7bec3b03_s_to_fear___Academic_Jobs_Wiki___Department
[School] Empire State Coll., SUNY [Issue and Date] School is in massive transition (since 2006 or so), mostly in good ways, but has deeply pervasive ideology that weighs everything and everyone down. It feels like a religion or cult, and several newer folks feel this. I am TT jr faculty here; most people I know, old & new, are miserable and either eager for retirement, or on the market trying to leave, or successfully have left, or just resignedly doing time. Nontrad school with many pluses, such as motivated nontrad students, but minuses far outweigh the pluses. Depending which branch you're in, you might never or very rarely see any students in person; no regular classroom classes--teaching is done online or indep. study or in groups that meet very infrequently (like twice/month max). You are expected to give A's to everyone; this is part of old ideology that is changing, but that gives you an idea. Anything resembling an academic standard, outcome, or deadline is considered reprehensible. Ideology also claims that traditional schools are fascistic and useless. School seems to have a lot of integrity in more professional or vocational fields (business, social work, etc.), but in lib arts, not so much. Also, it's a 12-mo contract with 5 overlapping semesters: no summers, no holiday breaks. You get vacation days like in corporate jobs, but there is never any time to take them with the 5 overlapping terms: you're always running 2 or 3 at once. I see the note above about Elon Univ's grade inflation, meaning 35-40% get A's or A minuses. At Empire SC, it is as bad or even much worse. You're expected to give everyone A's all the time, no matter what, simply b/c they are adults, and supposedly this means you are "respecting" them. A committee is trying now to come up with a system of student honors, since the students keep begging for one; they're stymied b/c most honor societies are GPA-based, which would mean, e.g., you'd have 80+% of the students as "honor" students, which is obviously preposterous. interviewed me by phone but never followed up-- no email, no letter, nothing. [Department] 
most of lib arts fields
Universities to fear - Academic Jobs Wiki
Department