Recently HP evolved (devolved?) from a sleepy liberal arts college into a showy "boutique" university that caters mostly to upper-middle class students from affluent families. Internally, these students are known as "full-pays," and the admissions office courts them almost exclusively. As such, campus diversity suffers, and students with serious academic goals are left feeling isolated and unchallenged (the bulk of whom transfer after one or two semesters).
The biggest problem with HPU is the school's educational philosophy: the buyer is always right. Students and their wealthy parents are catered to non-stop with a whirlwind of exciting activities in glamorous surroundings. There is pressure to inflate grades (frustrating for faculty) and even more pressure to overlook bad behavior outside of the classroom (frustrating for staff). "Helicoptering" is not just encouraged, it's celebrated. Students graduate with a degree, few academic challenges, and a tremendous sense of entitlement. All of the employees play a role in it, and no one feels really good about it.
What most surprised me about HPU was the "Office of WOW." The job of the WOW office is to entertain the student body 24/7 with anything and everything their hearts desire. Most have no problem with such a concept until they realize just how much time and money go into keeping the students spoiled and happy. This office was added in past few years, and is probably the reason the campus has such an amusement park type of atmosphere.
As a member of the faculty, one should expect a lot of private cynicism from one's peers as well as a sense of dread. Tenured faculty are paid well, but the rest fall short of regional standards. New faculty members are put through an orientation program that says all the right things, but no one warns you about the lack of intellectual curiosity from the students or the appalling interference from parents with respect to grades, class attendance, and assignments. Upper administration encourages this, so there's very little faculty can do to stop it.
For staff, the outlook is much worse. Most of the longtime staff members who survived the transition in 2005 are clearly burned out from 70-hr work weeks. Starting salaries are below the regional average and turnover is high. I have never met a more stressed-out group of people in my life. Those who stay tend to be young and inexperienced. New staff members with previous experience elsewhere tended to leave quickly and quietly. The biggest issue seemed to be upper management's inability to understand how many hours staffers put in. The emphasis is to be "lean" within each office but to cater to every student's need at the same time. The result is far too many staffers working until 9 or 10 pm or all weekend just to keep up.
My experience was that HPU functions with a very top-down approach to leadership and management. The University's president and a few VPs hold all of the authority. I sat on a couple of key committees, but we were powerless with respect to making changes or recommendations for reform. All changes come from above, and there is a certain air to new directives: Embrace this or please leave.
