Vantaggi
I worked as a STAFF, not FACULTY. For those wondering. If you are considering adjunct, you have my sympathies: - If you are a top flight academic you are treated like gold - Benefits, PTO, FMLA, etc., are all solid. If you have a spouse or children with chronic illness or expensive medical treatment, insurance options are good. - Vesting in ASRS is a good deal for retirement - The environment is generally open-minded and progressive. Students are fun. That is pretty much where the fun ends.
Svantaggi
I worked at ASU for almost 10 years as an administrator, starting as an Office Specialist (a now retired title; the equivalent now is "program coordinator" or something like that) and ending as a Program Manager after 3 promotions. I worked in organized research on the downtown campus. ASU has systemic problems of lack of managerial ability and hostile or toxic workplace environments. I say this not only as an employee but as some who has many colleagues, still active in other departments. Being an office worker or administrator at ASU is being a second-class citizen. I routinely saw professors with tenure - especially older ones - harass, intimidate, make inappropriate comments, and facilitate negative work environments, and torpedo fledgling careers for catty reasons. Higher levels of administration in my school routinely worked to cover up this poor behavior through ineffective training, coaching, and guidance. Grounds for a lawsuit? One might say so. Unfortunately, ASU has, on retainer, 100% of all of the regional law firms that specialize in this activity. So, best of luck with that! The pay is consistently lower than valley averages, across all positions. HR will fight with you tooth and nail to tell you how much you're not worth. I know - I did it 3 times over 10 years. And when you do get a raise, they'll tell you how lucky you are to get 3% because of their internal rules which prohibit more than 10%. Lucky for us, 10% of 35k a year isn't that much anyway! The incessant focus on making money, even in research disciplines, skews all policies and priorities in the direction of delivering fast, lucrative training instead of actual community needs which cannot be assessed or addressed in the 1-year budget timeframe. You cannot grow grassroots on the state fiscal year, nor can you buy them with the cash from parking lots. ASU cashes in on minority talent, saddling them with debt to facilitate construction and expansion. This practice is something they should be transparent about, but never will be as it undermines the messaging that they are inclusive. The fact is, they are inclusive if you are willing to go into debt for it. Lastly, let me conclude with the arts. Many years ago President Crow delivered a speech to the school of art faculty and administration which lambasted them for not making enough money. Over the past 15 years, I have watched the art department move from one which has a strong and renowned emphasis based on producing ceramics (under the expert guidance of the Regents professor) and researching ceramics (under the expert guidance of the prior curator) to now what is basically just another generic arts degree which can be obtained for the same $120,000 as any other higher ed MFA. Enrollment, especially in the graduate programs which provide a significant amount of yearly department funding has increased, but the quality has decreased substantially. Again: short-term focus vs. long-term priorities.