(UCincinn) This is a university that is imploding

How this student rated the school

Educational Quality	B-	Faculty Accessibility	B
Useful Schoolwork	C-	Excess Competition	C-
Academic Success	D+	Creativity/ Innovation	B+
Individual Value	F	University Resource Use	F
Campus Aesthetics/ Beauty	C-	Friendliness	B-
Campus Maintenance	F	Social Life	D-
Surrounding City	B+	Extra Curriculars	F
Safety	F

Describes the student body as: Friendly, Broken Spirit Describes the faculty as: Arrogant, Condescending, Self Absorbed

Male

Super Brilliant

Lowest Rating Individual Value	F

Highest Rating Creativity/ Innovation	B+

He cares more about Campus Maintenance than the average student.

Date: Oct 23 2007
Major: Art & Design Department (This Major's Salary over time)
This is a university that is imploding.

It's true that the campus has been transformed via an extensive (and expensive) construction program. Unfortunately, the university is so broke that the admin. doesn't even manage to maintain all these new buildings. I study & work in one of the university's new architectural gems. It is literally filthy, and unsound. Whenever it rains, our studios are swamped by leaking roofs, and leaking door jams; the garbage is infrequently emptied; facilities are unclean and stink; the media equipment never works; crime is a matter of daily routine - even students stealing from other students (not to mention the thefts from persons outside the university community); if you have to report a crime the office police will tell you they don't have the resources to investigate; the new surveillance system literally is trained on the vending areas, not the building in general.

The university's administration and staff display an attitude that mirrors the state of our buildings. The university has so mismanaged its finances that they have cut staff to the bone and initiated a hiring freeze. The result is a grossly overworked admin. staff, inadequate teaching staff, and a whole lot of really bad attitudes. This is easily one of the angriest campuses in the country. Have a problem? It will not be solved, but by reporting it you will be verbally assaulted. Myself and a large number of other student employees had to threaten to file a labor complaint with DOL just to get paid - it still took over five months to get all that we were owed. And the university still maganged to get the taxes/deductions wrong.

Finally, this university is so over priced, and with the tuition freeze on they are looking into new and slimy ways of gaining additional income by raising fees and initiating new fees. You will not graduate with a reasonably priced degree. In fact, if they have their way you won't graduate at all unless you pay a $300 graduation fee (what they would like to call a 'transcript processing charge').

I suspect that the really nice review I found at the head of this collection was written by one of the university's spokespersons; it certainly reads like more of an advertisement than a student opinion. It expresses an experience that is the true opposite of mine and so many other students.

Responses

I posted the response below him. Although I don't work for the university, and don't know about any pay problems, I haven't experienced most of what he is complaining about.

If he thinks that Cincinnati has repair problems, he should check out Pratt Institute and a number of other schools. Cincinnati is much better than others that I have seen.

As for tuition, my parents are paying it so I don't get to see any staff problems. However, I haven't had any problems with my bills or scholarships. Thus, I don't understand where this review is coming from. I guess you can look at a glass as either half empty or half full.

I just saw this review. I also am a student at UC and haven't seen most of what was published in this negative review,but I too don't work on campus. I am in electronic media,which is part of CCM and LOVE it. We will be going to Germany as part of ouir curriculum. In fact, most people that I know at CCM love their program and love the school. Thus, I am not sure what circles this reviewer runs in.

I do attend UC, I'm in my late 20's, and I have worked in a number of different corporate environments outside of Cincinnati. I'm not a DAAP student, but…

Pretty much everything in this review is on the mark and it sounds very familiar to what I have experienced. It's also similar to what I hear graduate TA's say about UC.

Classrooms are in fact dirty (ie. dirty desktops; hello UC ever hear of MRSA?).
Many of the UC service people / front end office workers are in fact rude and miserable as ever to deal with.

The attitude you encounter will encounter three personality types: 1. The Roseanne Barr snotty blue collar female. 2. The Ms. Ghettotude I Got Problems Too so don't act like your problem is important. (types 1 & 2 are most likely non-degreed Union Employees) 3. "Dr. Top 25 University" Angry To Be Trapped in Cincinnati after 2 decades of graduate studies / pissed off that the department didn't supply enough TA's to grade papers / "I'm tenured so I can screw you over for the fun of it."

4. Dr. Nice and Easy Going and very professional but has only been at UC for a year and isn't bitter as hell yet… …will probably move onto another university when he/she figures out what a cluster-jam UC is and a better offer comes along.

Better hope you get Type #4!!! Seriously 1 out of 4 isn't very good in terms of odds now is it.

If you ever do encounter a problem with "whatever," expect to face indifference, poor information from 5-50 employees before you finally get the right answer… or just flat out blackballing by miserable UC employees who would much rather see you fall victim to UC's mazelike regulations and ways of doing business. UC has a ton of rules for how problems are taken care of, but they're largely unknown by the UC staff members that students have access to. Worse yet, attempts to engage senior staff members will be thwarted by the typical "Dean So-And-So doesn't typically meat with students…"

I would like to say that students who's parents pay for everything are immune to what I have described. But everyone encounters problems during their academic career at one point or another. If your parent is well connected in the university community and eager to make helicopter parent phone calls to solve your problems then you might be OK at UC.

PS: I don't feel that the tuition is bad, but I'm from DC where everything is 30K more / year. Ohioans are about 20 years behind the curve when it comes to coastal financial trends so I can see how Ohio based students might feel that the tuition is high.

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