Pros
-Mostly great people to work with, helpful and nice -flexible time available to deal with family needs - Tuition program for spouses and dependents - Decent benefits - freedom to pursue any endeavor or project and work yourself to death with no support or recognition or overtime that you can use to get a better position somewhere else. - great local restaurants and venues for live music -close to the beach and Gulf of Mexico, close to some great rivers and state parks, forests
Cons
-archaic instructional procedures, well behind other universities of comparable size - large number of folks not from the area and they do not have a strong community relationship - aloof to building relationships about anything other than sports and even that is pretty weak. – instructional pay is low, local K12 school districts pay more with a bachelors degree - student payroll is low and students constantly have to choose between working on campus or off campus. Most work off campus because pay is better and can actually support themselves. Seriously affects the development and progress of many LU programs. - run-down neighborhood surrounds campus; high crime, high poverty. very unsafe after dark off campus. Campus cops do a good job, but they can't be everywhere. City doesn't make much developments for the area. -campus is adjacent to a refinery complex - air usually has a very funky smell kinda like pepper - I know of co-workers and candidates who quit or refused positions because of air quality issues. - Seems to be a lot of turnover in some admin and academic areas – campus has a lot of long-term employees that are not utilized appropriately - admin will take joe blow off the street before listening to the employee that has experience in the department- doesn't apply to my area, but I observed this in a lot of other other areas and heard a lot of complaints. - scarcity of decent housing options in Beaumont