Looking at colleges for my son for fall, and as an educator I know that how the administration treats their faculty, staff, and students is really important for overall culture and wellness. Any suggestions where to find out this information? I’m going to go on tours and embarrass my kid by asking, but I’d love to know if anyone has any recommendations for where to find out faculty turnover, satisfaction rankings, etc. Thanks!
Purdue releases their COACHE faculty satisfaction surveys. Not sure if that is common place or not.
You could also read through the campus newspapers.
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That’s a hard one. I was also going to say looking through newspapers but honestly I feel like school newspapers aren’t going to publish “we love our administration pieces”. They are only going to publish info when they are not happy with the administration for some reason for another.
Niche publishes a list of schools with the best faculty which might be a way to get some information. I believe niche lists are voted on by students.
My daughter’s school has great course/faculty evals but I believe those are only available to students.
This is really an interesting topic. In retrospect I think one of the things that drew my daughter to her school was some very positive interactions with the faculty and administration. We went to an admitted student day at her school and they had a reception the night before. There were a lot of faulty there who went really out of their way to talk and provide honest information about the school. At one point a women started talking and said she was really happy that the college president had an unexpected cancellation and so he was able to attend the event and it turned out he was the man standing right next to us. He turned around and started chatting with my daughter and was so kind and welcoming and interested in her. It all set the tone for our visit. And it didn’t turn out to just be smoke and mirrors. The faculty and administration has been overall great and accessible.
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Pitt has a newspaper for faculty and staff called the University Times. It’s published by the school so it doesn’t really have the dissenting views, but it does give a different perspective on things. I stumbled on it originally when looking for the student newspaper and still give it a peek every so often. For example, back when the school was delaying its decision on whether to require vaccines, this paper actually had quotes from profs and results of a faculty vote on the subject. It was more info than was available anywhere else.
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It’s hard to correlate the elements you are describing.
There are colleges with sub-par “employee relations” (typically staff, whether unionized, not unionized, or trying to unionize) which have very high student satisfaction rates, exceptional faculty, sky high graduation rates. So it’s like anything else. Sometimes these things correlate and sometimes not. Will it impact the student experience if the university is cutting back on lifetime medical insurance for retirees (which is usually a hot-button item in a benefits package)?
I view like my medical providers. My primary care physician has been named “Doctor of the year” for 8 out of the last 10 years (in a very competitive medical market). Patients LOVE LOVE LOVE her. She is an exceptional provider, she will take calls at 3 am (you get the service, but a few minutes later she calls back) and will never let you go a weekend without getting test results. Goes the extra mile for patients, comes in early, stays late, listens, follows up. I have a neighbor who was a nurse in her practice and said she is a HORROR SHOW as a boss. Demanding, high standards, encourages extra certifications and professional development but only if they benefit the practice, i.e. you want to get trained for a particular procedure or specific equipment- great. You want to leave early on Tuesdays and Thursdays for your yoga class? Ha ha ha. You’ll be fighting that battle twice a week.
Frankly- as a patient of the practice- do I care? To be honest I don’t. I’ve always found the receptionists, billers, nurses, and the PA to be topnotch professionals who do their jobs, are discreet with sensitive information, and always know when to elevate an issue to one of the physicians (not just my own doc) when they are out of their comfort zone/need a doctor’s perspective. And meticulous about Covid protocols. So do I care that the Doc’s are terrible bosses? I guess I should. But since it doesn’t impact me, and it took a long time to find a doctor I liked (who is rarely late, takes calls on weekends, all that stuff you can no longer count on) do I care which doc is a PIA to work for?
There are going to be management issues at every single college in America, and sometimes it’s NOT because of a terrible administration. I’d be looking for the right academics and environment, and leave the “is this a good workplace environment” stuff to employees who are looking to work there. I’ve got elderly relatives (some deceased_ - former faculty- who remembered that complaining about “out of touch” Deans and administrators dates back to the 1940’s and 1950’s!!! Every faculty meeting was contentious, every line budget item got fought over, everyone was convinced the president needed to be impeached.
That’s just how it is… or at least, has been, for decades.
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Apparently, the physician was not so terrible a boss that she drove away good other staff to the point that she could only hire lower quality other staff that would have impacted the quality of service you encountered if that actually occurred.
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You could look at some online newspapers of colleges your S is interested and see if anything pops up.
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