Wikipedia Sucks!

Brought here through the glory of copypasting. Be forwarned that everything I copied came from a grid layout, and each poster has their own weird style of filling that in.



Universities to fear


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This page is for applicants to warn others of institutions/departments with less than reputable practices. This way we can all avoid the bad ones!



If you wish to post NICE COMMENTS or REBUTTALS, then go on the Universities to love page. This in particular goes for people who delete posts or post insults about other posters. Everyone reading this site knows that the context of many posts are fueled by disgruntled faculty who leave or get let go. That is why we have both a place for good comments (Universities to Love) and bad comments (Universities to Hate). If a place is really good, then they will discredit comments on here during their visits. Deleting comments or insulting others only reflects poorly on the school in question.

How do I add a row to the table?

To add a row, select Edit (the blue button at the top of the page). When the Visual Editor window opens, scroll down to the entry that will go before the one you are adding. Right click on that entry, and in the menu that comes up choose Row>Insert Row After. Add your entry by filling in the cells in the new row that is created, but do not hit Enter or Return to add blank lines within the cells. Finally, select Publish (the button on the far right of toolbar at the top of the Visual Editor) to add your entry to the page. [Instructions rewritten for clarity June 2014]

Is there a way to fix the line wrapping? The text is stretching out to infinity such that I have to scroll sideways several times to read a sentence.

Fixed, please do not add extra paragraph breaks in the entries, this will mess up the table.
You can add a paragraph by holding Shift while pressing enter.
When I right click on the entry, I do not get an option that says "Row." Is there a way around this?

At least on my computer, it is necessary to click the arrow next to the "Edit" button, and then click "Classic Editor" to make the instructions (i.e., right-click, "insert row after") work.
You can always try editing in "Source" mode. Sometimes it is easier for negotiating the tables. Click Edit. Note 2 tabs at the top of the Edit window ("Visual" and "Source"). Click the tab that says "Source." The page will resolve into html format but will still be legible. Scroll down to the section where you want to add your post. Note how the other entries in the table are formatted (school; department; issue/date) as a guideline. Type your post, click "preview" and then "publish" if everything looks okay.
The table is so complicated, I am afraid, no one is going to post.

[Admin.] I agree. I think these tables are a headache for people to edit and discourage participation. They were set up a long time ago by the people who first started the wiki (not me!)--maybe they made sense at that time, but the page has outgrown them by now. I would love to reorganize this page (and Universities to love) to keep all the posts but eliminate the tables and make it easier to add new contributions. I cannot take on this work at this time, however; if anyone would like to volunteer to reformat the page, please leave me a message! --Una74 (talk) 23:18, July 23, 2014 (UTC)

Some formatting etiquette. Before you add your entry, please read this:Edit
DON'T use hard returns before your entry. This will throw the table formatting off and give everyone a headache.

DO NOT REFER TO ANYONE BY NAME Edit
Please make sure ALL information is factually correct BEFORE posting.Edit
Please DATE your entries! And put them in alphabetical order in the appropriate sections.Edit
Please add responses using bullet points.Edit
Thank you!

All Entries still present, now divided into Current, Chronic, and Old Tables. I am struck that there are no recent complaints about lack of contact, lack of reimbursement, rudeness, etc. While the market may have gotten worse, there seems to be a rising level of humanity / accountability promoting good behavior.

I wish it were that. I think it's that candidates are stark raving terrified. Check out the person on the venting page who was offered a job, given 2 days to answer, and then had the offer rescinded. He/she hasn't posted the details here!

I have now!

The reason the complaints are dropping is because people don't know about this page, and when they post on the regular one it gets deleted or moved here, doubtless by wiki admins with the best of intentions.

I'll just echo the "stark raving terrified" thing--I've had several rather bad campus visit experiences this season but am not able to post about several because I'd be clearly identifiable by faculty at those institutions.

Added May 2019: I am also stark raving terrified - I would love to add the institution from which I was dismissed here with a warning to anyone applying to that department but am afraid I will be recognized.

UPDATE (Sept. 2012): Added new section for current issues (problems arising during 2012-13 searches).

Current Issues: Specific Problems with Searches, Departments and/or University/College Administrations Occurring in AY 2012-13, 2013-14, 2014-15, 2016-2017, 2017-2018 Search Cycles
School

***

Furman University

All
If you still somehow naively believe that Furman is the right place for you to live your Dead Poets Society dream, my post may likely break your heart.

Long story short, Furman is simply a family school intended for a bunch of privileged yet minimally talented white kids. You cannot afford to have standards; you do not need to be accomplished; all you have to do is to be white, have a degree from a random place, make sure all your students are happy, and hold strong beliefs in the eternal glory of the south.

Academic integrity is a joke here, and publishing with undergrads is simply a way to rebate students (their paying customers) their crazily expensive tuition with free rides, so these kids can finally have something to show in their otherwise blank resume. The students may not even be aware of the project, but they magically end up in the author list. PhD and postdoc work of any new faculty can also magically appear as Furman's highlight of "publication with undergrads". Of course this makes grant application so much easier, particularly in South Carolina where quality liberal-arts education basically does not exist.

And don't even get me started on racism and diversity here. Just check a faculty page of any department. If you can find a black, a latino or an asian, you'd better head out and buy lottery now (foreign language departments might be exceptions since there's honestly not much choice). The limited number of minority faculty often suffer a lot from all the double standards they face on a daily basis. To cover up their pure whiteness, some departments even start putting black janitors on their faculty/staff page.

In conclusion, if you are not white, have no ties with the Carolinas, or simply don't want to see a confederate flag every day on your way home, but somehow got a job at Furman, RUN!


University of Chicago

English
(2019) I had a really enjoyable MLA interview in Chicago with 8-10 faculty members from the Department.

Unfortunately, the search chair never contacted me again to provide details on the progress of the search. I never heard about campus visits, whether a candidate had been chosen, or anything else. I wrote a message in follow-up with email tracking; the chair never responded, but they did open my message five times in one day.

I learned many months later from a departmental alum that this was a fake search and that the Department had hired the spouse of a faculty member they wanted to retain.

It's disappointing to see a fake search happening at the University of Chicago, which has a reputation for being one of the top two schools in the country for my field.

A few suggestions for universities doing this kind of hiring practice:

1) If it's a fake search (or even if it's a real search!), hold the interviews by videoconferencing. It's not reasonable or ethical to expect candidates to pay to attend an interview that has little/no possibility of resulting in their hire.

2) Any candidate who makes it to the interview stage (and ideally all candidates for the position) should be kept abreast of updates in the search. It was disorienting to be dropped completely by the search committee after the interview. The fact that the chair opened my message so many times suggests that they didn't know what to say. A simple 'We have moved on to other candidates, but it was a pleasure to speak with you and thank you for your time' would have sufficed.

Boise State University Social Science departments (in the College of Social Sciences and Public Affairs--SSPA) (Fall 2014) The College of Social Sciences and Public Affairs (SSPA) is being eliminated at the end of the 2014-15 academic year. It has been in operation for 29 years. The eight departments in the college will go to health sciences (socialwork), a new college of social policy (public policy, poli sci, crim justice) and the rest will go to Arts & Sciences (history, anthro, communication, sociology).
While this change in itself is not so bad, the stress and politics accompanying this change--coming from the top, President Kustra and Provost Schimpf's offices--diminish the contributions of individual faculty. We don't recommend applying for or getting a new job in social sciences in the near future. It is a disaster during this transition. Replacements of good faculty leaving or contemplating leaving may not occur. The communication department in particular is having substantial curriculum and pedagogical problems that are more than personality differences, but which are substantive differences over quality and the curricular routes to it. One contingent has for years resisted a robust MA program while growing the undergrad programs. The media production faculty and the comm arts faculty are at odds over definitions of scholarship, now a decade+ rift encouraged by bad management and poor leadership, which produced a smorgasboard curriculum fragmenting the department and its students. That failure to provide a common curricular experience for all students has confused students as faculty splintered over such issues. This led to the administration placing the department into a receivership with a dean-appointed interim head for two years, to end with a new chair from a national search. Meanwhile, the department is developing new plans to keep the department whole in spite of efforts to split the department. Over time, the department must make itself into better interconnections internally and with the new home for the department in the College of Arts and Sciences. In transition with histories to learn from and put to bed, I wouldn't recommend Boise State at this point in time to anyone in terms of long-term employment until the department knows what it is. In the social sciences in particular, this is a university to fear.

Indiana University - Purdue University, Fort Wayne (IPFW) Physics (Fall 2017) If possible, run! Run with a bag-pack full of energy drinks and never stop till you are so far away, you can't think of IPFW! Yup! A lot of politics is going on in the department - they brag about how the geology department was completely useless and they shut it down. During the interview, the chair and other faculty members (except one, whom I mention later) were conversing with me with their eyes on their cellphones. The department-chair asked me questions without even looking at me - constantly fidgeting with his cellphone and replying to emails. The search-chair on the other hand was comparetively nicer to me, and hospitable. Over all, they are very unprofessional, and said a lot of "evil" things behind each other's back! An example is, "ABC is late -- aah, he must be handling his children. He has another one on his way in spite of being unable to handle all the previous ones!" or "XYZ is not coming today. He is not feeling well. Isn't it strange how he falls ill just after the finals? I wonder if he is really ill?" During the mock-lecture, I was interrupted so many times by faculty members, I couldn't get past 25% of the lecture. And the questions (they were acting as students) they asked were incredibly stupid - no college student (or even an elementary school student) in their right mind would ask such questions. When a folly in one of their questions was pointed out, instead of admitting it, the faculty member said something nonsensical. During both the lectures (research and physics), one of the students had a cooing baby in the lecture hall who had to be constantly consoled, and (during the research talk) another faculty member had his leg on the desk with shoe pointing directly at me. A lot of bragging is going on - they were very arrogant, and no one is ever on time (except the search-chair). It was a very unpleasant experience over all. It felt as if I was invited to be insulted and looked-down upon. If possible, avoid it at all cost. And if that was not enough, this university is going through a political crisis - its splitting up into two different universities - Indiana University FW and Purdue University FW (with physics dept going to Purdue). I must point out that their newest/youngest faculty member was professional and very pleasant to converse with, I had a great time interacting with him.

Kansas Wesleyan University Admin/all hirings (May/June 2013) Had a very pleasant phone and campus interview and was offered the job (instructor, non-TT) the day after I returned home. I asked for the details of the offer in writing and requested one week to consider the offer. The written offer never came and when I inquired about it almost a week later, I was told they were waiting for my verbal acceptance. However, my questions were answered in a phone call. I asked for an additional two days to consider while I made one more campus visit (already scheduled). After deciding that I could not wait for the other school to decide, I contacted KWU to inform them I would be mocing forward with their offer and inquired about the possibility of a salary increase. One day later, I was informed that they had offered the position to the other candidate, and when I asked, I was told that they had interpreted my salary request as an ultimatum. However I was never given a chance to "take it or leave it" on their initial offer.

I have no complaints about the faculty I met while there, but beware the provost. If you get an offer, expect to be pressured into a decision quickly and don't count on being able to negotiate.

Lycoming College Modern Language Studies (Spring 2019 phone interview) -- The search committee was rude and unprofessional. It was obvious that a particular candidate was favored and everyone else were warm bodies for HR. Aside from rushing the interview without having introduced themselves or having asked me about my background, etc., the search chair was rude and dismissive from the very beginning. None of them seemed to know who I was, i.e., name, institution, experience, nor did they seem to care. Moreover, there were equally snippy exchanges between the search committee members; one of the junior professors let it slip that they lied in the original announcement about both the teaching load and the opportunities for teaching upper-division courses.
Blackburn College English (Spring 2019) The department itself seems lovely, though small -- you'd expect this of a tiny college. Negotiations, though, were a nightmare: upon the initial offer, I was told that there's zero room to move on salary and then was given four days (over a holiday weekend) to think about it, leaving no time for my partner and I to make travel plans for her to see the place. Two days after the offer, I emailed to ask for a) the MLA's two-week window of time; b) an insurance plan that would cover my fiancee until our wedding [two months after the semester begins]; and c) a phone call to discuss what options might exist for my eventual spouse to find a staff position at the college. A) was sort of met -- the window was extended from four days to eight; b) was outright denied; and c), instead of a phone call, it was suggested that she make an hour-long commute to the nearest city as they couldn't make up a position for her. We did some research into open positions, she applied to one, and then I pointed this out in an email seven days post-initial offer, saying that while I didn't expect them to create a position, one existed that's perfect for her and that finding her a job in this tiny town was my priority. The reply came that evening that a guarantee could not be made and that applications would not be reviewed for another three weeks; five hours later (at 11pm), the offer was rescinded. I had not replied in the interim.

I can't say I'm surprised that they're having trouble filling this position.

(Spring 2019) I was ghosted after the campus interview, still haven't been reimbursed for travel expenses. There was a strong indication that the college is in serious financial trouble. Whoever takes this job will be responsible for installing the fourth First Year Experience program in four years. From the above candidate's experience, I would imagine they're looking for someone desperate to railroad into a very bad position.

Lake Erie College

General: this school has no departments and only one faculty member per subject (e.g., "history," not "American history" or "European history") (Summer 2013) If you value academic integrity and freedom, this is not the college for you. Increasing enrollments is a huge push here, and over 60% of the enrollment at this school comes from athletes, even though the size of the school prohibits any serious athletics standing. The faculty and admin have struck a "deal" with the athletics departments to maintain college enrollments: athletes can't fail courses. Instead, no matter their performance or attendance, they are given grades of "C-." This "deal," I was told, is an effort to stop the flow of always-successful grade challenges that result from the loss of athletics eligibility and GPA requirements. The school has absolutely no online platforms (Blackboard, ANGEL, etc), has antiquated on-campus electronics, does not participate in the OhioLINK library system (one of only two colleges in the state that doesn't), and provides no teaching support (no sabbaticals or course releases, plus expected course overloads each semester). Not only is the faculty pay among the lowest in the state (average of $39k), the school provides no research support in time off or in funding, though for tenure one is required to publish a rather amorphous "something." Tenure is based mostly on teaching evaluations; however, these are completed online, and most of the students do not complete them unless they do not like the course and want to complain (or so I was informed). In terms of the on-campus interview, it was run very poorly and seemed designed to make a candidate as uncomfortable as possible. In the space of a few days prior to the interview, I was first told to prepare a teaching presentation to present to a group of faculty and staff who could pretend to be students, or maybe not, or whatever, it doesn't matter; then that was changed to a research talk about "anything"; then that was changed to whatever I wanted it to be, maybe a combination research and teaching talk, maybe to students or to faculty, or both, but whatever is fine, it doesn't matter. (It probably goes without saying that for three solid days I had to change and practice different presentations because of these last-minute contradictions.) Once on campus, I was left waiting in many hallways, outside of many locked doors, and at one point had to knock loudly three times over a few minutes before being let into a room where the search committee was waiting for me midday. Most of the search committee was "out of town or otherwise unavailable" during my visit, and those who were available had nothing but terrible things to say about the students overall (the bitterness was pervasive). One SC member was openly and aggressively hostile both to me directly and about the students, for whom s/he seemed to have nothing but contempt. Lake Erie College is, apparently, the college a student attends when community college seems too low-brow but no place else will take the kid (it's a pay and play establishment). The visit was brief, but included three meals, two with only an hour between them. The meals were well attended (unlike everything else), but the conversation was clique-ish and exclusionary with no questions directed to me, suggesting that the committee was merely using the opportunity to grab free nosh. The college-related questions I asked during the meals were ever-so-briefly answered but largely ignored. Regarding location, the campus is small and, for what it is, beautiful, but it's in the middle of uneducated redneck country, and that shows in the school's interactions with the neighborhood. None of the faculty and staff I spoke to lives anywhere near the college, and most expressed significant distaste for the area. The faculty are all older (a wrung-out 40 being the youngest, with most faculty in their late 40s, 50s, and 60s); if you are a dynamic and/or young(er) PhD, there is nothing here for you. On the plus side, there is one truly sharp female dean with what sound like great plans for the college; however, she spent significant time telling me that her plans will not be realized because of the tremendous faculty resistance and the absolute lack of funds to be spent on anything but athletics. Perhaps her frustration represents a reason for the recent exodus of faculty to admin positions at brighter and better schools. Using this one as a springboard to another job might be tough, especially if you want to move up in a faculty position. Both the lack of research support and the overload teaching will inhibit one's ability to gain employment at a better school with stricter publication expectations. In all, I am appalled by the truly terrible hiring processes exhibited here, and I am embarrassed for the search committee. If you interviewed here and didn't get the position, consider it a bullet dodged!

Ditto some of the above. Plus, the search committee members asked me whether I had children and, if so, what ages. One SC member had a hostile retort to every answer I gave during the interview, yet she offered no input herself. This was a strange and uncomfortable process quite unlike any other search I've experienced. I went with another job.

Saginaw Valley State University (SVSU) College of Business and Management, College of Arts and Behavioral Sciences *2013

It is called the College of Business and Management (CBM) but it should be called Mismanagement
This is an odd and incredibly dysfunctional University. It operates more like a High School
All tenured faculty appear to be members of the original faculty when it was a community college in the 1960's. Most are in their 80's -- which is okay unless you are looking for friends to play golf or tennis.
They are constantly recruiting new faculty. The turnover rate is incredible. They put you on the "tenure track", but apparently the track is a big wheel-- kind of like what guinea pigs run on. No one gets tenure. Most gladly leave before they have to apply. Those that apply get denied. I guess that is how they keep their costs down. Keeping the quality of the faculty down does not appear to be a concern. Actually, looking at class schedules over the last 2 years I noted that the majority of classes are taught by adjuncts for a few hundred dollars per course.
Students are disgruntled. They have increased the student body enormously over the last few years but have not increased the number of class or section offerings so students cannot finish their degrees in 4 years. Many required classes are offered but then cancelled before they begin.
"They have increased the student body enormously over the last few years but have not increased the number of class or section offerings so students cannot finish their degrees in 4 years." This is simply untrue. Current enrollment is under 10k students, which is actually lower than it has been. Current enrollment is about the same as it was several years back. Where are you getting your information?
No culture and no major league sports unless you want to drive 2.5 hours each way.
Horrible place. Take that job at McDonalds and wait for an offer from a real academic institution.

[Different poster from above]. I caught a similar vibe when I interviewed there a few years ago in a different part of the university. The faculty I interacted with were professional for the most part (and definitely not in their 80s), but they didn't seem to have a good sense of what they were looking for or a coherent explanation of where the university was headed. The provost lectured me for 5 minutes on why they were not a research-intensive institution.

[Yet another poster] My campus interview was poorly handled by young and inexperienced faculty, left to flounder because senior dept members were clearly just marking time to retirement. The SCC had never been on an SC before and broke all kinds of HR rules, even gave me a rundown of the other candidates' performance and everyone's rankings at different points in the interview process! This was topped off by a job offer and negotiation that were bungled when the dept chair and SC gave conflicting advice, and the administration behaved in a weirdly paranoid manner when they found out I had other offers. The provost likes to play hardball with job offers, and outright said at the interview he'll just rescind one if a candidate asks for more than a week or time to finish interviews. My read was that they're so afraid of a failed search, they'll take any candidate who's a sure thing rather than give a top candidate time to negotiate and make a considered decision. Because they're convinced no candidate would pick them over anyone else, they see any negotiation as stalling tactics or gaming the system to increase 'the offer the candidate is going to take in the end'. Overall impression: last resort only. A bare nudge up from a community college in terms of teaching load, quality of students and any kind of research life. For the record: this is not sour grapes. I accepted a better offer and am happy there. But candidates dealing with SVSU as their only offer should be aware how weird the administrators are when it comes to negotiating.

[New Post Feb 2016] A few years ago they rescinded their offer to me when I tried to negotiate for a little travel money. It was a total nightmare, and they were very unprofessional about it - suddenly no one would take my phone calls or answer emails. The search committee and department head that had assured me negotiating for small things was fine. But when I asked, the dean's response was to rescind the offer. Looks like the search failed in the end, so maybe more was going on than I knew. Still, BEWARE if you get an offer from here.




(Do you want MORE? - S.)

thanks, that's plllllenty.....

None of it surprises me. Even when I was in college in the late 70s there was plenty of dysfunction in the "land of higher learning". The major state university I went to was a joke, spending fortunes on massive new buildings and facilities but hiring the scrapings of actual instructors to justify their existence. I've heard that since then the enrollment has almost doubled, but the faculty has even gotten more underpaid and incompetent.

Also: Furman was a massive joke for decades. Some employers would not accept an employee with a degree from Furman. But now, oh well, they're like "#2 in the nation for academic rigor" or something. The Wikipedia article has the usual stink of a paid editor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:C ... /RobertM87

ericbarbour wrote: ↑

Mon Feb 17, 2020 11:53 pm

thanks, that's plllllenty.....

None of it surprises me. Even when I was in college in the late '70s there was plenty of dysfunction in the "land of higher learning". The major state university I went to was a joke, spending fortunes on massive new buildings and facilities but hiring the scrapings of actual instructors to justify their existence. I've heard that since then the enrollment has almost doubled, but the faculty has even gotten more underpaid and incompetent.

Also: Furman was a massive joke for decades. Some employers would not accept an employee with a degree from Furman. But now, oh well, they're like "#2 in the nation for academic rigor" or something. The Wikipedia article has the usual stink of a paid editor.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:C ... /RobertM87

No matter how bad Furman U. stinks, it will never reach the depths of Bob Jones ("Slob Bones" as I used to call it) U., Hyles-Anderson (mostly called "HAC" and pronounced "hack" by graduates or onlookers; the word fits), or Pensacola Christian College....which gave the world the horror of A Beka textbooks with their young-Earth Creationism and nice words for "Dr." Gish. PCC is so shit that they hire their best grad students as instructors, because the undergraduates get a "high school-plus" education through modified versions of the A Beka high school textbooks. I'm not kidding - you get very little (unaccredited) bang for your buck at that "college."


The major state university I went to was a joke, spending fortunes on massive new buildings and facilities but hiring the scrapings of actual instructors to justify their existence.

San Diego State, considered the crown jewel of the CSU system, is so overloaded that they will turn what was the land on which Jack Murphy stadium sits into a satellite college to handle the overflow. It will take them twenty years to do it, and by then the glut of students will have winnowed away, but it's going to happen, thanks to Jack McGrory being starik ataman of the Campanile Foundation and through the pressure he has as ex-City Manager of San Diego. He is as relentless as The Thing in John Carpenter's film.

Strelnikov wrote: ↑

Thu Feb 20, 2020 5:20 pm

No matter how bad Furman U. stinks, it will never reach the depths of Bob Jones ("Slob Bones" as I used to call it) U., Hyles-Anderson (mostly called "HAC" and pronounced "hack" by graduates or onlookers; the word fits), or Pensacola Christian College....

Granted--but then those "Christian" "schools" were never able to successfully launder their poor academic reputations. Just mentioning Bob Jones in mixed company is an interesting experiment, because some evangelicals hate him and most Southern Baptists think he was a true hero. It is not good to have such a polarized public image.

Plus we could mention Patriot Bible University, which is top-rank awfulness in "higher learning". A blatant Bible degree mill, nearly crashed and burned when a sex-abuse scandal struck in 2011, and the alma mater of Kent Hovind. Even in spite of that plus the Baptist church that founded it having gone under because of child-abuse complaints, PBU somehow continues, in their shitty little cinderblock building in middle-of-nowhere Colorado.

I'm seriously amazed this "universities to fear" thing has managed to survive on Wikia. Normally something this hostile would be quickly destroyed, leaving not even an archive.org copy. Jimbo finally figured out how to "rewrite history" at least to meet HIS narrow standards of "reality".

ericbarbour wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 21, 2020 3:33 am

[b....]I'm seriously amazed this "universities to fear" thing has managed to survive on Wikia. Normally something this hostile would be quickly destroyed, leaving not even an archive.org copy. Jimbo finally figured out how to "rewrite history" at least to meet HIS narrow standards of "reality".[/b]

There were attempts by people from a Texas university to delete what was written about them years ago, but it was saved as "problems from previous job search years".....If you survive years of grad school, saving "primary sources" (notes, historical documentation, etc.) has been beaten into you to the point where it is second nature. Jimmy is not an academic - he thinks he is because Wikipedia is quasi-pseudo-academic, but his never-disowning Ayn Rand dumps him in the crank file. Rand saw herself as a dissident philosopher of sorts and not the hack propagandist for US capitalism that she actually was. Wales would be tolerable if he had moved past Rand to her source, Friedrich Nietzsche - who, love him or hate him, was a real-deal philosopher and is still being mulled over in academic journals to this day, mostly because he was a foundational figure for postmodernism (mostly for his extreme skepticism, not for his failed "transubstantiation of values" project.)

Bishop's University (Quebec, Canada) Sociology

The department of three full time faculty members have no respect for their sessional and junior faculty. The one genuinely nice faculty member is currently on a leave. They expect you to just take their abuse and accept that is the way the world works. They put you down to make themselves feel better, particularly one senior faculty member. Since I cannot mention any names, I will call her "fake nails," the fake "nice" personality goes well with the nails. You will be in for a shock, when she reveals her true character. If you have good publications, you will see it sooner rather than later. While publications will get you hired here, they will not get you friends in this department.

This was a really nice, supportive place when the faculty needed me to fix their program, but that all changed once I finished writing the course descriptions for their course catologues, course names, and assisted the faculty in updating their degree requirements. Once they think they have their hooks in you, the corrupt institutional behaviour begins. The university and APBU president don't know anything about employment and human rights legislation in Canada. Their overt violations of employment law in Canada is unbelievable.

The faculty gossip with students about their colleagues' teaching. If a student is angry with you, they will actually use statements made by other faculty you thought were your friends. Most of the faculty get rewarded for teaching nothing in their courses. It's perfectly acceptable to play videos in your classes all semester. Even after holding two sessional appointments, the faculty never let you into their circle. You always feel like an outsider in this department and unworthy to be there. The faculty hold yearly teaching evaluations with the dean and two students. You know nothing about this until the faculty appoint two students who hate you enough to actually slander you on the committee. When you try to defend yourself and even receive letters of support from students to prove those were slanderous comments, the faculty will treat you even more like an outsider and call you crazy. This is, by far, the most toxic department I have ever been a part of and the administration is utterly useless in helping you. You have to make friends with people in other departments to survive Bishop's. The people in sociology are fake and get off on bullying junior faculty and trying to make them feel horrible about themselves. The only conversations you have with faculty involve them disparaging a previous instructor who taught your courses. None of the faculty have any experience teaching methods, so they base this opinion entirely on what students say, although they take opinions from students with the lowest grade in your course.

I feel so bad for the contract instructor who taught my courses. When she applied to teach the aging course in 2018, I was present when "fake nails" ridiculed her application. She made fun of her for talking about taking care of her elderly mother in her cover letter. This poor instructor has no idea how little the faculty of her. They make fun of her every chance they get. She teaches in the psychology and sports studies departments but has no idea that the sociology department will never hire her to teach a course again because of some rumours that probably are not even true. She teaches so many courses, there is no way there is any truth to what the faculty say about her. She's been casted out of the department of sociology clique. Once your casted out, your dead to the faculty.

A yearly evaluation can easily turn into a reputation smearing campaign if the two students hate you. The faculty will not tell you which students they select to assess your teaching to the entire department and dean (apparently withholding this information is a requirement) nor ask for your input on which students to appoint.

If they are out to smear your reputation, they will appoint the least appropriate students to the committee: two students who were the least prepared for the most difficult course you teach, out of 12 classes, an upper level statistics course. Yes, the university deems it acceptable to appoint students who have only taken one course out of 12 with you, have no actual mentorship experience with you to be able to present in the meeting, were not adequately preparred for your course, and (one student had the lowest course grade). This is considered a fair and just practice at Bishop's University.

You have no support. The APBU is useless. If you are a victim of harassment and bullying, you are on your own and have to remain sane somehow.

They use you to fix their undergraduate program and are nice to you when they need something from you. After they get what they want from you, they humiliate you and then expect you to be happy because you were selected for the position. You are lucky, lucky, lucky. You are lucky if you can keep your sanity. The faculty also don't care about their good students who are quiet. They focus all of their attention on the loud, outgoing students, so much so those students think they have complete control over you as a junior faculty member. The students and the university are not bad. The sociology faculty are absolutely toxic. If you have more scholarly output than they do, they (particularly one senior faculty member) will use students to make herself feel superior to you, while the other faculty follow. (Hint: Fake nails, fake personality). My entire class told me about how terrified students are of this one particular person. No one speaks in her classes. When one student questioned what she was saying in front of the class, he was never able to return to her class again. The faculty are all two-faced. They will act nice to your face but look for anything to smear your reputation behind your back. The worst part is that you will hear about it from students appealing their final grades in your course.

You will be stuck teaching the largest courses (130 students), the required courses students hate. Apparently, none of the full-time faculty are competent in research methods or statistics.

Other points: Eighty per cent of students plagiarize and instructors are stuck dealing with it. You can imagine how unmanageable this becomes in a class of 130 students.

Their retirement pension plan does not have enough money to support all the faculty currently retired, so you have to pay an additional 9% of your bi-weekly salary into their retirement pension plan (about 18% total). It keeps going up every year. Your salary will look amazing on the surface but expect about $20,000 in deductions for taxes and the retirement pension plan.

There is limited parking space. If you teach class after 9am, you will have to park all the way at the Sports Complex or spend 10-minutes waiting for someone to leave.

The university does not put any salt on the actual parking spots in their parking lots. Walking to your car in the winter is dangerous, plowed or not, and their winters are cold and long. They get an insane amount of snow. Don't come here if you are single. Sherbrooke is nice on the outside, but the majority of people living here are without a secondary school education, underemployed or on welfare, and many of the town folk don't speak English. Most of the people living in Sherbrooke are poor and in poverty. 4-litres of milk costs over $6.00 in Quebec. It is heart-breaking to see a father with his kids having to remove items from his basket, so he can purchase 1 litre of milk for his two children. I have given children cash at the grocery store, when their parent is not looking, to buy themselves something when I see how little their parent is able to purchase to feed two kids at a cheap store like Super C. The amount they charge for milk in Quebec is criminal. Most of the children here are living in low income homes, so you have to be okay with seeing kids and single parents that look like they would be living in a third world country.

Holy Family University (PA) Humanities

(2019) This university is fundamentally dishonest and possibly unethical in the way they conduct searches. First of all, I was part of a fake search, which I didn't pick up on until afterwards. Happens to the best of us, I guess? But more significantly, they are NOT upfront about the fact that they don't have a tenure system. I discovered this on my own by doing research after I'd already been invited to my (fake search) campus interview. Instead of offering tenure, they give you a series of three-year contracts. At some point you get promoted to "associate professor" or something, but you still have zero job security. Which is probably related to the fact that the university is not on solid ground financially.

Campus visit was rather strenuous, considering the fact that it was ceremonial (i.e. fake). Lengthy teaching demonstration was required. Taught someone else's 90-minute class the day before a major semester holiday. Glad to provide that professor with a "bullshit day" right before the break; less thrilled that I gave up a nonrefundable plane ticket for the pleasure of doing so. (The fact that the visit was held right before Major Holiday probably should have clued me into its fakeness, but what can I say, I remained stupidly optimistic throughout the process.)

But maybe that's not entirely my fault--the committee did throw me some mixed signals during the visit. I was given a tour of the building and told things like, "This is where your office will be--see, we've set it aside just for you!" And, "This is where we all eat lunch together every day--we have such a strong sense of community. You'll fit right in!" Found out through various contacts later that I was never a serious contender for the position.

Even so, it took the department two months to send me a "Dear Applicant" rejection letter in the mail. Was not reimbursed for campus visit. (Would have been nice to get a personal thank-you from the professor whose 90-minute class I taught right before Major Semester Holiday. You're welcome, asshole.)

But maybe it was a blessing in disguise--Holy Family U. currently has a C- from Forbes in terms of its financial viability, and I can't imagine things will get better with coronavirus shut-downs. It's a very overpriced private school that looks and feels like a community college or tiny branch campus. Four or five buildings total; library isn't even open on weekends. The nicest building in the vicinity isn't even part of the university--it's a high school run by the same order of nuns.

Tl;dr: Holy Family doesn't reimburse for campus visits; doesn't have a tenure system; requires its fake candidates for its fake searches to teach 90-minute classes; and doesn't have the wherewithal or graciousness to keep its fake candidates apprised of fake search updates. I wonder what it's like to adjunct for these people.

California State University Northridge (CSUN)

English

The CSUN English department does not value quality teaching or active scholarship. New hires are routinely told that their research will be supported. This is a lie. They are given an initially lightened teaching load, then after a year or two pressured into department-level, college-level, and university-level committee work on top of a 4-4 teaching schedule. When the 4-4 becomes too much, some of them are offered program administration positions in return for a reduction in teaching load. New hires rarely manage to maintain a research and publication program, and as a result, either those ambitions are abandoned, or the new hires leave. The last two people this department hired left for more supportive departments after less than two years.

This department will be hiring in 2019-2020. Let the candidate beware. The most active and credible scholars and writers in this department carry the heaviest teaching loads, while the lightest teaching loads are given to those who are favored by the administration, those who agree to join the ranks of the program administrators, and those whom the term "deadwood" fits neatly. Faculty meetings were an excruciating exercise in watching the deadwood squelch any and all ideas for change introduced by the more ambitious attendees. Do some digging. Find CVs, where you can. Find teaching evaluations, where you can. Ask, if you interview here, how much of a role your research will have in this department, and how much of a role the research, if any, of the search committee members plays in this department.

Also note that this department will have you do a "teaching" demonstration that amounts to little more than trying to run a class discussion with members of the search committee pretending to be students. I found it to be the most impossibly awkward experience, and it bore no resemblance to my eventual teaching conditions with actual students at the university.

If you apply here, be forewarned. The bright picture they paint for you does not resemble the grim reality you will find if you take the job.

[8/21/2019] Not the person(s?) above, but can speak to the recent faculty losses. The campus’ students, and the department’s majors, are predominantly non-white, but the department's tenure-line faculty is overwhelmingly white, and the two who just left were among the very few faculty members of color the department had. Not a friendly environment for non-white students or faculty. There has been an ongoing pattern of reported incidents involving abusive behavior/language toward female students and students of color, involving several white faculty members.

[8/24/2019] The faculty in this department has one or two good people who helped me and to whom I remain grateful, but as for the rest, it is mostly a refuge for sexist/racist underachievers and idiots and headcases. The fact that those people got PhDs is nothing less than an indictment of doctoral education. The one or two good people don't run things there, either. The idiots and headcases do.

[8/25/2019] Academic grifters. How is it that a faculty that with rare exceptions does little or no research and publishing is supposed to teach us how to engage in research and publishing? Frauds. If you are looking for a job here, and you are a fraud, then you will fit right in. If not, look elsewhere. Unless you went through a PhD program in order to become a yes-woman who pushes paper rather than writes papers (or Goddess forbid, books), this is not the place for you. Any scholarly ambition you have will be crushed out of you.

[8/30/2019] If you interview with the English department at CSUN, you might ask why the department has had so much trouble keeping new tenure-track professors, especially new professors of color. But better yet, run, do not walk, in the opposite direction. Leave this place's corpse to the buzzards circling overhead.

[9/12/2019] Racism and sexism run rampant in that department. That's been an open secret for a long time. Practically every faculty member of color that place has ever had has gone running for the hills.

[9/20/2019] This is an interesting portrait of the CSUN English department: http://textontrial.blogspot.com/2016/04 ... ature.html

[9/20/2019] This is an interesting portrait of CSUN, and race relations there in general: "The university is a plantation that is run by white overseers that are getting increasingly defensive about their illegitimacy."

https://www.facebook.com/XicanoInstitut ... 357667080/

[9/25/2019] Racism is simply out of control on that campus. If you are a person of color, and you take a job there, you are in for a very nasty time. https://citywatchla.com/index.php/los-a ... ote-racism

[9/25/2019] But wait, there's a whole lot more:
https://www.dailynews.com/2012/07/09/cs ... cial-bias/
https://www.laprogressive.com/racial-di ... nia-state/
https://www.einnews.com/pr_news/4612128 ... ge-problem
https://caeducatorsunited.wordpress.com ... on-on-cdi/
https://www.collegefactual.com/colleges ... rsity.html
This is getting a little bit over the top. This website isn't an investigative journalism website dedicated to one department of one university, with new addition every other day. Perhaps there is enough at it is now, so time to take a break?
The situation there is what is over the top, but thanks for the intervention in the authoritative voice of Whiteness. Which member of the current faculty or administration are you?

[9/1/2019] I am a long-time member of the lecturer faculty, and I can say without any hesitation that this department should hang its head in abject shame at the way it treats its students and its faculty—especially its lecturers. Among the latter, almost no consideration whatsoever is given to expertise and experience when assigning courses--many are simply doled out to the favorites of the current Chair regardless of qualifications or lack thereof. (This new Chair is the first one that any of us can remember who has refused to meet with us to discuss our concerns.) This department rewards complacency and compliance. It is run via backroom deals made by a cabal of do-nothings and know-nothings. These arrant knaves cover their machinations with a thin pretense of democratic process that is abandoned whenever necessary to serve the interests of the tenured and talentless Baby-Boomers who have a stranglehold on everything in the department.

[9/2/2019] I was on the tenure-track there. I left. My earlier comment was ill-considered and made out of frustration. But my current institution supports both my scholarship and my teaching. And that's all I really ever wanted. If you are there, best of luck to you.
[9/13/2019] Same as above. It's just good to be in a more supportive environment now.

[11/7/2019] I was also on the tenure-track there and left. Everything reported above is true. The department culture is toxic: many senior faculty are hostile to junior faculty who propose changes to any level of the department, dismissive of the lecturers whose grossly underpaid labor they rely on in order to entrench themselves in non-teaching service positions, and so forth. I would have serious reservations about encouraging any of my Ph.D. students to take a job there, even with the market as bad as it is.
[12/10/2019] The students are noticing too: https://sundial.csun.edu/156057/opinion ... illennium/

U of Alabama-Birmingham English

They contacted me by email about a VAP position, wanting to set up a phone interview. I provided a phone number where I could be reached at one of only three hours they had available. Three days before the interview, they wrote to confirm date and time--they had the wrong phone number, so I again provided the one to use. I sit by the phone--no one calls. I go home, and they had left messages on my home number--never checked the two emails I sent, apparently, and just called any old number they found on my cv (including trying me at my departmental office--who's taking calls there?). I check my rage, and email them (this is now a weekend), politely reminding that I had waited patiently for their call, and asking if we could reschedule a time (while knowing perfectly well that some or all of the members would be pissed off at me, or the search chair for screwing up the number). On Monday, I receive an email telling me that they only had that time set aside, and have had to make their decision. THEN TRY TO PASS THE BLAME ON TO ME!! The chair never once acknowledged any fault or mistake and showed not one bit of common human decency in her reply. I sent a message to all of the committee members describing this and noting that their (her) behavior told me all I needed to know about working in that department. 2/08

U of Alabama-Birmingham English

Dysfunctional department. There is a high turnover of junior faculty, especially in creative writing. The department is still recovering after three years of no real leadership. The new chair seems promising but is still in his honeymoon period. The faculty has not yet turned against him. In terms of sexism, this is a very sexist department, sadly.

U. Alabama - Tuscaloosa English

4/4 load, but most non-TT faculty must teach 5/5 or moonlight to eat. Non-TT faculty prevented from teaching graduate and some upper division classes, while forced to do "service" (admin) work. Overload classes NOT counted as service for non-TT faculty. Non TT-faculty not allowed to teach large classes or have teaching asistants (no matter how many students you teach). No say in faculty governance. Not allowed to represent department on campus committees. (FYI, those are departmental decisions, not College or University rules.)

Recently forced non-TT faculty from shared offices into cubicle farm - imagine trying to prep in a windowless room with 25 other instructors. Old offices awarded to undergrad orgs. Below average salary, no research support, travel support only for pedagogy conferences. Faculty refuse to hire current non-TT faculty into open TT positions. End-of-year evals done by random chance. If the first comment the Chair sees is positive, you're a good teacher. If the first comment she sees is negative, you may be fired.

Tuscaloosa has a very low standard of living, unless you want to drink beer and watch football. NO COFFEE SHOPS, little in the way of art, cinema, yoga/alternative healing, organic, etc. While these are available, there is typically only one provider in the city. Restaurants vary from bland to poor. Cost of living is very high (more than New Orleans, Austin, or Atlanta).

U of Alaska Anchorage

?

I was hired as a Term Instructor and accepted the position. It's an open secret at this university that term instructors (who comprise 1/3 of the faculty) are bombarded with service obligations, nearly on par with tenure-track faculty, while they do not have the job security or rights of tenure-track members. My list of service obligations is growing, and I have very little in the way of stopping it. After a year, I can say that while it's possible to get some research done in my free time, I have really struggled to do this, and sometimes had so many service obligations that I had trouble keeping up with my teaching. Another issue: while I have been promised a renewal of my contract back in October, this still hasn't happened and will not happen until August. Do they really expect absolutely everyone who is hired (out of a national market, in many cases, and with Ph.D.s in hand for this kind of position) to sit in Alaska, not apply for jobs because they've been made a verbal promise, and wait anxiously for their contracts to be renewed / non-renewed? It's humiliating and unsettling not to know for sure if I have a job with them next year. There is also a slew of other issues for term instructors that they will not tell you about until you suddenly find yourself in a really messy situation. That said, I love my students, many of my colleagues are great people, and we have many talented, motivated ones up here. It's a joy to teach here, it pays really well (as well as a tenure-track job would), and Alaska is beautiful. I just wish I had more time to teach, and to do my own stuff.

The "pays really well" comment is likley not for anyone in the humanities. Union rep very helpful for negotiating a better offer for TT position.

U of Alberta Mod lang

Rude young colleagues, borderline hateful/psycho (they preferred another candidate, yet this is not the way to act in a professional setting). Unnecesary hostility. They hate their students, and older colleagues. Jan 2008.

U of Arkansas Little Rock Modern Languages

Dysfunctional department. Chair is wonderful and supportive, but high turnover among junior faculty. Conflict between senior faculty and administration, between senior faculty and junior faculty in recent past.

Had an on-campus there for a TT position and never heard from anyone regarding the results. Main office had a disorganized appearance. I was a few weeks from my defense date, and they didn't even pretend to care about my research. No one asked about it, not once. I'm aware that they've since gone through a number of junior colleagues, one of whom abandoned ship mid-semester. I don't know what's going on there, but it's not good. I'd advise to stay away.

UC Berkeley Humanities

Department chair scheduled a phone interview, but never called. It took months to schedule a campus visit and SC changed the format of job talk at the last minute. On campus: there was no meeting with the dean, some faculties were hostile and said they didn't want to hire anyone, one SC member cancelled dinner meeting while the other showed up 40 minutes early, department chair cancelled an interview at whim, program director failed to show up for his own interview, university librarian stood up the candidate and later explained that nobody made an appointment with him that day. One outside faculty warned that the department was trying hard to sabotage this job search and was too dysfunctional to do anything. Was asked inappropriately personal questions. No official rejection call or mail.

U of California-Irvine Art History

What a low-class institution! I received this email rejection:"Dear applicants to the position in early modern art at UCI:Please pardon this group e-mail, but writing in this manner will get the word out to you all sooner than if we took the time to write individual letters.I want to let you know that the position is now filled. The pool this year was extraordinarily strong, and our faculty felt that a very large number of applicants would have been able to make a contribution to UCI. We are grateful to you all for the time you devoted to preparing your materials for our consideration. I wish you all the best in your future professional endeavors, Sincerely, ***** [Commitee Chair]"

"Took the time to write individual letters?" Wouldn't want you to have to do that... [Hey, it's better than NOTHING, which is what I've gotten from a lot of schools.

For what its worth, I actually wrote to ***** [Commitee Chair] after receiving my mass e-mail, explaining (gently) that such procedures were unprofessional and reflected badly on his department. (I also mentioned that I had spent time in the professional sector before going into academe). He sent me a very sincere apology, explaining that he thought he was doing us a favor by getting the information out quickly. He also said that if he had it to do again, he would never send out another mass e-mail.
I find the above post on UCI to be stupid and trite. Why is it so important to some people to get an individualized letter on bond paper with university letterhead delivered by postal mail with a message from the department saying that they are not interested? In an age of e-mail and California's terrible budget crisis, I would see no problem in saving time and money by sending out rejection messages via a group e-mail. I would rather know the results as soon as possible, regardless of the medium. This poster shows very little tact in mentioning the search committee member's name online. I would ask that this be removed.
I removed the committee member's name.

U of California-San Diego Communication

Department extended an offer to my friend and then rescinded it without a logical reason. They claimed it was because friend wasn't graduating in May (despite friend having finished the dissertation to be defended in June and making that timeline clear in the cover letter, and despite advisor offering to push up the defense after the rescinded offer). When friend's advisor called department to offer to push up the defense date, department urged his advisee to reapply in the future.

University of Central Arkansas Biology

The department had some kind of strange weirdness about it. I interviewed with each faculty member individually and all had different and incompatible versions of what was required for tenure. A few faculty, whom I was familiar with, were very nice, but most turned me off. They have instructors that throw their weight around as if they have superior stature to other faculty, and to some extent appear to be treated superiorly. During my talk, one temporary/permanent instructor (not a professor)continually interrupted me with some of the more idiotic questions I had ever heard. Then, to top it off, no students and only a few faculty showed up in the evening social! When I came to the school, I was somewhat familiar with it. I brought my wife and told her to scope out the housing market because I would get the offer. I did get the offer. After the crazy interview process, I turned it down. I did like the campus and the region, but the department was the most bizarre places I ever visited. And, I've been around!

University of Chicago Art History

I've seen this often enough I feel someone should comment. Beware of Chicago's annual pancosmic/panchronic, fake tenure-track searches that inevitably 'fail'. They have become a laughing stock or pariah for this (depending on if you have a job or not). Every to every other year they put out an absurdly wide call in three or more fields simultaneously. Some of these are lines still open from a faculty member expiring or retiring years past which they don't want to lose, but can't agree among themselves to fill. Approach it like buying a lottery ticket, but unless they contact you under the table, don't take it too seriously nor waste energy on it; (dates 2003-2009).

Yes, could not agree more--I have heard that this is a university-wide thing, actually.
Do you have any evidence for this? In almost every case I can think of over the past 8 years, the reason for casting a wide net was that the department does not think in narrow field-specific terms but seeks to find someone who can best contribute to the department, creating links across fields. It is true that sometimes an offer is made that's not accepted, or the dean turns the department's pitch down, hence no one is hired. But more often than not, a hire has been made.

University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music Musicology

extremely dysfunctional department, full of bad politics and sniping; students regularly bad-mouth the dept at conferences and there is a high attrition rate. Standards for tenure are really low, so I guess if you want to slack and still get tenure, this is the place. 2005

Hostile faculty at interviews. 2007.

University of Hawaii-West O'ahu History

[4/2020] The first red flag was when I received an email from the academic personnel specialist assisting with the search last December 10, letting me know that an email had been sent to me via NeoGov on Nov 29 to invite me for a Skype interview. I checked all of my folders, including junk mail, but I couldn't find the email. The SC also gave me a specific date for the interview, Dec 18, and a choice of two time slots, both of which were during an already-scheduled flight. Fortunately, the SC agreed to reschedule the interview.

Eventually, I received a campus visit. The chair and another academic personnel specialist assisting with the search answered all of my pre-visit questions and gave me a schedule in a timely manner. After arriving from halfway around the world, my Feb 3 visit overall was fine--the chair was very gracious and enthuasiastic about me, everyone else seemed nice, and I had a positive impression of the university. The only hiccup was a scheduling mistake that the chair made--I ended up only meeting with one of the two vice-chancellors for academic affairs for a rushed 10 minutes. The other VC assured me (echoed by the chair) that I would hear back within a week or two.

More than 3 weeks later, nothing. On Feb 26, I emailed the first academic personnel specialist I mentioned for an update, as well as reminding him that if anything was emailed via NeoGov, that I probably hadn't received it. He responded, saying a decision hadn't been made yet, and it was still with the VC who was making the final selection. Another week and a half--nothing. So I emailed the SC on March 5 for an update--he said the search had not yet closed, and couldn't say more. Again, nothing, until March 18, when I emailed the academic personnel specialist for another update. No response. It had been a month and a half since my campus visit. I also knew that much of the country, including many universities, were starting to shut down, so I took that into consideration. So I waited some more. Until April 9, when I emailed the SC for yet another update. The next day he responded, wondering why I hadn't heard from the VCAA's office, because they had, in fact, finally selected a candidate and closed the search. The following week, on April 16, I received an email from the academic personnel specialist, apologizing for the fact that I never received the formal rejection letter that was dated on 3/30, and that was sent via NeoGov--the same service they used to send the Skype interview email that I never received, and that I reminded him in my first email requesting an update. The rejection letter itself was a form letter consisting of two sentences. Basically, "Thanks, Nope, Bye."

So, it took UHWO almost two months to close the search, never sent me updates unless I asked for one (and even after the timeline surpassed the 1-2 week timeline I was given), didn't respond to one of my requests for an update, and couldn't even correctly send me the formal rejection letter that barely acknowledged my efforts or existence.

Again, I want to take into account the current pandemic and how much it's disrupted searches and univerities in general, but c'mon. This was absolutely ridiculous. Proper, timely, and humane communication can and should still take place even during a pandemic. My mentors and colleagues agree--this is not how a search should be run.

University of Idaho Any

[5/19] The university is dysfunctional at several levels and been mismanaged for a long time. The worst part is that there is no accountability for the mess created by the administrators. The incomptency and bureucracy has percolated to all levels of heirarchy and is visible in all aspects.

Being a land grant, its no longer the leading research university in the state and several programs are not even ranked anymore, neither do the admins care about it.

Save few exceptions, the staff don't work or show up during work hours and when they do work, the ineptitude is visible. This is also compounded by the high turnover rate as people who dont have family in the area, don't stick around for long. Some key areas (finance, research, admissions) are severely understaffed while unnecessary admin positions are way overstaffed, who add very little value. The infrastructure is failing, there is serious space shortage while investments have been made on buildings which are barely used. The enrollments have been on a steady decline and all these have resulted in serious budget cuts that will likely turn UI into a community teaching college. Its not suprising as this is what the old timers are comfortable doing.
There is no plan to turn around the free fall. Provost's office will come up with plans to become R1 university while the department chair and old timers would ridicule these plans and turn the gears in reverse direction towards becoming an R3 institution.
Don't consider employment unless you want to sign up for a bleak future in a place thats falling apart.

University of Illinois Black Studies

campus visit, then nary a word from them ever again.

University of Illinois at Chicago

This institution eats its young. Heads are rolling high and low and this is not a safe place to entrust with your career.

This university may have problems of various kinds (one being the fact it is located in the State of Illinois), but the comment is unclear, uninformative, vague, unsubstantiated, and best I can tell incorrect.


Univ of Kentucky English/Rhet-Comp

These folks aren't really to be feared, but they should be taken to task for failure to build collegiality or confidence, esp. since both seem key to achieving all they want to achieve for RC. For starters, MLA interviews were conducted by only one person in the field. Bodes strange for a group that's bigger than that and eager to build. Also may be a sign that RC is doomed to follow the beck/call of lit and linguistics, the dominant areas in that department. Next, that one RC person seemed defensive about hir recent decisions and accomplishments, and s/he also seemed somewhat competitive with more than one candidate. Last, this is a group that needs to heed #12 on the Dear Search Committees page.

Univ. of Louisville All

Except for some, faculty was ok. Some centers with ethics problems. Interview lunch/dinner include family members of faculty (inappropriate use of the university funding). I was called to show up, but no faculty there; Promises not warranted; Disorganized; Questions not answered. Offers inconsistent among candidates. Before accepting an offer, better to check if faculty leaves recently. (Agree with what the above has to say, many times over. Had a professor tell me: "Why do you want to study public housing? They should just bulldoze it all." History department is full of old, white men, like the example I just gave. Sad, because the city itself seemed somewhat interesting.)

Univ. of Louisville Gheens Center

Explained the job as a 5 year contract, but it was annual contract. The way how the center is handled is micromanipulative and self-centered. It is painful to see happy faces of faculties and postdocs are becoming gloomy. Good faculties left. Is it appropriate that a director at a medical school cannot secure a NIH grant for her lab? Much effort is not on good science. The director's attendance is poor; she is mostly at home, claiming full time. Unless collaborate with her, you will have hard time getting signature, using facility and equipment; or may be forced out for no reason (she is good at making up). Unhealthy center at any level.

U. of Maryland, Baltimore County All

I know processing new employees takes time and doesn't always go smoothly, but you would think this university would treat their new employees a bit more nicely and set the right tone. No. The university did not pay me or give me healthcare for the first several months, while they processed my employment paperwork with the State of Maryland. Instead of telling me in advance about this extended delay (which they knew happens with every new hire every year), they told us on the first day of orientation. Instead of seeming embarrassed or apologetic, the staff joked that I shouldn't get sick in the meanwhile and said I shouldn't have waited until the orientation to start the paperwork. Of course, I was not told about this problem at any point during my interview, campus visit, negotiation process, or apartment trip after I had accepted the offer. Instead of helping me, they blamed me for not knowing about a bureaucratic process that they never told me about. In the end, I had to spend hundreds of dollars on independent healthcare during these months, all the while working without pay. There are serious problems at this university when it comes to providing healthcare and other forms of support such as parental leave to their employees. I cannot imagine what the experience would be like for someone who is in a service position, adjucting, or not tenured.

UMBC owes me thousands of dollars in research expenses, which they haven't reimbursed me for more than 9 months. The department says it's up to Business Services. Business Services says it's up to the State of Maryland. The State of Maryland says it's up to UMBC. Round and round it goes. Meanwhile, faculty are essentially subsidizing the university with their meager salaries! All of this is taking place during COVID-19 and eviction extensions, when people need money the most. I really don't understand why people keep saying UMBC is one of the best places to work for.

I ended up paying sales tax on my department purchases and income tax when they reimbursed me. This is ridiculous. My department really doesn't care they would rather make me lose money than be competent.

U. of Maryland, College Park Communication

Has plenty of good people, but it's been in a transition phase for the past several years and is prone to in-fighting and factionalism. Not necessarily a terrible place to end up, but not a model for a functional department either. UM's teaching and service requirements are overwhelming in comparison to peer institutions.

2015 Update: It's been 5 years since I wrote the above entry. The communication department has changed significantly during that time, mostly for the better. I would still advise that job applicants ask lots of questions about department culture, to make sure it's a good "fit" for them.

University of Maryland College Park Public Health

There are some very good, kind people scattered around, but SPH is an intensely dysfunctional school with some very underqualified, scheming, temporary or pernicious administration at all levels. Would suggest extreme caution before taking a position here. Bait and switch.

UMass-Boston Performing Arts

For a position in musicology, the one musicologist in the department (a female) was excluded from the all-male search committee and then forcibly prevented from attending the question and answer session! What woman would accept a job there?! No else in the department even participated in the visit or observed.

University of Miami Art History

In many schools, the combination of the Art and Art History departments is a bit uncomfortable. At UM the pairing is poisonous. The administration supposedly doesn't like art history and so have allowed the M.A. program (the only one in S. Florida) to die. Art historians who leave are not replaced. This all pleases most of the Studio Art people, especially the two co-chairs, for they believe that they will be able to pick up the "extra" positions and funds. There is no art history chair; major duties (planning courses, scheduling, picking faculty) are allowed to be carried out by the undereducated, untrained, and not very bright slide librarian. The 3 tenured faculty (it was 10 a few years ago) are paid a great deal more and teach many fewer courses than I did. My 2-year lecturer position, for which I was paid $30,000 per year, required teaching four courses of up to 40 students each semester. I got a raise in the second year only because one of the 2 senior faculty gave me his raise(!!) Of course, at least I had a fulltime job; most of the survey and some of the upper division courses are taught by M.A. adjuncts who survive by not assigning work and giving out lots of As--esp. to athletes. The one thing that makes this bearable is that most of the students are intelligent, cheerful, and willing to work. A clamorous minority are not; they will cheat in any way possible and the Art dept chairs do not support the professor who objects. There is no support for research or any sort of funding for the lecturer. You are pressured to take on extra work, such as Honors classes, but given no support or acknowledgment. What's bizarre is that art history classes are very popular: this could easily be a thriving department producing distinguished graduates. Go on welfare instead of working here.

I think this is a little misleading in one respect: this department has never had 10 art historians, unless you count part-timers and temps, and maybe not then. I think the most they've ever had as full-time permanent faculty was four. The other craziness doesn't surprise me; I had a friend who worked there (and did the MFA program) and the former dept. chair was an alcoholic. The replacement was some sort of crony who didn't last long. The department was a mess in general. It's no wonder the administration hates them. Completely disfunctional. Such a shame.

I'm sorry to hear about your experience, but I have to say it's not very surprising. I've been a graduate student here for several years (and have thankfully just finished), and I have to imagine that many of the departments would be run similarly. It's a shame, because while the school and southern Florida in general have a lot to offer, the University is run about as inefficiently and abusively as everything else in Miami. This is not generally a place you want to be.
Follow-up to this: in 2013/14 they ran a full national tenure-track search that was 100% bogus in order to hire the wife of one of their science professors. This is someone who got her Ph.D. in the mid-1990s, never once held a tenure-track job, and had published next to nothing since the turn of the millennium. In other words someone entirely unqualified. A second recent "hire" is the husband of a science prof. Looks like the dept. has become a dumping ground for unqualified spouses rather than a serious player in the field.
Shows where Miami actually cares. Science. Humanities are just a sideline.
Read Chronicle of Higher Ed and elsewhere, the U of Miami administration is endemically corrupt and has been for decades. No surprises here.

Univ. of Michigan History

Applied for a job, had a conference interview at the AHA. After that, nothing. The chair of the search committee wouldn't return my emails and, when I ran into her at a conference later in the spring, she refused to talk to me or make eye contact. Totally unprofessional.

Why were you emailing the search committee? Did you have significant news to report? (a major journal publication? a book contract? a job offer?) If not, you should NOT be contacting the SC.

That's ridiculous. If the SC does not respond in a timely fashion, you have every right to make an inquiry. The practice of keeping all applicants hanging until a candidate has accepted an offer in writing is unfortunately widespread, but is nevertheless rude and unprofessional. But remember, many in academia have poor social skills in general, and many departments have inflated views of their own worth. I've been on both sides of the table many times, and it is important to remember that candidates are colleagues, not supplicants. (I have no experience with U.Mich specifically).

Two questions -- more from a mixture of curiosity and indignation than anything. First, was the post so bad as to require boldface and caps? Second, unless the applicant did something insane -- or, at any rate, suggestive of disturbance -- what would give anyone the right not to make eye contact or say hello? A Ph.D. does not absolve someone of the common decency one can rightfully expect from five- and six-year-olds at the local elementary school. I find this passive-aggression tiresome.

Original poster here: I contacted the chair of the SC twice. Once, because I'd received other offers for campus visits, and the chair of SC had said that she'd be getting back to me within 2-3 weeks, and I wanted to know if it was definitely a no-go while I was trying to schedule other visits on top of a heavy teaching load. The second time I emailed her was to say that I'd accepted a job offer. Didn't hear back either time.

Okay......but that's really going off the edge. No school is a golden shining fount of knowledge, they all have flaws and disgruntled "customers". As you well know, ratemyprofessor.com is routinely abused by angry students to "punish" instructors, often without good reason.

You should hear MIT grads talk about it. The few MIT people I've met were full of brutal contempt for the arrogant shits who run the place. At Dionex we had a chemist who dropped out of MIT after fighting with the administration about some trivial issue with his M.S. dissertation. Very smart guy, talent going to waste working on chromatography columns. And for the "greatest technical university in the world" most of the faculty seems to be both underpaid and not especially competent. Not that it matters, all the MITers I ran into were uniformly arrogant snobs themselves. Harvarders and Yalies, same thing.

Don't start me on Bob Orban. Interviewed for a job at his company long ago, and he openly treated me like shit. Hope he's burning in whatever petty little hell is reserved for assholey Harvard grads. Still amazed his company survived. (Every FM radio station on earth HAS to have one of their Optimod processor things. As if it were some kind of "magic box". And people wonder why the broadcast radio business is declining.)