Pros
Rice University attracts bright, competent employees. It's nice to work in an environment with good people, working towards a goal that I strongly believe in and support. The campus is a peaceful oasis of forest and squirrels in the heart of the city. You can be as involved as you want in campus life. I choose to voluntarily spend extra time with students; it keeps me young and gives me hope for the future. There's a student-run coffeehouse with excellent beverages, a grad-student bar with inexpensive drinks, and a vibrant selection of restaurants serving fresh sandwiches, multicultural tacos, freshly grilled foods, and pizza. Faculty and staff may purchase memberships in the on-campus, state of the art gym at a ridiculously low price, which gives us access to yoga, dance, and other classes. Employees may also take a class per semester for credit at no cost and Rice will reimburse us for a percentage of tuition fees. The campus police are friendly and helpful, willing to shuttle you to your car if it's late at night. In fact, the ethos on campus from everyone is friendly -- quick with a smile and eager to help. Rice is generally noted for its friendliness to visitors and happy students. The architecture is graceful and public art dots the campus. Open spaces are starting to fill in, sadly, but the recent-ish expansion in the undergraduate population demands more classes and professors to teach them. The grounds are well-kept and tended by an army of folks who constantly work to make Rice the astoundingly beautiful place that it is.
Cons
Definitely negotiate your starting salary as high as you can because annual "raises" tend to be inflation-rate only. I get strong reviews and paltry "raises," which will eventually lead me to look elsewhere no matter how much I love working here. Check carefully into your department carefully before accepting an offer. Virtually all departments have wonderful people but a few do not. Find out how much turnover it has, why the position is open, and how many people are promoted over time. I've seen several departments in which there is high turnover or where everyone is working the same jobs for 7-10 years. Parking is a thorn in my side. Eventually a new parking garage will be completed but in the meantime, my car is across campus, making it impossible for me to go out to lunch, run an errand over lunch, or pop home if I forgot to bring something. The hike to thee car or taking the bus adds significant time to my commute, assuring that I will always be in the thick of it. Once the garage is done, perhaps this will change but Rice charges its employees to park on campus and I shudder to think what the cost will be. Rice self-insures, which probably saves it money, but the benefits atrophy a little each year while the costs rise. The premium raises haven't been insane but every year the co-pay increases, the deductible rises, and/or the coverage shrinks. The drug coverage is getting ridiculous, mandating that for some medications you cannot get them until first going through a whole series of other drugs first. Even if you've been through them before and what works for you wasn't any of those intermediary drugs. (I might be particularly bitter on that; that's a lot of migraines to suffer through until you can get something that dissolves under your tongue and won't be regurgitated almost as soon as it's swallowed.) I have seen lower paid staff struggle to come up with the mandated 3-months supply co-pays for children on "maintenance" drugs via the by-mail pharmacy. Again, that saves money but it transfers the hardship to those least able to afford it. That's especially galling when this year's "raise" failed to cover the increase in the premiums and new deductible requirements. This is a struggle in America for all employers but the latest decisions fall disproportionately hard on the lower paid staff.
