assistant professor

assistant director

academic advisor

coordinator

instructor

Florida-Gulf-Coast-University

The Housing and Residents Life as well as other facilities on campus have a separation of professional and student staff. It is very clear and appalling the lack of respect or kindness professional staff gives its student staff. Students are paid very low for the hours they put in, especially resident assistants who are paid $200 a month and can only work 9 hours for any other job, both in and out of the university. The student staff that out number the professional staff (this is not including faculty and professors), yet they are treated as easily replaceable and the student staff feel that. There is poor level of training and yet student staff are held to high standards that even the professional staff tend to meet. The turn over rate for student staff, especially within FGCU's housing is high and continues to grow each year due to poor management. Multiple people discouraged me from taking the job due to their own experience as a resident assistant, and within one year I understood why. The job is emotionally, physically, and mentally taxing with little pay or support. The only benefit is free or reduced housing and even that isn't worth the job. Housing attempts to promote inclusion and diversity which is commendable but their efforts tend to fall short or miss the mark. I have seen them use a transgender person as a trophy of how inclusive they are, and I have noted their preference to hire men, as they tend to be lower amounts of men in the job, but in doing so they are more lax on the credibility and professionalism of these men. I have worked with men on my team and most are amazing at their job, but I have seen many slip through with poor professionalism and work ethic. The latter set were used to balance the female to male ratio. Overall, I regret working for Florida Gulf Coast University's housing, as have many of my coworkers, and I wish the best of luck to the students who wish to join in the following years or those who can't afford to live anywhere else.

The administration is top heavy and cronyism is the norm, not the exception.

The culture is "us versus them," with faculty morale at questionable levels.

Faculty governance is a vapor.  There are systems in place that COULD allow more faculty to be involved in governance issues, but the systems are easily evaded.

New faculty quickly learn to keep their heads down, their mouths shut, and their office doors closed to minimize chance interactions with administrators. Many established faculty, who would likely be valuable leaders at more traditional schools, have grown complacent and openly admit to doing the minimum amount of work necessary to get their contracts renewed. 

While there are some bright students on campus, the admissions requirements are so low that there are many more students on campus who probably should not be there. Making matters worse is the administration's constant push to pass all students who "make an effort" to improve the university's 6-year graduation rate and thus the level of state funding. 

Overall, this university should be considered a safety school by potential faculty members, just as most students do. If you can go anywhere else, do so. Otherwise, you will be stuck working in an adversarial environment with other faculty (and students), most of whom couldn't go anywhere else to teach (or learn). 

There are departments where working at FGCU could be a decent experience.  A person starting a job, though, would have no idea if they were in a good one until it is too late.  If you aren't, you will have a very unpleasant work-life.  Also, those in middle and upper management are often fairly compensated and seem to feel appreciated.  If you are not in management, you are usually taken for granted and overlooked, regardless of how hard you work or how effective you are as an employee. 

Southwest Florida is still a low-wage area relative to the cost of living.  FGCU makes bank on this and maintains no more than mediocre pay for most faculty and non-administrative staff.  They are not at the bottom of the SWFL salary market, but they strive to hover just below the middle.  Short of a promotion to a favored management position, your salary will remain there for your entire tenure at FGCU.

It's a beautiful campus and a pleasant environment, and if you are just looking for a relatively secure job and don't mind being treated like a door stop, you might be able to make it work for a while.

Each department is different, so make sure that you do research. I learned that from all the departments that I have worked in training is not guaranteed.

The hardest part of the job is finding correct and agreed upon procedures in the office. But again this depends on what department you are working for. I have had a good one on one training, felt comfortable asking for assistance and able to go to different people to receive help.  

However, one needs to make sure that you don't give to much away until you can trust people. A lot of people speak about others and word of mouth is very impactful. Take time to know people and things should go well.

Overall, this university isn't too different from others and there are good things and bad things that it is smallish and growing. It is a good place to learn if this is the kind of environment that one would like to stay working in. 

I can't express how important it is to know what you can and can not put up with, (students/ co-workers/ parents) this is important depending on what you will do and how common you will be in contact with each group.

There is freedom in planning the course schedule and  lectures
FGCU does not provide tools like a hand-on "whiteboard" for better lecture presentation. It puts a lot of pressure on the instructor to have a lot of materials for the students since you cannot explain the subject on the board. An instructor works very hard to prepare super detailed notes in the hope that they can be used in future repeated classes. 

FGCU does not do a good job planning the adjuncts position  for a full academic year. They do not inform you at the beginning of the term position the extend of the contract. It has been typical that adjuncts at FGCU are not used for the 2nd semester. 

It makes the selection to work for FGCU difficult because there are never  a sure  thing at the end of the  1st semester.

It is quite hard to find another adjunct position mid academic year.
Most school plans the adjunct for 9 month .




A typical day as an Administrative Assistant at FGCU entails morning, afternoon, intermittent, daily and weekly assigned tasks. There's a flow to the work there which I find enjoyable. Gathering a list of call-backs on the voicemail in the morning, returning calls, helping people, setting up classrooms, building a weekly constant contact, creating marketing, updating social media, check deposits, and instructor payments are specific tasks I'm in charge of. The workplace culture is friendly yet professional. The main difficulty for my colleagues and myself is just the process of creating efficient and effective protocol for our tasks. But overall, those challenges lead to shared jubilation when we solve a challenge once and for all. It's really the flexibility and freedom to do things the way we see best for our team and our location that makes the job so enjoyable. I fully enjoy the work, my colleagues and the students.

President seems kind and sincere - basically a good man. But he may be blind to some bad managers. Nepotism big-time, too.  VP's wife was in exec office as Secretary under maiden name.

The campus is fabulous - well-manicured - and there are many nice amenities (Starbucks, Chick-Fil-A,cafeteria with really good food (sometimes cooked to order), smoothie place, etc. ) 

However, since there have not been any raises per se in years, and only a few chosen 'pets' advance, most jobs are 'dead-end'. As for work-life balance, again, that totally depends on your supervisor, as the ones without kids take their long lunches but if you need to leave a 1/2 hour early for a parent-teacher conference, then you need to take that time as 'vacation'! You do not feel appreciated - unless that is OK with you!

I work long hours, but my coworkers make it worth it. I walk in and grab my badge and sit down at the desk and wash everything down and check for any notes on the desk to make sure I don't have to do anything. I greet parents and students as they walk into the building and ask if they have any questions or need help. If so, I direct them in the right way. I show them the resources we have on campus and how to navigate through the website. Management is great, we have good communication and if anything is wrong in the workplace, I can go to them for anything. Coworkers are very helpful and are always around to make sure we are doing all that we can do for the residents. Hardest part of my job is that I work up to 12 hours in one day, it's hard but worth it. I enjoy talking to the residents and parents about the school and about the problems that they are having. I like helping them and making a difference in their college experience.

HR is a absolute mess. There is no advancement, no incentive, nothing to drive you to work harder or move further within the college. They focus on micro management, and the behind the scenes politics is horrible. The pay is low but the benefits WERE good. The insurance is getting worse every year. At first We used all of FGCU benefits, not we only use the health, and it's balanced with my wifes. Eye, dental, retirement, we no longer use here. I've been here 10 years and I can't move on anywhere without a degree and those positions are a pay cut. They have no value for work experience or your past experience. Although the president claims he wants values people to advance, HR is still in charge and they clearly don't follow the same ideas as the president.

Fortunately, our supervisor was excellent, however the qualifications for lab managers does not match the compensation. Management expects you to use your qualifications, but aren’t willing to pay for it. Staff are underrepresented and have no growth potential in this position. The process of making changes and overall political atmosphere is exhausting and counterproductive. Most contribute to the high turnover by leaving their jobs to achieve deserved status and pay grade. With a bachelors degree and years of experience you can’t earn a living wage through this university. Unfortunately, this affects university growth and productivity in the College of Arts and Sciences.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Assistant professor 3 salaries reported	$60,000 per year
Assistant director 3 salaries reported	$68,150 per year
Academic advisor 12 salaries reported	$51,458 per year
Coordinator 3 salaries reported	$47,167 per year
Instructor 5 salaries reported	$48,300 per year

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