Great people, very poor pay, paternalistic culture, bad-tempered leadership
Pros
AMAZING colleagues, everywhere. There is genuine care for students and each other. Most Deans and Dean teams are good and caring. Several Chairs are tenured and a bit old school, but good people (I work at one College but have ties to 5 of the other 8 Colleges). Benefits OK. Not great, but OK.
Cons
Really, really bad pay. Everywhere. (Probably not at the Sr Vice Provost and above, though). An Associate Director role was just posted internally for the mid-70s, and that’s a full-time role and (knowing NU) over 40 hours. People at NU who’ve worked here a long time don’t even realize how “off” that is for an Associate Director role in Boston’s higher ed. Professors with 25-30 years’ experience in industry come on board when semi-retired because their average pay is $100k. It’s awful. Associate Dean’s? Not much more. (and all non-tenured, which pays low… but tenured isn’t too much higher) I realize it’s a non-profit, but then we see them spend millions on old-school physical footprints… (as the Boston campus breaks down and classrooms are broken). It’s not that NU doesn’t have the money. It’s where they decide to spend it. If you’re looking at higher ed, I sadly recommend BU or any of the others vs NU if pay matters. Culture is a known paternalistic one. The longer President Aoun stays on top, the more out of touch NU leaders become. Known for his temper (yells and demeans others, expects reverence), no one can say no or have an open discussion about how to improve the University. You might think you’ve had an active-listening, supportive exchange only to find out your Dean’s now on the block. Maybe I’ve been sheltered the last 30 years, but I’ve never seen a leader behave like him and remain on payroll. What you see is not who he is, and decisions are made based on how he’ll respond not whether its best for NU.
