Lewis & Clark College Reviews

Pros

The Pioneer Log is one of the few jobs at Lewis & Clark College that is located directly on campus, which is great for anyone that has limited has limited access to transportation (or time for commuting) during the academic year. The Pioneer Log also gives you a chance to be among the first on campus to find out about current events and news at the college. One or two credits are usually also available (although it could be that if you get the credits you don't get paid; I'm not sure) if you agree to submit various assignments throughout the semester.

The "Pio Log" is also a great way to gain experience.

Cons

The pay is low, if anything. If you are only looking to make money you would be better off looking for another job.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the good work!

Pros

Good Vacation Package
Good Benefits
Non-Leadership people are great to work with.
Portland Oregon is a beautiful place to work and live in.

Cons

Despite giving a lot of vacation you are not allowed to use it.
Salaries suck.
Leadership and executive team could care less about a work/life balance.

Advice to Senior Management

Change the management of Lewis & Clark College and you will see more retention of employees. There is an old boys club within the executive/trustee level and they take care of themselves.

Pros

Lots of paid time off. High turnover means lots of opportunities for being hired and promoted with few years of experience under your belt. The campus is in a beautiful location. Co-workers are fantastic people. The students are bright and talented.

Cons

Working at Lewis & Clark is like being adrift on a ship with no rudder -- the College has little sense of itself and seems to crash from crisis to crisis. Poor leadership means it is difficult to envision a shared goal, so work feels largely meaningless. It seems that Lewis & Clark seeks to present itself as blandly as possible, and it is difficult to grasp what makes it unique or special. Controversial issues (e.g. sexual harassment) are dealt with in a cursory fashion and swept under the rug as often as possible.

Advice to Senior Management

Take a bold stance -- decide who and what you are, and live up to those values. Take advice from others.

Pros

The location (Portland, OR) is fantastic for those who are in higher education and want to live in a fun, vibrant city. LC sells the city, and it takes advantage of the location.

The campus is beautiful. Trees, open spaces, the ravine... I could go on an on about what a pleasure it is to walk from building to building during the day because the physical environment is divine.

There are some wonderful scholars and practitioners who genuinely want to work to support students, improve town/gown relations, and work in partnerships across functional areas in order to develop a strong, communicative environment.

Cons

This is a place that dislikes change. Employees are either here for less than two years, or more than twenty.

The training programs for new employees leaves something to be desired. It depends upon one's manager entirely if there is any sort of orientation and/or training. This leads to a lot of retroactive correction rather than proactive teaching. The first few years can be frustrating because very little is written down, and everyone is heavily dependent upon the employees of twenty plus years to explain even the most basic and necessary functions of a position.

The institution is behind the curve with many of their policies and procedures, and many published materials are contradictory to policy and other materials.

The organizational chart in Student Life is a mess.

Parking is ridiculously expensive.

Advice to Senior Management

The Executive Council needs to evaluate is structure and priorities (as reflected in who is at the table). Our provost is not the chief academic officer, which leads to some confusion.

Budgeting models either need to be collaborative or separate. The current incarnation is a weird system in which some areas are allowed to charge others for services, while others cannot. This causes some departments to have a revenue stream from other areas, and hinders other from achieving budgeting goals.