Does there seem to be diversity at Western Governors University?

Not very many, good benefits maybe

Where do I start? Good lip service to diversity and inclusion, but they're slowly getting rid of programs supporting DEI. Awful in-house support for employees on these things (and no real training to help students), more interested in $$$ than positive culture. Just wait until you hear the ultra-rich white male CEO start talking about how he's "fixing" these problems. Be prepared for crocodile tears and insincere platitudes.

-My peers, direct manager, and senior manager were incredible people — fun, supportive, genuine, and hardworking. -Flexible scheduling (within set parameters) that allows you to choose your own hours as an Instructor. -75% off WGU degree programs and free professional certificates. -Instructors can work from home... for now.

-I would caution anyone considering an Instructor or Professor role at WGU if you’re seeking long-term, stable employment or the ability to teach in your area of expertise. -It’s increasingly clear that senior leadership is investing heavily in AI and automation, signaling a likely reduction in Instructor roles. For example: -Replacing the student ticketing system with AI that directs decisions and automates communication. -Integrating AI assistants directly into course materials and contracting multiple AI-centric vendors for course development and student support. -Talking about and implementing AI with zero acknowledgement of its impact on the environment at this scale -Leadership frames these changes as “opportunities to work more 1:1 with students,” but in practice, the Instructor role is structured more like a call center or customer service position than a traditional teaching role. - Most Instructor time is spent: - Reaching out to disengaged students every two weeks, with the same email templates over and over, with limited response, and - Attempting to coach students who have failed assessments through repetitive study plan discussions - most of these conversations are met with extreme resistance and often lashing out from the students - Autonomy in developing individualized study plans has been replaced by standardized, top-down templates effective in 2025 - Beginning December 2025, Instructors must cold-call any student who fails an assessment within about four hours — even when dozens fail per day — which is neither inclusive nor sustainable. - This along with leadership's focus on metrics and automation often comes at the expense of DEI and ADA considerations. - Instructors and faculty have no input in creating course content or assessments; those are produced by “product development specialists,” and faculty are not even permitted to see exams. It's obvious that a lot of content is created by AI. - Since 2025, the student population has shifted significantly — many are underprepared for college-level work, and many display hostility toward faculty. Instructors are frequently subject to verbal abuse or dishonesty from students. - The only true teaching opportunities come from optional live sessions — if your course even allows them or if a slot is opened. - Monthly all-staff town halls have a tone of toxic positivity, featuring performative displays of “vulnerability” rather than authentic transparency. - Career advancement has been effectively eliminated. The Senior Instructor role was dissolved, and nearly all advancement opportunities are centralized in Salt Lake City, which lacks diversity and requires relocation. - Roughly 80% of an Instructor’s time is spent copying and pasting standardized emails to manage large student caseloads and daily tickets, and making cold calls. Or calling students who do not answer for their appointments. - Recent policy changes emphasize team-based performance metrics, monitoring of call times and recordings, and a loss of individual performance goals or recognition. - Many exceptional colleagues have left due to the organization’s arbitrary return-to-office mandates for remote employees, justified under the guise of “collaboration.” If you value genuine teaching, academic freedom, and long-term stability, WGU may not be the right fit in its current form. If you’re seeking short-term remote work with flexible hours and supportive direct management, the experience can be positive but go in with eyes wide open about where the institution is heading and ensure you have thick skin to deal with daily insults and student aggression.

Excellent retirement matching. The footprint of the work done is quite large, and if you orient yourself towards the mission, you can really feel like the work you are doing is making a difference. Individual contributors are very personable and welcoming, and it is not hard to get information. Support services (IT, etc) are timely and efficient. Additionally, the job is easy. I never truly stretched my skill set during my tenure here.

As mentioned, the work never allowed me to stretch my skillset and comfort zone. I struggled when interviewing for new positions due to how little I had advanced over the years. Despite how much I asked for additional, more challenging work, it was never delivered, and i was always left in the role of a glorified note taker and meeting goer. There is a massive lack of data, projects do not track financials, and there is no insight into how initiatives are performing. Initiatives that get approved are pet projects of executives and are not based on any sort of empirical decision making. Leadership pays lip service to the “amazing work we are doing for students,” but they cannot quantify what they are actually doing, and 90% of the time it is the individual contributors that are doing the work, and the leaders are just moving information from one place to another. Return to office is a completely hare-brained attempt to emulate Amazon. Remote work had been a part of WGU for the majority of its existence, and the brain drain that will inevitably result from the mandate will have a major effect on both diversity and institutional knowledge. WGU will suffer as a result.

There are no pros for WGU anymore.

Unfortunately WGU is demonstrating that it doesn't trust employees, and the very model and mission it espouses is a scam. Requiring remote employees to move to SLC and be in-office 4 days a week is absurd, especially when we tout the ideals of expanding access, opportunity, and diversity. It's a sham, the executive leadership is a sham, and I would recommend everyone stay away.

Many of the faculty really care about student success.

Faculty are micro managed. As a manager, I was required to do "calendar audits" and if there was "white space" on their calendar where I could not see what they were doing, I was supposed to have a conversation with them about time management. If it continued, I was supposed to write a warning. One faculty member was fired. The university does not care about diversity, equity or inclusion. The curriculum in the course I was managing was very problematic through this lens. I was collaborating with others in the university to fix this, and even received an award for this work from the VP. However, in my annual evaluation from my Senior Manager, with support from the Director and HR, I was chastised for this work and was told in writing, "Improving Diversity, equity and inclusion concerns in your course curriculum is an admirable goal, but it is not part of your job responsibilities and is not in line with the expectations for your role. We don't have data to support this being a priority for the Math Domain, and need to focus on support that will drive change and improve student outcomes." The university used to say they wanted to be "the most inclusive university in the world". They don't say this anymore. The university used to be very student oriented and non-profit. They have moved into a business model with the current president (who used to be the CFO at Amazon). They no longer care about creating a great university, they only care about the bottom line. There are signs that they are moving toward AI and I think the goal is to become the first AI run university in the world.

This university has givien legitimate degrees to people. The tuition costs are lower than most institutions and WGU is regionally accredited.

The leadership is toxic and so is the current environment based on the recent decision by the C-Suite to make most leadership and other pivotal positions SLC based. This will take away from employee diversity, available talent and will create a bottle neck for anyone who wants to progress their career outside of living in SLC. If you are looking at positions at WGU, my advice is to look elsewhere for opportunities. We recently let go our head DE&I person. Why? Because he actually wanted to implement DE&I principles? Scott and his fellow executives made quick work of eliminating DE&I by forcing all execs to move to Utah. They will have a hard time attracting diverse talent to a conservative state with expensive housing and poor air quality.

*Huge tuition discount for WGU programs and certifications. *Unlimited PTO (both a pro and a con- co-workers can take advantage) *Pay, for certain positions, is above average *Breakfast bar *Daily per diem for hot lunch, salad bar, or vending in the Cafe. Free coffee, tea, soda, and ice cream. *Nice office spaces * 5 day work week for most departments

* WGU prides itself on diversity but a recent change requires all upper leadership roles to be local to the SLC home office. As most people won't relocate here, they hire locally. The SLC office is predominantly white/ liberal/ LDS. Alternative views are quietly frowned upon. * No structure for advancement- No established advancement guidelines or rubrics are communicated . Promotions are often made by personal favorites. If you are good at getting your nose dirty, you will do well. Introverts will stay stuck. * This creates a toxically positive work environment * The HR department is useless in helping managers address conflicts and takes months to resolve concerns. *Constant leadership turn-over. Managers often have to assume dual roles, which trickles down to accommodate their workload. *WGU is an online University in which the majority of tasks can be done from home. However, most positions require 4 days in office to "collaborate with members of your team" (ie. lots of team meetings). This contributes to an inefficient work day and then stress to meet your work demands. I would often have to use PTO to catch up on my WORK.

- Individual contributors / student-facing employees really care about the success of students - Benefits are good - Lower tier teams are very supportive

- Leadership is very out of touch with the work employees do - Extreme siloing within the organization - Very call-center driven, not what one expects after earning graduate degrees and doctorates - Culture of fear and retaliation exists to discourage ruffling any feathers over poor knee-jerk decisions by leadership - Mandatory RTO to SLC even though people never worked in UT to begin with - Receiving weekly announcements about new leaders being hired in UT that lack any real credentials in academia, but fit the profile of an elder in UT - Got rid of DEI and diversity has nose-dived since they forced RTO to Utah - INSANELY metrics-based. Employees are held responsible for poor decisions of leadership that cause a drop in student outcomes - Very high stress as a result of unreachable metrics - Raises are insultingly low, not even keeping with inflation some years. - Leadership makes big decisions on the fly and will pivot to some new initiative before results are even in from the last one - Since RTO, there is no opportunities for advancement unless you move to Utah.

Some very genuine, hardworking, kind, smart people, especially at the "individual contributor" levels. Unfortunately, half of them won't be around soon. Ironically, I do like the mental health benefits! Something like 10 free sessions + 10 free life coach sessions.

Where to start! The recent Amazonification of WGU has been a long-lasting nightmare, and I truly hope the top leadership changes as soon as possible. WGU 5, 10, 15 years ago was a completely different place - and not just because of its now-large size. Trust in leadership across the university is totally gone. Employees are not valued. The dollar is valued. You WILL be gaslit on a monthly basis during the emotional, sectarian All Hands meetings. You will be told things definitively about the university's goals that will simply not be true two months later. This happened with RTO topics many times, and with AI rollouts. DEI was silently and brutally dismantled and every new hire seems to be white LDS, of course based in Salt Lake City. I have nothing against that community, but the lack of diversity for a nationwide university is a problem for a list of reasons too long to get into here. I would discourage people with disabilities to work here, again you won't be valued and seen. My salary was lower than market rate with no raises for years, in part due to RTO - a policy which makes no sense since most employees were never "in office" to begin with. I will cherish my good times at WGU and miss the affirming, stable, and positive place it used to be.

Encourages diversity and continuous learning

Extensive unpaid on-call duties No QA team Terrible deployment processes Constantly changing priorities and recorgs Forcing employees hired on with a permanently remote role into office full time