Ripon College recognized as great place to work

SOURCE: Fond du Lac Reporter

RIPON — Ripon College has been recognized in The Chronicle of Higher Education's 2009 Great Colleges to Work For program.

It is the only private college in Wisconsin to be so honored, according to a press release from the college.

The results of the annual survey were announced in a special supplement of The Chronicle, which can be seen at http://chronicle.com/indepth/academicworkplace.

Ripon was listed in four categories:

* Healthy faculty-administration relations.
* Collaborative governance.
* Work/life balance.
* Connection to institution and pride.

"We spend a lot of time focusing on the student experience here, and rightly so, but it starts with the employee experience," said David C. Joyce, president of Ripon College, in the press release. "The culture here is based on collaboration and mutual respect, as evidenced by the results of this survey. Our people are what sets us apart — not just how we treat our students, but how we treat each other."

The Chronicle's Great Colleges to Work For program recognizes small groups of colleges (based on enrollment size) for specific best practices and policies, such as compensation and benefits, faculty/administration relations, and confidence in senior leadership. There are 26 recognition categories for four-year institutions, and 15 categories for community colleges. Among four-year colleges, 122 institutions were recognized in at least one category.

More than 300 four- and two-year colleges signed up for this year's program, and 247 went through the survey process this spring. That's nearly triple last year's number of participants. The results are based on responses from nearly 41,000 administrators, faculty members and staff members at those institutions.