Reed College reviews

After many years of working for what felt like an imperfect but promising institution, to me it has felt in recent years like the administration is increasingly manipulative, secretive, gaslighting, and dismissive. It feels like staff are not valued, underpaid, overworked and threatened with implied possible retaliation if you voice complaints. No real opportunity for advancement in most roles. Cost of living increases to wages feel insultingly insignificant and merit increases are minimal. Communication with staff feels very poor.

On paper values are good, in practice they are non existent. Students and staff often will not hear back from senior leaders regarding questions or concerns on policy changes. Decisions are often made without consulting those that actually do the work. Often these decisions are badly thought out and lead to negative impacts on students and staff. You are told to just do it and have no context to explain to frustrated students. Student life staff have been told numerous times individually and as teams to “stop pushing back on decisions that leadership make”. Our jobs are to advocate for students but it is harder to do that effectively. You are treated as if your experience and education do not matter. Reed, especially student life, sells themselves to potential employees and students as a progressive forward thinking institution. That was what Reed was. That is no longer the case. This will often be confirmed by students. Policies are being made that simply copy and paste failed and harmful policies from other institutions with little regard to those the decisions impact. There is no creative thinking or doing things differently anymore. You’ll be pushed out if you start to push back or labeled as problematic. No benefits or pay is worth having your voice continually silenced. Take your talents elsewhere (look outside higher education) and save your mental health.