A place with real people and genuine heart, with a roller coaster budget model
Pros
Bellarmine University is a place where the mission is important and has direct bearing on the decisions of its leadership. It has a great track record of success in landing graduates positions that have better pay than other institutions in the state. The people who work in leadership roles at Bellarmine are good people, more often than not. The faculty who are involved in the campus life are good people. Work-life balance is an important thing, and despite not offering competitive salaries, the institution offers other soft benefits to offset its inability to pay well. The campus is beautiful, and there is just enough going on throughout the year to provide its community with a nice slate of cultural and athletic events.
Cons
Salaries are nowhere near competitive with the market, despite what people might assume about a private Catholic university. Because enrollment directly affects the budget, the ups and downs of the past several years have caused revolving crises. Many of the full-time faculty do not play an active role in the university, take an entitled position on governance, and beyond teaching their 2-3 courses each term they serve as little more than a drain on the institution's resources, suppressing salaries for the staff who work normal business hours year-round. It is a startlingly inequitable system for an institution that values equity.
