outlines, correspondence, etc.).
• Physical effort is mostly low intensity (keyboarding, walking, sitting, bending) with a small amount of moderate physical effort (e.g. carrying exam booklets).