Universities to fear
From Scratchpad
|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!
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General Q: how is it possible that any department can get away with NOT reimbursing a visiting candidate for travel expenses? It's appalling. Surely MLA (and other organizations) could do something to monitor or even "motivate" departments who engage in this kind of conduct (e.g., not allowing them to list job postings on the Job Information List the following year). Grad students especially need to be protected from such things.
[edit] Table columns are sortable, just click on the arrow next to the column header.
Formatting for the table
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| School || Department || Issue......Date
Please add responses using an asterisk to denote a bullet point.
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.
| School | Department | Issue and Date |
|---|---|---|
| Bard C | English | FYI: By all means apply, but I recommend taking a job at Bard only as a completely LAST resort...(REBUTTAL APPEARS IN DISCUSSION, ACCESS ABOVE BY PRESSING THE DISCUSSION BUTTON NEAR THE EDIT PAGE BUTTON)
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| Bard C | All | Bard is a troubled institution. There are many reasons for this: an unusually powerful and unstable administration, including the president and the Dean of the College, a complete lack of faculty governance and resulting infantilization of the faculty, and a culture of fealty, fear, and lies. The college has a disturbing history of firing/not retaining faculty of color and gay men in particular, although all probationary faculty are at risk, the college's own tenure and promotion guidelines are regularly violated during third-year and tenure reviews, and the college has a peculiarly strong sense of itself (fit) grounded in the whims of its well-known and long-tenured president that works to enforce narrow senses of faculty roles and placement (i.e., racism and homophobia). It's relationship to curriculum programming is parochial; many of its older, tenured faculty are remarkably conservative in a disciplinary sense, and do not nor want to understand contemporary training of graduate students; searches are regularly voided by the president, and search committees themselves often engage in blatant and openly discriminatory hiring practices (for instance, not considering any applications from women of color, in the example of one search); and the differences between those empowered and those disempowered is based not in performance, teaching, or research, but in one's proximity to the president and his acolytes, in particular the current Dean. The Dean's Office regularly lies to faculty, does not follow established college procedures, and engages in patently illegal personal decisions. The college has such a troubled litigation history that there is an academic labor lawyer in New York City that *specializes* in Bard cases. Confidentiality agreements usually contain this disturbing trend (none is being broached here, btw). Use caution when applying and/or considering an offer from the college, especially for interdisciplinary-based applicants, applicants who are gay men or of color, and anyone who desires a healthy working atmosphere. |
| Bowling Green University | Art History | Scheduled my conference interview for 7:30 PM. They had been interviewing nonstop since 9:00 AM. They did not know the interviewing room closed at 7:30, so instead of decamping to a hotel room they took me to the lounge outside the crowded hotel bar and grilled me for 45 minutes in the middle of the confusion (talk about lack of privacy). Questions like "Our students don't like to read. What texts would you use in your courses?" The position was for Renaissance, Baroque and 19th C. - they asked if I could also teach American, Pre-Columbian and a Non-Western field. At 8:00 PM they decided they were hungry, sent one committee member off to buy wraps and proceeded to eat them in front of me during the interview. I have never endured such lack of professionalism in my life - and the head of the committee was a fellow student in my Ph.D. program. I have also heard from colleagues that it's just as bad once you get the job. (2/2005) |
| Brigham Young University | History | routinely hires TT faculty in Asian history who never make tenure. Last BYU Asian historian to get tenure and stay was over 40 years ago! Three have been fired/denied tenure in the five years, all with multiple pubs including books with very good presses. Problems at both department and college levels. |
| Buffalo State University | Fine Arts | I can understand not having the money to front up for a plane ticket, but when I told them I would be driving to the campus visit (900 miles round trip) I was told to save my gas receipts! Dept. chair corrected that while I was there ($.50/mile), but they couldn't affort to take me to dinner, and when we got ready for lunch, the chair picked out 4 committee members, stating that they only had enought money for those four, and "if we go over budget, I'll have to take up a collection". This while I am standing there listening to them! Associate dean gave me a pep talk about all the money to governor was planning to pump into the SUNY system, but could not (or would not) tell me about the salary range, the benefits, or the tenuring process. I left in the middle of a snow storm knowing no more about the job than when I arrived. Six WEEKS after the interview, I wrote asking for an update, and was told in a five-word e-mail that the job had already been offered. Pity the person who accepted it. It will be interesting to see if I ever get my reimbursement. |
| California State University, Channel Islands | All | Campus visit involves faculty "cohorts" (2/07 and ongoing) -- The entire campus is involved in two-day cattle calls of 30-40 applicants forming a "cohort." It's very much a beauty/popularity contest, and unfortunately, many of those in the cohort were inside candidates and/or spousal hires. My cohort included several pairs of candidates for the same position, and one member of the hiring committee didn't even show up the second day. Also, after the campus visit, referees were contacted and asked to fill out lengthy forms that included questions including whether the potential hire has a neat appearance and uses proper hygiene!?!?!?! Needless to say, my referees were horrified, and glad I didn't end up there...Monstrous, and yet I'd drop everything for a job there! |
| Cardinal Stritch Univ. (Milwaukee) | English | invites more candidates for MLA interviews than the SC have time to interview. Double books interview appointments and bumps whichever interviewee confirms his/her appointment last. There's no indication that there's anything tentative about your appointment until they write to tell you've they've dumped you for someone else. |
| California State University, Los Angeles | English | One SC member asked (during campus visit) if I was married...I wore my wedding ring, so I didn't get that question, but I was asked if I had kids. Ridiculous. |
| Central Connecticut State University | Theatre | on-campus visit for TT, was never contacted again in any way, ever.....4/2007 |
| City College of San Francisco | English | Some great faculty, but pay sucks for the area. So many students and faculty that you'll be treated like a number. I'd advise working there if you're in a somewhat small department. Watch out for bureuacratic nonsense.
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| Colby | History | Utterly disorganized campus visit. Confusing schedule, where I found myself wandering around trying to figure out where I was supposed to be. Some members of the search committee didn't seem to particularly care about me one way or another. Told I didn't get the position via email. I had 3 campus visits, and I was treated with much greater respect by these other institutions.......2008 |
| College of Mount St. Vincent | Department? | Never reimbursed for some travel expenses after interview. Also, SC members were disorganzied and indifferent....Date? |
| College of New Jersey | set up a specific time and date for a phone interview. Waited patiently by the phone. Was emailed later that they tried and there was no response.
Explained that there must be some sort of miscommunication becuase I was waiting by an open phone the entire time. Emailed another member of the search committee explaining the problem and relating my interest. Was emailed back that the interview process has already begun becasue they are under tight time constraints. | |
| College of William and Mary | Philosophy | no contact of any kind after interview. Department also has terrible record of tenure denials to star junior candidates. (An recent chronicle article documents this, which may have culminated in the removal of the chair.) |
| Davidson College | English | The English department at Davidson is a genuinely poisonous environment. Relations between established members are such a minefield that you’re guaranteed to lose a limb or two now and then. The salary is good, though, so there will be takers for their jobs. Here’s the advice I can offer. No one will tell you anything straight when you visit for your on campus interview. You’re pretty much certain to have to field questions about whether you have a spouse who’ll be asking for work at Davidson. However you handle those questions, you should understand that they will not hire your spouse to any ongoing academic position. Don’t be fooled by any equivocations you hear, nor by the spousal pairs already at Davidson; they got in under a different administration. The current president and dean won’t allow spousal hires. You’ll have to teach a class on your campus visit and to impress you pretty much have to entertain more than actually instruct. Don’t pitch your class low (Davidson believes its students are celestial geniuses), but don’t get lost in theoretical abstraction either. Be guarded. Take special care to fend off anyone who wants to act conspiratorial or draw you into some kind of alliance (that advice applies both to the campus visit and your subsequent career at Davidson). If after all that you get the offer and decide you’re willing to take it, gird yourself. You won’t be made to feel welcome by senior faculty in the department. There are some younger faculty you can trust. You’ll have to work out who they are. For the old guard, just don’t believe a word they say. Listen very carefully to the gossip they float and try not to contribute to it yourself. As I noted already, resist being drawn into alliances. But stay chipper too. Cheer for the hothouse liberal arts college party line — hey, maybe you actually believe in that kind of education. Be very pliable too. They want junior faculty who won’t make trouble. They don’t love serious research profiles. Most (not all) of the department is low-range plodders whose research ambitions died before they got started, and there’s a lot of tolerance for stupidity and chest-thumping instead of quality scholarship. Basically, no one has a good time before tenure, and if you make tenure, you may also turn into one of the trolls who live there. There’s a lot of misery – try not to get infected by it. I should note that these observations do not apply to other departments. Plenty of people have a fine experience working at Davidson. Make friends with folks in other departments. They’ll be sympathetic. The upper administration is very conservative and dopey, but they generally stay out of your way, as long as you’re not a trouble-maker. |
| Denison | English | had a great MLA interview with them, and literally never heard one more word from them ever again. |
| Drexel | I-School | Hard to imagine how an SC could be more rude than this one. It's no suprise they are still putting out new ads (in March) for a position they have been unable to fill due to their basic dysfunctionality. |
| Elon University | All | grade inflation: 35 percent of all undergraduate grades are A or A-. Note: as of last year, the figure hit 40 percent. It's fun asking about this during phone interviews. |
| Emory University | History | Nightmarish AHA interview. Six department members, plus two graduate students attended. The department members took turns asking highly aggressive questions and openly denigrated my book topic. They acted supercilious. A case of Ivy envy. And it wasn't just me: Three friends had the same AHA interview experience. |
| Franklin and Marshall | Theatre | Changed teaching topics on me twice in the week leading up to the interview.
I was left "on my own" for hours at a time in a two and a half day interview (with the amount of actual interviewing I did, it should have been one day). Members of the search committee openly read the newspaper while I was teaching my second sample class.
Its obvious the department settles upon a candidate before interviews and brings in other people to fulfill some college rule. As a final note, the position I applied for is now open again for the third time in as many years. With the amount of qualified theatre historians/generalists out there, I wonder what on earth they are looking for. |
| Florida State Univ. | Interdiscip. Hum. | Never heard from them. No receipt of application; no rejection letter (2006/07 search). |
| Gettysburg U | English | Was interviewed at MLA; was not contacted again. Learned I was rejected from further consideration by seeing on Wiki that an offer had been made. Not the most cordial behavior (Spring 2007). |
| Harvard | History | Typically only hires its own Ph.D students.
-Maybe 50 years ago, but as of now this statement is completely false.
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| Heartland Community College | English | The Ph.D.s in Lit have completely taken over the composition curriculum, rewriting so that classes all have to do lit (which the students deeply resent). Very, very fractured department with long-standing issues. Also never hires its own adjuncts! (This one was glad, actually.)
• Nothing wrong with some lit. in the curriculum!!
•Nothing wrong with some history in the curriculum. [shrugs shoulders] I do, however, understand the comment about qualificationns and some cc hiring.. |
| Illinois Central College | all | Worst medical coverage I've ever experienced. "Self" insured. College and management firm reject everything; employees end up paying most of their own healthcare costs. Their self-insured PPO's list of reasonable and customary charges is a laugh riot. College and management firm reject every claim, regardless. Otherwise an okay place to work (as long as you don't mind being in the middle of nowhere.) |
| Indiana U - Kokomo | English | Had conference interview, followed by phone interview. After that, the committee contacted my recommenders (unbeknownst to me) to verify they were who their letters said they were, and made them answer a bunch of questions their letters already addressed. Asked me for a bunch of syllabi but declined to be specific about what they wanted. Then never contacted again, until I got a form rejection from secretary. Just weird. 2007 Search. |
| Ithaca College | History | on-campus for a VAP, then no further contact at all. Ever........3-2005 |
| Ithaca College | Biology | rejection letter sent out over 1 YEAR after application sent |
| Jackson State U | Biology | Never paid interview expenses 11-2007 |
| James Madison U | English | Told me how tired they were at interview, asked very specific questions about vrey specific classes that were apparently part and parcel of the position in question, but were not even obliquely alluded to in the ad. Never contacted again after conference interview (2006 search; they ran the search again this year). |
| James Madison College at Michigan State U | On-campus visit for a tt position. No communication thereafter even when I contacted them upon receiving another offer. Rejection letter never sent. Travel expenses never reimbursed. | |
| John Jay College, CUNY | English | Very clueless seeming. After they scheduled their conference interviews, they emailed all the candidates. They did not BCC or anything like that. The email listed the NAMES of all the candidates. To make matters worse, this email, sent at the last minute before MLA, informed all candidates that each interview had now been moved 15 minutes later. No thought given to the fact (nor apology made for the fact) that the SC was inconveniencing candidates (and perhaps throwing their entire schedules). Then, when went to interview, hard time locating committee. The room number they said they were in was not correct. 2007. |
| Lehigh | Art and Architecture | What a disappointment. Poisonous booth interview, one interviewer extremely hostile, 20 minutes of being lectured to without much of a chance to present myself. Admitted that they had made the job announcement as general as possible to attract applicants - then told me there were no caps on the classes and I could have as many as 250 students a semester with no TA's. Won't be making a decision until early May. Of the five interviews I had at CAA this year, this was the worst. (2008) |
| Lincoln University (MO) | Agriculture | This school is a nightmare, i escaped after one semester! 2003 |
| LSU-Shreveport | Biology | The school is severely impoverished, Honored no hiring promises 1. recinded most of start up money, 2. no phone after 1 month, no phone number until the last week in fall semester, 3. no office after 2 weeks, 4. computer was 96K RAM, 5. 1 yr budget for 8 labs was $75, 6. student enrollment dropped through floor. 7. school was investigating exigency or joining with the medical school (also declaring exigency at the time), 8. older faculty were treated disrespectfully by administartion (the faculty in biology were great), 9. school glued tiles back up on the walls instead of replacing for pictures go to link http://www.studentsreview.com where a former student posted them, 10. Was told their were 20 students in the MS program although there were only 2, 11. told their research center was being flooded with money and that it should rival Savanna River (UGA) when it could not afford photocopy paper (it now rivals savanna river because savanna river has been disbanded!), 12. some faculty did not distrubute student evaluations instead filling them out themselves. 13. They were opening my mail, reading it and then putting it in my folder, 14. when I finally got my office it was filled with garbage and I had to clean it out, 15. the laboratory space I was given was a public hallway between classrooms, again filled with garbage (see former link to pics) that I had to clean out, 15. I was forcefully asked to spend research grant money on unrelated teaching supplies, 16. One retired prof stole some of my specimens and was continually monkeying around in other profs offices.......... 11-2005 |
| Loyola Marymount U (L.A.) | English | Interviewed with them, never heard from them again after the interview. Not a huge deal, but not very professional either. 2006/07 Ditto-12/07. |
| Loyola University New Orleans | Theatre | they changed their TT search last year in mid-stream, from one area of the discipline to another, without readvertising or notifying any of the candidates. The "committee" consisted of one individual, the chair. Scary. 2007 |
| Michigan State University | English | campus visit and never another peep from them, not even a form letter. -- I had a vastly different experience, which I have noted on the Universities to love page. |
| Michigan State University | English | Shame on you Dept and Search Committee chairs, both. Great interview, nice people all around, they promised to be in touch (during MLA interview) mid January, and then no word. Found out (via wiki) that campus interviews were scheduled, happened, and an offer made, and still no word/rejection from Chairs (SC or Dept.). Don't they realize that we're adults, we go to a significant expense and inconvenience to meet with them. Aren't our hours (and hours) of preparation and the fact that we flew across the country and such an inopportune time worthy of a simple email letting us know that we're out of the running? For those who are not invited to campus (but were invited to interview at MLA), let us *know* that we're out. If you need to keep your "back ups" as back ups (candidates who were invited to campus but not (yet) offered the job), surely you can let us lowly MLA-interviewees-who-weren't-invited-to-campus know our status? Didn't the time and money we invested to interview deem us worthy of a two line email? Come on.......Fall 2007 --- for better or worse, schools do tend to wait until someone has accepted the job before they send out rejections to the MLA folks. Given that it can take 2+ weeks for a candidate to accept a position, negotiations could still be underway at this point.
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| Michigan State University | Forestry | tt interview, faculty was hostile, rude, and not on the same page about the search - though the search committee itself was OK. Ever been actually heckled at an interview seminar? Made up my mind before the second day of the interview I wanted no part of the place. Found myself in the hotel at the end of day #1 looking for a flight out, but couldn't find one. Also never heard from them afterward with further correspondence or rejection...................2007 |
| Michigan State University | History | During on-campus interview Q&A session regarding teaching, I was attacked over utterly mundane issues. (e.g. Why offer MWF classes and not TTh classes? Why assign tests and not papers? Why weren't certain books that they like selected for my syllabi?) These weren't just probing questions, asking my rationale. Each answer I gave was met with, "Well, I do ABC" or "At MSU we prefer to do XYZ." In general, they weren't exactly rude, but several senior faculty are bitter, angry people. |
| Montclair State | Sociology | Immensely dysfunctional department; Never-ending application requirements; Never reimbursed for travel Expenses.............................Spring 2003 |
| Murray State | History | Very troubled department re: professionalism in the promotion and tenure process. Tread lightly and carefully if you take a position. Fall 2008 |
| Murray State | English | Strange MLA Interview. Interviewers did not seem to like the school, the town, or their students. They began the interview by asking me to read a one-page write up by the search chair detailing that Murray is in a dry county and that there's an Applebee's in town, etc. I appreciated the effort to be real, but really, on the first date you don't tell people about the wart on your ass. |
| NIA | Travel never reimbursed. They said they did but never received it. It seems they did not even check where they sent the money. Terrible administration. | |
| Newman University | History | This university has such shaky finances that it regularly sheds tt faculty. Tenure means nothing and all non tenured faculty work on a year-to-year contract. Stay away from this place...it is a nightmare |
| Nevada State College | English | They made a job offer, gave the hiree less than a week to review the contract, and then retracted the offer. Unprofessional at best.
Also, travel is apparently not reimbursed if they offer the position and you do not accept the offer. |
| Northeastern | Jewish Studies | They were interviewing for a two-year fellowship this year and their interview process was the most unprofessional I'd ever seen. The first time I was interviewed it was with the department chair's 10-year-old CHILD in the room, playing on his gameboy. And, then, in my second interview, I was treated to a display of crazy rudeness by another prof in the department, who cut me off every time I spoke. I wondered if others had experienced such things during their interviews. I've heard it's not a healthy place to work.
- Yes, I heard it was a place "going downhill." I applied to a job and heard that the search folded for lack of funds; next year, the same job was advertised. Stop jerking us around! |
| Northern Arizona | History | AHA interview conducted in aggressive, almost hostile manner. Interviewers had 15-20 or so pre-written questions, the bulk of which had to do with how one might teach/how one's work related to post-colonial, subaltern theory. This focus was not emphasized in the job advertisement, yet the interviewers became almost belligerent when this interviewee stumbled on providing crisp and detail-oriented answers to these type of questions. Admittedly, they have a theoretically oriented graduate program, as is evident on the department's website listing courses... but the snide and sarcastic reactions of interviewers were notable, nonetheless! by 5 minutes into the interview, i was wondering why they had bothered to interview me!?!?!
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| Notre Dame | Chemistry | wonderful interview experience, but then nothing. No rejection letter, no reply to a follow-up. Looking at their website suggested they never filled the position. |
| Nova | Information Technology | On-campus interview leading to the proverbial black hole. No offer, no rejection. Do SCs really not have the courage to tell people that they are not going to be hired? How hard is that? |
| NYU | General Studies | no response EVER...06/2007.....One wonders whether they received your application? My school's dossier services provider just sent my colleague's dossier to a school in the Midwest...when she applied to a school in Florida, with a completely different name. You might check to make sure your application was properly sent before black-listing a school?
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| Prairie View A&M University | Sociology | Never tenure anyone, ever, regardless of quality. Equal opportunity. Black turned down as often as white. Tenure lines extended illegally rather than tenure person sometimes. Tenured sociology faculty cancel about half their classes. One faculty told students that she was cancelling because she had a beauty shop appointment. One tenured faculty used a non-tenured faculty as a runner to pay her bills. |
| Reed College | Any | You will meet with the Dean of the Faculty. You will expect this to be an occasion to address logistics and practicalities. Instead you will be grilled skeptically and condescendingly about your work for 29 minutes and then asked if you have any questions. Otherwise, a wonderful place, but be prepared for this if you interview there. |
| Reed College | English | Was a finalist, and was treated incredibly rudely by two members of the search committee who favored an inside candidate (ultimately hired). Both were rude; one refused to speak to me during a candidate dinner (2 hours, sitting next to me); the other declared "I guess you think we're pretty stupid here!" early in a private meeting. Three other members of the department contacted me and essentially admitted the bad behavior of certain colleagues, who go overboard to get what they want. |
| Rocky Mountain College, MT | Allied Health and Any | They lost accreditation (under probation). Constant appeals and court cases. Very unstable and manipulative; humiliating. High turnover rate of staff/faculty (3 out of 10 left in several months). Some very nice people, but not the place to work. No care about your career. Be careful.
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| Roger Williams University, RI | Any | Whatever you do, NEVER accept a visiting position at this university unless you are sure you can get out after the first year. You will be hired on a 3-year non-renewable contract, given a 4/4 teaching load and expected to participate in full administrative and advising duties. You will have no time to do research or publish, and they will toss you out at the end of the three years. Under the current administration visitings are never converted to tenure track. They have instituted an abominable 5-course Core Curriculum that is taught at the 8th grade level - many of the best students transfer after their freshman year. As a Visiting, you will be teaching 2 sections of one of these core courses every semester til you leave. (ex. Core 105 - the history of art, architecture, music, theater, ballet, and opera in 14 weeks). If you don't mind working your rear off and are not that interested in research and publishing, a tt job is not so bad - the faculty is unionized, and the benefit package is EXTREMELY generous (and inexpensive), including $2000 a year in professional development money (as of 2007-8) (So much money to spend on books that you have no time to read). Architecture school is the best school on campus, should you be applying. Just don't get hooked into the visiting positions - they will ruin your academic career. And, if you want some fun reading, google Ralph J. Papitto to see how the Board of Trustees behaves. |
| Saint Francis University | History | On-campus interview in January, no further contact for 4 months, then a hand-written note saying 'gee, I bet you already got a job." ....1-2005 |
| Saint Bonaventure University | English | Extremely congenial and pleasant on-campus interview last week of November for a January start date. Told before leaving campus I would hear from them the following week. No communication for weeks, not even in response to request for update on progress. Finally, on CHRISTMAS EVE I received an EMAIL REJECTION. Not the worst of nightmare stories, but not very considerate either. Posted 1/08 |
| Saint Vincent College | English | Campus visit accomodations include a room in a monastery replete with Jesus decorations apparently made by mental patients in the 1960s. Fifty year old twin bed and linens confiscated from a convent. No TV or hair dryer, of course (tonsures dry quick on their own). Jim Touey, new president, a good buddy of W. who reschedules your interview with him 6 times, then announces that he doesn't understand how you can possibly be interested in gender studies and uphold the teachings of the Catholic Church. On a good note: the bells from the Basilica will wake you up at 5 AM! |
| Slippery Rock University | History | On-campus interview, but no further communication after that. Posted 12/07 |
| Southern illinois University-Edwardsville | Biology | Lost my application packet twice, after sending messages confirming receipt! 2004 |
| College of Staten Island | English | bad all around; head of search committee was rude and abrasive; nobody on the committee actually had experience in the area that they were hiring for; during MLA interview, they complained about the hotel room, then asked me to hurry up so that they could eat lunch (seriously); invited to campus interview, where I was left alone in an office for an hour, then left alone again for TWO HOURS, in another office, in an entirely different dept!; job talk was pushed back until 7pm; was supposed to get a ride back to my hotel, but instead was left in a dark parking lot to wait another hour for a cab; my rejection email was addressed "Dear Candidate"; after all that, they hired someone with two other different specialties, allowing them to save money.
Sociology- Provost was rude and superior during interview (mid-90s) |
| Queen's College, CUNY | English | NO rejection letter at ALL after MLA interviews. Chair was abrasive. One SC member airy and snobbish. Could have at LEAST sent a rejection note. |
| Stephen F Austin | English | Awful, terrible place, from former employee .......................11-2007 |
| Stephen F Austin | Biology | faculty got in fight during my phone interview................ 11-2007 |
| Stephen F Austin | Forestry | Phone interview, then sent numerous emails and made several calls of inquiry w/othe decency of acknowledging my questions. Clearly, didn't hire me, but so rude on phone, I had already made my decision. |
| SUNY Institute of Technology | Management | Incredible bullies. Senior faculty twist arms to be non-working co-authors. Only tenured faculty can vote on any issue. This is a campus that operates with the style of an organized crime family. For a long time, faculty only came to campus M-Th, blowing off Friday. Many, many faculty have complete other 40-hr a week jobs, and don't show up for their office hours. In management, the MA level faculty were insulting, nasty bullies to anyone with a PhD. A majority of the non-tenured faculty have PhDs; a majority of the tenured faculty have masters only. Most faculty have "published" weak, disgraceful stuff like articles consisting only of bullets points with no abstract, citations, or bibliography. Competent non-tenured faculty are run off if they don't become the complete slaves of tenured morons. Avoid. Not really a college. |
| Sweet Briar College | ? | Unwilling to schedule a phone interview in lieu of a conference interview, even though SC chair expected me to go to a conference I was not planning to attend with less than two weeks notice. Their initial response to the knowledge I was not attending the conference addressed me by my first name and was written in a tone worthy of scolding a petulant child. This email also made me feel that being ABD was some sort of disease and I should be grateful that I was being considered for the job at all since their other candidates were supposedly much more qualified. I wrote back to them explaining that my inability to attend the conference was due to my full-time job and all of my potential job substitutes were presenting at the conference in question, leaving me stuck at work or faced with losing my job for having to close the facility I work in to comply with their interview request-- which would compromise my professional integrity in a job directly related to my specialty field. Their second response was more formal and claimed to understand my situation, yet they refused to schedule a phone interview and told me they would contact me if other options arose. I never heard from them again. Apparently, some schools expect applicants to kowtow to their interview demands even when hotel rooms and plane tickets are nowhere to be found for the destination in question. Lesson learned: Plan on going to the conference in question until I get a job. |
| Texas Lutheran University | All | Tenure process is deeply flawed. Tenure committee disregards departmental evaluation and faculty and student input. There's no appeal process, no reapplication, and no faculty oversight (decision is rubber-stamped by Board of Regents). All faculty members who have been denied tenure in the last six years have been women. Faculty in the arts and humanities are warm and supportive of innovative teaching and post-modern scholarship, but science and business faculty are highly conservative, intellectually, pedagogically, and socially. Very poor treatment of part-time faculty. |
| Texas Tech U | English | Interviewed at MLA, but never contacted again. Rejection came in the form of a bizarre boilerplate email from "Human" resources. Just not courteous behavior. 2007 search. |
| Troy University | Biology | informed all faculty must belong to a church. I felt I was being talked out of applying. otherwise, they were fine. 11-2007. |
| Tulane U | English |
On Tulane's PhD program: It was "suspended," not "lost." They are in the process of deciding whether to reinstate it or not. 1/06. How can a poster have such an about face? First the dept. is mistreating VAPs and Adjuncts and losing its status, but now it's not worth mentioning? Maybe the poster didn't have an about face. Perhaps someone got to him/her? |
| 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 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, Jim Herbert" "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] |
| 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 |
| University of Illinois | Black Studies | campus visit, then nary a word from them ever again. |
| Univ. of Louisville | All | Except for some, faculty was ok. Some centers with ethics problems. Interview luch/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. |
| UMass-Boston | Nice people, but had they never run a search before? Seemed disorganized. The audience for my job talk was composed only of the members of the search committee. Administrators repeatedly emphasized that it is a time of "growth" for the university to the point that it set off alarm bells in my head. | |
| Univ. of Michigan Dearborn | Humanities | Twice I have applied for advertised adjunct positions. The first time I received no acknowledgment or rejection. The second time I applied, I contacted the department to confirm receipt of my application, to which they replied they would send a "formal letter" "soon." I never received a letter. Of course, this isn't the end of the world, but frustrating and indicative of a general lack of professionalism (or tendency to treat adjunct instructors as slightly sub-human) :) 2006 & 2007. |
| Univ. of Northern Colorado | English | Where to start? A third of faculty have left in the past 2 years. Mean and/or deadwood colleagues, horrible college president, low salaries, and an unattractive location
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| Univ of Southern Indiana | English/Lib Arts | Horrible place to work. Very stratified. Chair was recently canned. Unless they have family in the area, no one stays more than a year. Administration is overtly hostile to faculty. Don't work here!! |
| Univ of Southern Mississippi | History | Interviewed with them at the AHA convention at Atlanta in Jan. 2006 - The SC informed me that they would be in contact by the end of January, but of course I haven't heard a thing from them(12/3/2007) |
| Univ North Texas | Biology | Never reimbursed for part of travel expenses ...................Spr 2007 |
| University of Texas, Austin | Humanities/Social Sciences | Arrived with no itinerary and no information about hotel reservation. Nobody showed up at the airport. And things didn't get much better from there. |
| University of Texas, El Paso | English | Had an interview several years ago, for which one member of the search committee wasn't present, the chair napped for several minutes (I'm not kidding), and the third person, a junior member, cringed in horror.
Q: Was this for a lit position? |
| Univ of West Georgia | English | Total jerks during the interview, it was appalling. Their search ended up failing, too. No wonder. 2006/07.
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| Virginia Commonwealth University | English & Women's Studies | [libels deleted]
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| Wayne State | Education | was told "women never get tenure" also were really rude in general.............2-2005 |
| Western Illinois | History | Has a habit of not communicating with persons who have interviewed for positions (seconded 2004). More than one applicant has identified the department's practices as rude.
Ditto for English Department. |
| West Viginia State University | Biology | Submitted copies of my official transcripts three times, the third time I asked for return receipt and they lost them again. 2005 |
| Wiley College | General Education | Completely disorganized from top on down, everyone passes the buck for problems with the school rather than trying to correct things. Few to no resources to work (paper for printer, chalk, etc.). Lots of division within and among the departments. 11-2007 |
| Williams College | History | They have a strong predilection for hiring their own graduates. If you are up against a recent PhD or ABD who has a Williams BA, you can practically forget about getting the job, no matter how qualified you are. On an on-campus visit, they treated me superbly. I have no complaints about that.
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| York U (Toronto) | English | Rude, rude, rude and painfully inept department. They also don't get/remember what it's like to be a visiting candidate on campus; also seemed to have a major (verbal) chip on their shoulder as a result of (1) not being in the US and (2) not being the U. of Toronto. Regarding #1, their "anti-American" hostility was so overt (and just plain boring) that even an Anti-American US citizen candidate (like me) was offended. Also, one committee member requested a particular paper (during campus visit) and then a different member of same committee said (to my face!) that "the paper topic was a poor choice."
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