Northern Virginia Community College reviews

Very top-heavy; upper-management is not aware of or interested in the issues affecting day-to-day operations on campuses. New employees are paid higher than old-timers, creating resentment among staff. The College is more interested in hiring people who promote their image (read: minorities; ironically, without having identified a real image) rather than people who are competent. The incompetent are rewarded. The message? The less you work, the better. (Fortunately, for the students, there are employees who choose their integrity over a paycheck). The system is completely broken, which is unfortunate, as there are some great ideas and concepts coming from upper management. The lack of follow-through and processes in-place to support these initiatives causes the College to continuously lose revenue, frustrate potential students and frustrate employees. The College spends a great deal of $$ to fund consultants (OD professionals) whose assessments are not put into use. That's $$ down the toilet that could have been used elsewhere. Most disturbing: NOVA is fast-approaching degree-mill status. Adjunct instructors who can barely be understood and are not TEACHERS are being hired over qualified faculty in order to save a few bucks. Same with support staff (counselors, student services, and the like). Students are unable to navigate the system because it's so confusing and they go to a "real" degree-mill instead. Sad. Sad. Sad.

Merit and performance no longer earn advancement. Ever since the older guard has left or been pushed out, the culture has completely changed for the worse and enrollment has plummeted. VP/Associate VP level management is quickly becoming a vast majority of white females (most of whom are nice people on their own) and almost no other demographic. However, this has resulted in a high school lunch table-like cliquey, toxic work environment in which power is abused and advancement is nearly impossible if you do not fall within said demographic.