Administrators exploit students and employees to pad their pay checks
Pros
It's a pretty campus and the students are great. When I started, 25 years ago, the campus was dedicated to the mission of improving lives in eastern Kentucky.
Cons
Today, the institution exists for no other reason than to pay exhorbitant administrative salaries. In the last year, the president, provost, and CFO received $300,000 in raises and bonuses - even though we're in the midst of a crisis brought on by their failure to keep enrollment stable. That's probably more than all the other employees on campus together, whose raise pool was halved to afford big raises at the top. The culture on campus is toxic. No one supports the president, who speaks of students as walking ATMs first (and seldom talks about the mission of the university in terms of education). In spite of our budget situation, the university is spending millions on new software and consulting services providing by a company he's on the board of directors of. He has created a culture of intimidation and goes after anybody who speaks out against him. The changes at this university over the last ten years are truly a tragedy.
