Office Specialist, Art Department

Vassar College; United States; On-site; USD 23,000 - 33,000; Full time

Job summary

Vassar College is seeking an Office Specialist for the Department of Art. This full-time in-person position provides reception, administrative support, and budget handling for the department, reporting to the Chair of Art.

The role requires flexible scheduling for events outside standard hours and involves supervising student employees and coordinating with campus resources. The ideal candidate has strong communication and organizational skills and a commitment to diversity and inclusion.

Qualifications

• Three years of progressively responsible administrative support experience.
• Strong computer skills including Google Suite and Microsoft Office.
• Ability to consistently apply policies and procedures.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to attend events after hours.
• Ability to interact effectively with a diverse community.
• Ability to sit or stand for extended periods.
• Ability to interact socially with others.

Responsibilities

• Support budget operations: reconcile reports, process invoices, ensure expenses align with budgets.
• Provide admin support for meetings, calls, and travel arrangements; prepare documents and reports.
• Support reception, phones, mail, and department supplies.
• Assist with facilities and equipment maintenance across campus locations and communicate updates.
• Assist in organizing events: scheduling, room reservations, name tags, programs, vendors, and supplies.
• Run reports and manage mail merges for large-scale events; track responses and coordinations.
• Attend events to welcome attendees and answer questions; direct attendees or vendors to hosts.
• Supervise student employees: postings, hiring, training, tasks, feedback, timesheets.
• Communicate with department members, vendors, and partners to complete tasks.
• Support accurate data entry and use pre-built reports for systems and processes.

Skills

Administrative support

Communication skills

Time management

Customer service

Education

Associates degree

Tools

Google Suite

Microsoft Office

Finance systems

Payroll systems

Student information systems

Job description

Department Art Job Family Staff - Union Vassar College is deeply committed to providing equal employment opportunities to all applicants and employees by promoting an environment of transparency and respect for differences. We welcome applications from individuals of all backgrounds who meet the qualifications of a posting. If you need to request an accommodation to fully participate in the search process, please contact [e-mail].

Job Description

Position Summary

Reporting to the Chair of Art, the Office Specialist provides administrative and operational support to the Department of Art. This position serves as the primary contact for students, faculty, staff and guests, and provides reception for the department. This role may require scheduling flexibility to support events held outside of standard business hours. This is a full time (37.5 hours per week), in-person, CWA Union position for the Academic Year.

Responsibilities

• Supports the budget operations of the office/department: reconcile reports and corporate cards; make vendor payments; process invoices; process journal entries; ensure expenses are charged to appropriate budget accounts and remain within department allocations; provide notice if out of alignment.
• Provide administrative support for meetings, calls, and booking travel; prepare documents, reports, and correspondence, and maintain filing systems.
• Support reception/front desk interactions, answer phones, respond to inquiries, collect and distribute mail, and maintain department supplies.
• Support maintenance scheduled and issues associated with department facilities and equipment across campus locations, communicate updates to department and facilities/vendors.
• Support in the organization of events including scheduling, room reservations, completing tasks identified by an event plan, use templates to make name tags, event programs or other event collateral, communicate with vendors and participants, and order food or supplies.
• Support communication of large scale events by running reports to create invitation lists, setting up data merges for individualized invitations (mail merges), tracking responses, following up with attendees for missing information, and communicating the collected information to the appropriate event collaborators.
• Attend department events to support the successful execution of the event by welcoming attendees, answering event questions, and referring attendees or vendors to the event host for further information.
• Responsible for supervision of student employees including posting of position, hiring, training, task assignments, providing feedback, and timesheet approvals.
• Communicate in multiple modes with department members, vendors, on-campus offices, alumnae/i, volunteers, and/or other off-campus partners to complete departmental tasks.
• Support accurate and secure data entry, retention, and utilizing pre-built reports for systems and processes.

Required knowledge, skills and abilities

• Three years of progressively responsible administrative support experience.
• Strong computer skills including proficiency with Google Suite, Microsoft Office suite and ability to learn additional technical systems.
• Ability to consistently apply policies and procedures.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills.
• Ability to attend events after hours.
• Ability to interact effectively with a diverse community.
• Ability to sit or stand for extended periods of time.
• Ability to interact socially with others.

Preferred knowledge, skills and abilities

• Five years of progressively responsible administrative support experience.
• Associates degree or other higher educational experience.
• Experience working with software systems including finance and accounting systems, payroll, student information systems, or customer relationship management systems.

Compensation

The compensation for this position is $20.37 per hour.

Work At Vassar Benefits