Bryant’s athletic department is comprised primarily of older locals, many of whom have been in their roles for 30+ years. There is a parochial culture of complacency, and many staff members have no intention to innovate year to year.
I received very little support from my boss in my time as Director of Marketing, but was fortunate to turn to other departments within Athletics for some support. The staff largely has good intentions & is incredibly passionate about Bryant Athletics.
However there is a complete lack of structure & accountability in the department that is somewhat astounding for a D1 school of Bryant’s athletic caliber.
As Director of Marketing, I received a $440 stipend every two weeks. I worked ~40 hour weeks including weekends. I was informed by coworkers and my boss that Bryant hires a new Marketing Director each year by hiring a new recent grad every summer (to save money) .
Although my ~ $11/hr pay rate was below hourly minimum wage, I was provided a bedroom (designed to be a single) to share with another coworker. The value of my room and board factored into my overall compensation, making my $~11 /hour pay rate legal (?) .
The school is located in somewhat rural Rhode Island, and the community is very strongly Republican. Bryant is primarily a business school, and there is minimal emphasis placed on fostering an open dialogue on campus.
There are some staff members within Bryant Athletics who try to normalize racist and sexist language in the workplace. This language went unchecked by all my coworkers. It wasn’t easy to express my contrary views to my superiors, but I still did so on numerous occasions. I was once reprimanded by a department head for “pointlessly spending money on a losing women’s basketball team” rather than spending the budget entirely on the winning Men’s team. Comments like this and others did not make for an ideal workplace environment.
