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U of O named among “Great Colleges to Work For”

July 6, 2009
By cnp
Posted in About

Clarksville, Ark. --- University of the Ozarks has been named one of the top universities in the country to work for by The Chronicle of Higher Education.

In the Chronicle’s 2009 “Great Colleges to Work For” survey, released on Monday, July 6, University of the Ozarks was one of 39 colleges across the country that were named to the Honor Roll. U of O was the only four-year college in Arkansas to make the survey’s Honor Roll.

The second-annual survey recognizes colleges for specific best practices and policies, such as compensation and benefits, faculty-administration relations and confidence in senior leadership. The program was based on responses from nearly 41,000 administrators, faculty members and staff members at 247 institutions, including four-year colleges and universities, as well as community colleges.

“These results are reflective of the quality, collaboration and effectiveness of our entire campus community,” said U of O Executive Vice President Steve Edmisten. “It is a special tribute to all of our faculty and staff.”

The Honor Roll highlights the top 10 colleges in each college size category based on the number of times they were recognized in 26 individual recognition categories. U of O was ranked in the top 10 in 18 of the 26 recognition categories in the small college size category (under 3,000 students).

In the small college category, Ozarks was tied with Birmingham-Southern College with the most top-10 category rankings with 18. The categories Ozarks received a top-10 ranking in included, healthy faculty-administration relations; collaborative governance; professional-career development programs; compensation and benefits; job satisfaction; work/life balance; confidence in senior leadership; internal communications; connection to institution and pride; supervisor/department chair relationship; perception and confidence in fair treatment; respect and appreciation; policies, resources and efficiency; physical work space conditions; tuition reimbursement; housing-assistance programs, vacation or paid time off; and overall satisfaction with benefits.

The Chronicle article stated that one of the benefits Ozarks has for its employees is that it “maintains nearby homes and apartments that are available to faculty and staff members for rental.” The university has seven residential homes and five apartments close to campus that faculty members and employees can rent, according to Business Manager Darrell Williams.

Randy Peterson, director of institutional research at Ozarks, said 68 employees at the university participated in the survey.

“This was Ozarks’ first year to participate in the survey, and over half of the employees who were selected submitted responses,” Peterson said. “This is an outstanding response rate, and the information we will gain from those responses will give us important insights into the quality of our workplace.

Joining Ozarks in the “Great Colleges to Work For” Honor Roll list among small colleges were Austin College in Texas, Birmingham-Southern College and Southeastern Bible College in Alabama, Furman University in South Carolina, Gettysburg College and Juniata College in Pennsylvania, Lourdes College in Ohio, St. Michael’s College in Vermont and Morningside College in Iowa.

The Chronicle of Higher Education is the leading source of news, information and jobs for college and university faculty members and administrators. The newspaper has a weekly print readership of 350,000 and Web traffic of more than 14 million pages a month. ModernThink LLC, which administered and analyzed the survey, is a strategic human capital consulting firm that has conducted numerous “Best Places to Work” programs.

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