Low pay, part-time employees treated like WalMart workers, old boys club management won't listen to staff--bad decisions
Pros
Decent benefits for full time employees. Beautiful, safe area with plenty to do for a town of this size. Many diverse, bright, creative people on and off campus. Despite poor upper level leadership, there are many areas of the university that have good supervisors and nice staff.
Cons
Part-time staff have very low pay, and have no benefits for the first two years except the federally mandated retirement deduction--no paid leave, no paid sick leave, no paid holidays, no health benefits. If you get sick or visit a doctor, you loose income. After two years, part-timers get scaled-down partial benefits that are more expensive than the full-time benefits. Management sometimes divides full time positions into two part-time, annually renewable positions to avoid paying benefits and adequate salaries. Many full time staff moonlight with part-time jobs because the salary offers are too low for the local cost of living. Many job candidates refuse Penn State job offers due to excessively low pay, resulting in failed job searches and unfilled positions. Faculty can be smug and arrogant, but unconcerned about the underclass of struggling low paid part-time and low level full time staff. There are few opportunities for advancement. The university trumpets diversity as a value, but has created a large class of working poor, which seems hypocritical. The university would benefit from major changes such as open records to prevent abuse and unfair treatment, unions for faculty and staff including part-time staff, a new board of trustees with limited terms, and a greater focus on academics with less focus on making money through sports, research grants, and soliciting the alumni. Penn State needs to stop treating employees as expenses and liabilities, and embrace us as the assets we are. Without us, the university could not function. I think most employees see Penn State's potential for greatness, and regret the poor leadership that blocks this from happening.
