Assistant Director of Graduate Programs

University of Chicago • Chicago, IL

4d

About The Position

The University of Chicago Graham School connects diverse audiences from around the world to the University’s distinctive ideas and intellectual community through events, courses, and degree programs. The Assistant Director of Graduate Programs plays a central role in advancing enrollment, student engagement, and operational excellence for the Master of Liberal Arts (MLA). This position supports prospective students from application submission through registration, coordinating admissions interviews, partnering with the program's Director on application review and processing, and proactively guiding students through onboarding and course enrollment. As the front-end lead for the School’s Slate enrollment management system, the Associate Director of Graduate Programs oversees daily system operations, application processing, record management, and data integrity for the MLA and Leadership and Society Initiative (LSI) programs. This role ensures efficiency and optimization of workflows through system innovation, documentation, staff training, audits, and continuous process improvement. In addition, this position oversees the scheduling and promotion of programmatic events, manages email and SMS communications through Slate, and ensures accuracy and strategic alignment of MLA and LSI digital content across WordPress websites and marketing materials. This role requires strong analytical and technical acumen, meticulous attention to detail, collaborative leadership, and a student-centered approach to enrollment operations.

Requirements

• Minimum requirements include a college or university degree in related field.
• Minimum requirements include knowledge and skills developed through 2-5 years of work experience in a related job discipline.

Nice To Haves

• Background with higher education, recruitment and/or student affairs is a plus.
• Familiar with Slate.
• Familiar with Wordpress.
• Exceptional oral and written communication.
• Strong interpersonal, relationship-building, and listening skills.
• An understanding of student success and higher education.
• Recruitment or outreach experience.
• A strong commitment to diversity and inclusion.
• Work well with others in a highly collaborative environment.
• Passion for Graham’s mission of lifelong learning and the University of Chicago’s mission of deep inquiry and the rigorous pursuit of knowledge.
• Work independently in a fast-paced environment and to prioritize among competing tasks.

Responsibilities

• Supports enrollment management and recruitment efforts for the Master of Liberal Arts (MLA) by working with applicants from the point of application submission through program registration. This includes coordinating admission interviews and supporting the program director in the processing of applications.
• Proactively works with MLA students to register them for courses and troubleshoot misc. student issues.
• Manages communications to engage the MLA student body and support retention efforts.
• Oversees the scheduling and promotion of programmatic events, such as information sessions.
• Attends events as necessary to provide support.
• Serves as the front-end lead for enrollment management system for the Graham School programs supported in Slate, including shared responsibility for annual maintenance, innovation, process documentation, and staff training; ensures efficiency and optimization of the day-to-day operations and functionality.
• Ensures compliance with federal and state regulations, accreditation standards, and internal policies.
• Collaborates with IT to ensure the technology supporting enrollment processes is robust, secure, and user-friendly.
• Oversees day-to-day operations of application systems, including application processing, record management, and data integrity within the enrollment system.
• Understands data sets, database query and reporting, data engineering principles, and support end-users across in the Slate system.
• Maintains system integrity by documenting workflow, developing, and performing regular comprehensive audits and clean-up projects.
• Provides support for troubleshooting functional, process, and systems issues as they arise.
• Stays up-to-date with emerging trends and technologies in system integration and front-end development.
• Manages the setup and distribution of email and SMS communications for the MLA and Leadership and Society Initiative (LSI) from the Slate system.
• Reviews and updates the MLA and LSI Wordpress websites and marketing material to ensure accuracy of content and proper messaging to prospective students; support the process of updating and deploying messaging.
• Recruits and/or evaluates applicants for admission by interviewing, reading applications and summarizing evaluations.
• Completes these tasks independently or with some guidance and instruction from others.
• Participates in special projects such as developing marketing materials, monitoring budgets and recruiting underrepresented groups with moderate/high levels of authority.
• Performs other related work as needed.

Benefits

• The University of Chicago offers a wide range of benefits programs and resources for eligible employees, including health, retirement, and paid time off. Information about the benefit offerings can be found in the Benefits Guidebook .

What This Job Offers

• Job Type: Full-time
• Career Level: Mid Level