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Tuesday, September 24, 2013

Unintentional Comedic Ranking of the Week

When a private company is hired to rank universities, you can guess that the results might just be entertaining....   Well, a friend forwarded me this story which has Texas Tech as the best university to be an employee.  Given that not only did I flee but most of the folks I worked with, this is strange news.  Have things gotten that much better since I left about eleven years ago?  Or perhaps all the disgruntled folks have left, leaving behind the super-satisfied to fill out this survey?

The department is no longer in receivership and the dean is no longer the dean.  She was such a big fan of receivership, she swapped the chairs of a couple of other departments.  She also nearly cost the school its accreditation by screwing up the paperwork apparently.  The misogynistic President was fired (only to be hired by a couple of other universities later on).  So, maybe the place has become nirvana.  Maybe the current guy has a high approval rating because expectations were so very low?

Here is the key quote in the story.

“The people there are very laid back. The campus is beautiful. The pay is competitive with other universities. You are free to do your own thing, just be ready at the deadline.” – Texas Tech Instructor (Lubbock, TX)

Um, ok.  The people are laid back?  That standards are low?  The campus is beautiful?  Well, it is nice enough when there are no duststorms blowing through.  Pay is competitive? Well, I did take a paycut to leave, but when I tell folks what my salary started at, they tend to be quite surprised and not in a good way. 

The key advantage I had at TTU was that I did have plenty of time: very short commute, the only students who came to my office hours were seeking to borrow a pen or a stapler or a phone. 

So, is this a great place to be an employee?  These days?  I have no idea.  Perhaps they talked to the staff and not the profs?  In any case, I sure hope the place is better, but I cannot see how TTU is number one on this list.  This ranking fails the "face validity" test.

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