Pros
A lot of great people, and several of the departments - Mission & Ministry, Facilities to name a few - are always willing to collaborate and find new ways to better server students. The faculty clearly care about the students, and the students are a great group.
Cons
Student Services is a high stress, pitiless environment that offers no support and no direction to its staff members. Effort and accomplishment are never recognized, unless as a means of petty manipulation or passive aggression. I can count on one hand the number of days I didn't work from the beginning of May until the end of August. When I brought this to my supervisor's attention, my concern was ignored. Directors are actively discouraged from collaborating - the assumption either being that we're covering for each other's laziness or plotting against the dean of students. The only comparable experience I can relate my employment in MMU Student Services to is my years in Middle School. In April of this year, one Director was asked to develop two new positions - imagine his surprise the Tuesday after finals when he was informed the new positions were being funded by the elimination of his position! Despite their talk about mercy and compassion, MMU's treatment of its Student Services staff is mercenary in the extreme. Your position is never safe, and feedback is only ever given in the form of gossip to other directors, never to to your face. This creates an extremely unstable environment, making future planning for staff members hard, and trusting the leadership even harder.
