applicants

The mission of Orientation & First-Year Programs (OFYP) is to provide quality transitional experiences, in collaboration with other University departments, which maximize students’ potential for personal and academic success and assist them in adjusting to the challenges presented by collegiate life.

The primary responsibilities of the Information Technology Professional provide vision and implementation in all areas of OFYP. This includes support and coordination of various aspects of Orientation, Welcome Week, student leadership training, and other first year programs. This position will write programming code to support current function in the office. Additionally, this position provides technical support for first-year and transfer portals, online orientation, website, Welcome Week registration, KickIt!, and many other areas as needed. This position reports to the Director for Orientation & First-Year Programs.

Required Qualifications:
BA/BS degree in MIS, computer science or a closely related field and no work experience, or a combination of education and related professional level work experience totaling four years. Experience/knowledge of PHP, MySQL, complex SQL queries, Javascript, UNIX Server administration, APACHE administration, MySQL server administration, Dreamweaver, HTML, and CSS.

Preferred Qualifications:
Two years prior experience working at the University of Minnesota. Demonstrated experience with programming code and online and portal technologies. Effective communication skills, both written and verbal. Demonstrated ability to communicate and work effectively with various constituencies, including diverse populations. Ability to work in a highly collaborative environment. Excellent organizational skills, ability to manage multiple projects and perspectives, while having tolerance for ambiguity in implementing a new campus-wide program are preferred skills. Previous experience working with programs and/or communications aimed at first-year students in higher education.

General Skills and Attributes: Require one or more of the following: 1. Cognitive skills (analysis, decision making, learning ability, etc.) 2. Interpersonal skills (valuing diversity, tact, sensitivity, etc.) 3. Communication skills (Oral, written, etc.) 4. Motivation skills (results orientation, initiative, etc.) 5. Personal skills (develop self, adaptability, etc.) 6. Organizational/business skills (customer service, university citizenship, etc.)

70% – Technical Support:

• Manage Next Generation Orientation Tracking (NGOT) database and all of its functionality. This will involve troubleshooting problems, enhancing functionality, and a general understanding of People Soft and Data Warehouse.
• Assist with the application and database implementation and support for Orientation Leaders, Welcome Week Leaders, volunteers, vendor fair, exemption process, etc.
• Provide technical support when updating OFYP website.
• Design and develop online forms with database functions.
• Assist with the development of tools to support Welcome Week including student registration, tracking participation and evaluation tools.
• Assist in development and implementation of communication sent to new students about Orientation and Welcome Week initiatives.
• Provide support in attendance tracking process managing scanner systems, creating and printing rosters, etc.
• Have basic knowledge of social media and an interest in maximizing OFYP’s potential to implement it.
• Serve as the liaison in the database implementation and technical clustering to the Academic Support Resources department.
• Assist with the implementation, maintenance and reporting of the Customer Relations Management (CRM) project.
• Other technical areas as identified.

20% – Project Management:

• Meet with OFYP staff to discuss and plan for implementation of specific programmatic projects.
• Need the ability to follow up and through on projects, effectively manage own timelines, anticipate length of time needed to complete a project.
• Ability to work with flexible schedule and manage cyclical timeline (ie-know that applications will repeat each year).
• Be proactive in setting up meetings to introduce project, follow up on project and evaluate project.
• Communicate technical aspects to those who are not technical. This includes explaining what needs to happen in order to meet request (how much work is involved with a request), communicate what content is needed and in what format.
• Willingness to communicate with external folks when necessary (present technical information at meetings, help colleges/staff troubleshoot specific issues, etc).
• Work with the Assistant Director for Communications, Marketing and Publications to provide timely statistical data and analytics on website hits, number of newsletters viewed, etc. Informing the staff of how our tech programs are being utilized.
• Serve as an active member of the OFYP team. Understanding team dynamic and have a desire to know about how OFYP programs operate and function. Willingness to help out as needed, anticipate programmatic needs, be curious about programs/projects, be willing to do small jobs if it’ll help the bigger picture. Work with students and staff acknowledging that everything we do is in groups/teams.
• Provide vision and leadership in the area of technology and what would make OFYP operate in a more efficient manner while providing a great experience for those we serve.
• Support the Assistant Director of Operations on equipment inventory, software decisions, and other areas as needed.

10% – Online Orientation:

• Work with the Assistant Director for Orientation and the Transfer Experience with the development and implementation of online orientation including content edits and trouble shooting with students.
• Serve as the back-up to the Assistant Director for Orientation and the Transfer Experience as needed.
• Manage the student batching process.
• Have a basic knowledge of Web Vista, Moodle and other tools which could support online orientation.
• Serve as liaison with Office of Information Technology and the student batching process.
• Assist with analyzing and reporting statistics as it relates to participation in online orientation.

To apply for this position, go to University of Minnesota Human Resource website at https://employment.umn.edu/applicants/Central?quickFind=90938