Student Office Assistant

Student Office Assistant | University of Kansas

The University of Kansas Department of Philosophy is seeking a dependable and organized student to provide administrative and front-office support. The Office Assistant will help create a welcoming and professional environment for students, faculty, staff, and visitors while assisting the department's Administrative Associate with routine office operations, communications, records, events, and special projects. The ideal candidate will have strong interpersonal and organizational skills, the ability to follow instructions carefully and complete assignments independently, and the professionalism to maintain confidentiality and appropriately handle sensitive information. Candidates must be available to work scheduled weekday hours in person between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. This position offers an opportunity to develop practical experience in university administration, customer service, and office support while building valuable professional skills in a collaborative office environment.

Job Description

40% - Front Office and Customer Service

• Greet and assist students, faculty, staff, and visitors.
• Respond to routine questions and direct individuals to the appropriate department or university resource.
• Answer telephone calls, take accurate messages, and respond to routine email inquiries.
• Help maintain a welcoming, organized, and professional department office.
• Provide directions and general information to visitors.
• Notify faculty or staff when visitors or appointments arrive.

35% - Administrative and Records Support

• Sort and distribute departmental mail and notify recipients when packages arrive.
• Prepare, scan, photocopy, organize, and file documents.
• Assist with maintaining departmental records.
• Perform accurate data entry and update departmental spreadsheets, lists, and logs.
• Maintain office supplies and notify the supervisor when supplies need to be reordered.
• Assist with copying and preparing course, meeting, and departmental materials while protecting confidential information.
• Run occasional on-campus errands.

15% - Event and Departmental Support

• Assist with lectures, meetings, recruitment activities, and other departmental events.
• Help prepare signs, name tags, handouts, programs, and other event materials.
• Assist with event setup, cleanup, and organization.
• Post or distribute approved departmental announcements and promotional materials.
• Support faculty, staff, and graduate students with appropriate office-related requests.

10% - Projects and Other Duties

• Assist the Administrative Associate with departmental projects as assigned.
• Perform basic research, organization, or data-entry assignments.
• Help identify outdated, incomplete, or inconsistent office records.
• Complete other appropriate office-support duties as assigned.

Required Qualifications

1. Experience providing customer service or assisting members of the public, as demonstrated by application materials.
2. Experience using basic computer applications, such as Microsoft Word, Excel, Outlook, or comparable programs, as demonstrated by application materials.
3. Strong written communication skills, as demonstrated by application materials.
4. Strong organizational skills and attention to detail, as demonstrated by application materials.

Preferred Qualifications

1. Previous experience working in an office, reception, or administrative-support setting.
2. Experience working with students, faculty, staff, or members of a university community.
3. Experience with Microsoft 365 applications, particularly Outlook, Teams, Word, Excel, and Lists.
4. Experience maintaining spreadsheets, databases, inventories, or other administrative records.
5. Experience assisting with meetings, lectures, receptions, or other events.
6. Federal Work-Study eligibility.

Position Requirements

During the semester term of the appointment, the student hourly must be enrolled in no fewer than 6 credit hours. For summer periods the student hourly must: (1) have been enrolled in no less than 6 hours in the past spring semester or (2) be pre-enrolled in the upcoming fall semester in no less than 6 hours or (3) be enrolled in summer session or (4) be admitted to study in the upcoming fall semester. Student Hourlies may be undergraduate or graduate students. (Exceptions granted for GRA/GTA/GA appointments DO NOT apply to Student Hourly appointments).

Employment Conditions

(1) Student employees are not eligible for remote work arrangements unless an exception is approved by the unit leadership and HR. (2) This is an hourly/non-exempt position. A student employee cannot hold an hourly/non-exempt position and a salaried/exempt graduate or undergraduate position (GRA/GTA/GA/RUA/RGA) concurrently.

Additional Candidate Instruction

In addition to the online application, the following documents must be included to be considered:

• Cover letter describing how the applicant meets the required and preferred qualifications
• Résumé
• Contact information for three professional references
• The applicant's anticipated graduation date
• The applicant's availability during a Monday through Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. work week

A review of applications will continue until a qualified pool of applicants has been identified. Incomplete applications will not be considered. Please apply by the deadline of October 1st, 2026.