research assistant

lecturer

assistant professor

associate director

safety supervisor

Barnard College

This is an incredible place to work and should be lauded as the gold standard for how employers should treat their employees, clients and customers. The environment is friendly, the staff is welcoming, and any questions or concerns you have can be directed to any member of the staff or faculty with no issues.

The pay is great with A LOT of opportunities for overtime. The benefits are excellent including I believe, a 9% base employer contribution to the college retirement plan separate from employee additions, the health plans are affordable, there are 3 floating holidays, good vacation time Accrual rates, sick time, paid holidays, personal days, free tuition for staff and their female children, you name it. Barnard has spared no expense in seeing that the people they employ are well taken care of. We get paid weekly and get paid hour long lunches too!

The campus is sprawling with multiple buildings on site and several residence halls in the outlying neighborhoods, several cafes on site, bookstore, labs, in house plumbers, HVAC, locksmith, legal team, union office. It is almost a city in and of itself capable of independence from the larger metro area in which it resides. There is cross pollination of students with Columbia across the street and students of both campuses are allowed access to either with the proper ID.

This is also a pro-collective bargaining organization, so staff as well as faculty have unions which allow and push for fair pay, and the plethora of benefits listed above. There are currently some issues with that, but I think they will be resolved by end of summer or start of fall.

There are some pitfalls like anywhere else. The students are Prime A #1, so good, bad or indifferent, their word is gold against yours, full stop.

It is an all girls school and there are a lot of politics at play regarding that, which I won't go into detail about here. Long story short, come in, do your job, make everyone feel welcome and secure, avoid the political land mines and you can have a great career here.

***Update***: I've been here for a while now, and most of the above still applies, but as with any organization, the shiny veneer starts to scratch off the longer you're around to inspect it, and it's starting to chip away for me at Barnard.

The first issue I have is that I was mislead by the posted payrate for the position. The posted payrate isn't what is paid immediately post probation as the job ad would have any reasonable person believe, but rather, is the full payrate after a 4 year payscale progression! Pretty large omission there guys, just FYI!! This would normally be fine, however, there was NO verbiage to suggest this was the case, and I believe all parties involved in placing the requisition knew full well what they were doing with that.

Lastly, and more importantly, those "issues", I alluded to in my initial review regarding the union were NOT sorted out by the end of that summer, but are still ongoing. Barnards higher ups, at least some of them, seem to have a vested interest in dismantling the union piece by piece so as to make way for much, much lower compensated contract companies to come in, as a means to save money. It's a shame this seems to be the case because it is otherwise an outstanding position and workplace, but without a union, this job turns into another poverty wage paying site operated by one of the known larger security contract providers, rather than a position that can alter the lives of the community who Barnard, in all of its public relations copy, claims to value so much. 

The above is why I had to lower the rating by several points in this update of my employment review at Barnard.

The problem is in the public safety department; there was a high turnover rate with both management and rank and file workers which affected the culture of the department.  There were mangers that did not know what they were doing, they didn’t know the policies or would change policies that led to confusion, many times there was a lack of oversight by the shift supervisor and there were always favoritism.    

As for the attends, whether they have been there for a long time or not, they pretty much did what they wanted to do.   This is not to say that the place was a free for all.  There were people who took their job seriously and did a good job to make sure the place was safe.  And we did have manger that work to bring more cohesion in policy.   I did enjoy working there for most of time.  Hopefully they will get their act together. 


Barnard is a wonderful college with a great mission and great students, but working there was a very negative experience. While I liked my basic job duties, I had a highly unprofessional supervisor who made the environment hostile. Senior management/VPs should be trained to run their departments more efficiently instead of being allowed to "reorganize" them in order to hide their own administrative errors. HR does little, if anything, to correct these problems. I worked with many talented people, but several of them were frustrated by the actions of poor senior management. That seems to be a part of the culture. The job was made tolerable only because the students are wonderful.  

The ongoing construction on Campus is poorly managed. Services are also minimal and skimpy at best.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Barnard is not prestigious to work for. It is a sexist environment and leadership is lacking. It is out dated in technology and knowledge. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The most stressful part is that the college is disorganized and the wrong types of people are hired to run the school. No one knows anything or how procedures are supposed to take place. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Negative and no one is held accountable for their work.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
It is fun of resolving problems, because the college has favoritism.

Barnard College has transformed into a nearly unrecognizable institution over the last two years. Once a warm, stable, supportive community of educators and administrators dedicated to student learning, it has suffered greatly under poor leadership from the president and her inner circle. No one trusts those in charge, and their decision-making and business acumen are demonstrably foolish. In terms of the employee experience, benefits are being slashed, flexibility removed, and pay (which was never competitive) is comically low for most positions given the NYC location, expectations for advanced degrees, and role responsibilities. I fear a once-great institution is in danger of crumbling.

While it was outside of my previous experience in law and finance, it was refreshing to work on the other side of the academic life.  It was easy to relate given my time at Fordham University.The odd thing about Barnard, and I am not sure if it is the case with all NY schools, is that management is unionized and the professor (including those tenured) have little or no say about the assistants they prefer.

I loved exploring the lives of African American New Yorkers of the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries and putting my research to work in the creation of two well-grounded characters, both based on historical reality. Seeing my vignette performed was a thrill!

Since "Missing Daughter" was a one-shot deal, many of the categories above do not apply to the project.

Barnard has truly been a blessing as far as I am concerned. Flexible schedules, descent pay, and good co-workers which makes the environment seem like a small family. I can honestly say I enjoy my job which is something that I have not been able to say about many of my previous employers.

I look forward to spending more years here and making it into a career.

I had the incredible opportunity to serve as a Residential Leader for the Barnard Pre-College Program, and it was an experience that exceeded all my expectations. As a Residential Leader, my role was to provide guidance, support, and create a positive living and learning environment for the high school students participating in the program. I must say, it was a truly rewarding and fulfilling experience.



The Barnard Admissions office is a great place to work. In the beginning of the semester you set your hours around your class schedule. The culture in the office is friendly and laid back. The hardest parts of the job have to be dealing with persistant parents or prospective students.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Research assistant 10 salaries reported	$27.85 per hour
Lecturer 5 salaries reported	$91,000 per year
Assistant professor 3 salaries reported	$115,833 per year
Associate director 2 salaries reported	$81,875 per year
Safety supervisor 1 salary reported	$79,500 per year

Working at Barnard College: Company Overview and Reviews

Barnard College

Barnard College Ratings

Popular jobs at Barnard College

Salary Satisfaction

Job Seeker Tools

Employer Tools

Browse

Stay Connected