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Blank Assistant and Clerk

Class Specifications – B.15
Clerk – 4673
Senior Clerk/Secretary – 4672
Blank Assistant 1 – 4724
Blank Assistant 2 – 4723
Blank Assistant 3 – 4722

August 2019

Series Concept

Clerical/Administrative employees perform and/or supervise one or more general and specialized clerical and administrative services essential to the operation of all University departments and perform other related duties as required.

Incumbents may participate in budget, grant, or contract preparation; administer and control departmental expenditures; maintain departmental personnel records and provide departmental personnel services; prepare reports and maintain pertinent files and other required records; provide non-laboratory business services such as purchasing, inventory and stores, facilities and space utilization; and provide general clerical as well as secretarial assistance to departmental staff. In addition to the above mentioned duties. incumbents may perform and/or supervise specific functions supportive to a teaching, research or staff/business services department or specialized operation. Depending on the nature of the department, incumbents may schedule classes; prepare bulletin and teaching, materials; process admissions and advise students; conduct wage surveys or compile and maintain specialized resource files such as for supplies and equipment; operate income-recharge services; coordinate special programs such as credential, publishing, cultural, gifts and endowment, official ceremonies, and interdisciplinary training; and maintain liaison with hospital, clinics and other affiliated institutions for teaching support operations. Positions in this series do not normally have final authoritative responsibility for unit operations. They are distinguished from the analyst series in that they have operational responsibilities for support services, as well as responsibility for providing staff assistance. They are distinguished from the laboratory assistant series in that they do not normally have direct responsibility for technical aspects of the unit’s operation, such as equipment purchase, use of laboratory space, and management of service shops. The total series consists of several distinct classes which recognize succeeding degrees of work difficulty. These are summarized in the CLASS CONCEPTS, and range from the lower levels to administrative performance of routine or standard clerical tasks at assignments involving limited techniques of staff analysis and/or business management at the higher levels. Positions are allocated to different levels based on factors such as nature and extent of authority delegated variety and complexity of functions performed or supervised; application of knowledge of intradepartmental or interdepartmental functions and University policies and procedures; nature and level of intramural and extramural public contacts; size, complexity and organizational relationship of the unit to the total campus structure; reporting relationship of the positions and commitment authority and consequence of error.

CLASS CONCEPTS

Clerk

This level is characterized by the procedural nature of tasks assigned, detail of instructions, or restrictiveness of guidelines provided, or confinement to accepted methods and procedures indicated by tasks assigned. Repetitive, routine, or standardized tasks are performed with little or no supervision, once learned. At this level, the following factors should be considered:

  1. Assignments entail specific tasks, unrelated but each complete in itself; or a series of steps which are normally repetitive and in a prescribed sequence.
  2. Specific instructions are provided regarding tasks to be performed, sources to be used, and products desired. Non routine work is reviewed.
  3. Guidelines provided are oral or written instructions or established procedures; and they are few in number or sources, detailed, specific, directly applicable and readily available. No originality is required.
  4. Incumbents are responsible for completion of assigned tasks in accordance with guides and/or instructions.

Senior Clerk/Secretary

This level is characterized by responsibility for an end product of work and by independent application of knowledge of standard office methods and procedures. Assignments entail some phases of a program or service involving performance of a variety of detailed operations in related sequence or series.

At this level, the following factors should be considered:

  1. Work is performed under supervision of a higher- level clerical or administrative person. Assignments are given in clerical terms. Duties involving standard methods are performed independently, with guidance provided as requested, and those involving nonstandard methods or materials are performed from specific instructions or guides.
  2. Guidelines include a variety of procedural rules and regulations which are detailed, directly applicable and readily available; but some judgment is required to select from among standard office methods or to devise working procedures for own desk. This requires knowledge of a variety of standard procedures, an understanding of the terminology of the unit served. and some familiarity with work done in related departments.
  3. Incumbents are responsible for accuracy, completeness and end products of work, and may assign and check the work of others.

Blank Assistant 1

This level is characterized by one or a combination of the following:

  1. Incumbents have supervisory responsibilities for several lower level positions entailing such duties as setting priorities, training and establishing work methods and procedures.
  2. A significant nonstandard skill/knowledge is required involving production of an end product such as a report, scientific paper or manuscript. Work is performed without close review, with responsibility for correct usage of unusual terms and symbols in a scientific or technical field, requiring some subject matter knowledge.
  3. Incumbents have independent responsibility for a small unit or comprehensive function requiring integration and coordination of a variety of information or administrative services.

At this level, the following factors should be considered:

  1. Within limited subject areas, assignments may entail steps or actions which vary in nature and sequence on the basis of each individual case: or they may be of a coordinating nature and composed of several cases/functions/subjects which must be integrated.
  2. Work is performed under supervision of a higher level administrative person or an academic supervisor. Assignments are given in terms of the subject area concerned with specific objectives, critical administrative aspects. and possible problems identified. Work is subject to review only as requested or when problems require evaluation of the application of established policy.
  3. Guidelines provided, include a large number of procedural directives, and standard rules, regulations and precedents applicable to specific problems. In limited subject areas, some judgment is required to determine the applicability of guides to specific cases/problems. In coordinating assignments, some originality is required to organize all phases of a program/function and to obtain and correlate information from a variety of sources. This requires a good knowledge of standard administrative rules and interpretations within own area and a working knowledge of established methods and procedures used in related areas.
  4. Incumbents have responsibility for determining procedural methods of work, for coordinating phases of work with others; or within limited areas, for determining the applicability of numerous standard rules, regulations and interpretations to individual problems.

Blank Assistant 2

This level is characterized by either one or a combination of the following:

  1. Incumbents have supervisory responsibilities for several employees including selection, training, evaluation. and disciplinary actions. Positions which are primarily supervisory in nature entail technical and administrative responsibility for a small group (normally 3 or more) in the Blank Assistant 1 level or for a larger group (normally 6 or more) at the Senior Clerk/Secretary level or equivalent.
  2. The duties performed require knowledge of basic principles and methods of a technical or professional field where the exercise of judgment is limited by (a) the routine assignments, (b) the narrow range of the knowledge of the total professional or technical field, (c) the supervision received, and (d) the absence of the ability to establish professional precedents.
  3. Incumbents have independent responsibility for a comprehensive function, service or unit requiring the determination of appropriateness of actions in several administrative tasks each of which is allocable to the Blank Assistant 1 level.

At this level the following factors should be considered:

  1. Work is performed under direction of a higher level administrator or an academic supervisor. Assignments are given in terms of the subject area concerned with specific objectives as well as general program/department goals identified. Work is subject to review when problems involve new applications of policy or changes in administrative approach.
  2. Guidelines provided include all administrative directives In the form of rules, policies, and established precedents pertinent to the assignment. Assignments entail either many separate phases or a variety of different administrative transactions; and problem solving which involves some analysis or qualitative review of individual cases, materials or circumstances to determine the appropriate action. decision or solution. This requires some substantive knowledge and understanding of the programs or activities of the unit served, as well as of University and departmental administrative guides.
  3. Incumbents are responsible for interpretations and decisions based on established policies, precedents and administrative regulations which may not be directly applicable.
  4. Incumbents may have supervisory responsibility for clerical/administrative tasks allocable to the Senior Clerk/Secretary class, in the case of positions which are not primarily supervisory in nature.

Blank Assistant 3

This level is characterized by either one or a combination of:

  1. Incumbents have supervisory responsibility for several dissimilar functions or services, at the Assistant I level, determine staff needs and are accountable for results produced.
  2. Incumbents have responsibility for one or more functions or services involving analysis of problems equivalent to an entry level analyst which requires knowledge of basic principles of the specific profession or technical field.
  3. Incumbents have independent responsibility within overall goals of the organizational unit for a comprehensive function, service, or unit frequently requiring the determination of procedures, methods and policy applications; prepare reports and policy recommendations; and participate in long-range planning for clerical/administrative needs within overall goals of the organizational unit.

At this level the following factors should be considered.

  1. Incumbents are responsible for all administrative aspects of a total program, service or department, including the determination of procedures, selection of methods, and implementation of policy. Incumbents perform assignments for which administrative guides are inadequate in some respect or which require limited technical/professional knowledge; or which involve nonstandard aspects of administration.
  2. Work is performed under direction of a higher level administrator or an academic supervisor. Assignments are given in terms of the subject area concerned, with specific objectives as well as general program/department goals identified. Work is subject to review when problems require a deviation from administrative policy or when they may affect the professional activities of the department.
  3. The scope, complexity or novelty of problems is such that (a) guides frequently are not directly applicable or problems are of a wide variety routinely requiring determinations of appropriateness, or (b) a body of knowledge is required in addition to standard department and University administration. The latter may include comparable knowledge of an outside institution, of a dissimilar operational unit within the university, or of the basic principles and methods of a professional field. Originality is required in applying standard administrative guides in resolving unusual administrative problems within stated objectives of the department, and within policies of the University and/or outside agencies.
  4. Incumbents may have supervisory responsibility for clerical/administrative tasks allocable to the Blank Assistant 1 level. Positions allocated to the supervisory titles must meet the criteria for supervision as defined in the Supplemental Guidelines for Supervisory Classes (SAM 12).

Note: Specific qualification requirements are approved for positions by the Human Resource Directors in accordance with the provisions of Staff Personnel Policies 210.8 and 210.9.