Pros
I worked at Purchase for over a decade and made a comfortable salary. The employees I supervised were universally excellent. My department received decent support from leadership over the years, although this lessened over time.
Cons
I've seen a lot of common complaints in various reviews here, and I hope that my perspective as someone who worked closely with key members of Purchase's administration over the years can clarify some things: 1- Leadership is largely aware of critiques regarding their "top-down" approach, but is totally unmoved by them. There are absolutely a couple of decent people in leadership positions, but most of the real decision makers are totally unqualified for their roles, both in terms of experience in education and temperament. *Very* egotistical. 2- They strongly distrust the staff, believing that they are "freeloaders", and have voiced hopes to cut/merge entire departments as they did with the Wellness Center. 3- They absolutely LOATHE the faculty, who are viewed as unruly and too independent. There are so many tenured faculty that the admin is openly dying to get rid of, and several programs that they are desperate to cut. 4- Worst of all, they are truly uncaring towards the students, especially in private. The recent student-led racial equity demonstrations were seen as a massive headache, and disciplinary action was considered against several protestors before cooler heads prevailed. 5- Regarding remote work: This is a mixed bag. Academic Affairs is largely supportive or neutral of their employees working remotely, while Student Affairs is strongly against it. This is because the leaders of that area feel they cannot trust their staff to remain productive when they are remote (Yes, seriously!). 6- Most of the people working in HR are excellent, but the top dogs in that department do work hand-in-hand with administrators to squash complaints. Several employees from other departments came to me with serious concerns about supervisors (racism, bullying, sexist comments, etc), and I directed them to HR. In the BEST case scenario, the offending party would be lightly disciplined with trainings, more often they'd receive no admonishment at all. Administration feared that any real accountability may trickle up to them, even in cases where the offenders were disliked by leadership. I was largely complicit in this broken system as well, because it's the only way to survive at Purchase. I hope that I can one day reconnect with the many young professionals who came to the school with beautiful enthusiasm and left with a dark dose of reality. I am sorry for failing them.
