RIPON, Wis. – Ripon College has been recognized in The Chronicle of Higher Education’s 2009 Great Colleges to Work For® program, according to the results of the second annual survey announced in a special supplement of The Chronicle today at http://chronicle.com/indepth/academicworkplace. It is the only private college in Wisconsin to be so honored.

"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. "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."

Ripon was listed in four categories:

• Healthy Faculty-Administration Relations
• Collaborative Governance
• Work/Life Balance
• Connection to Institution and Pride

"Connection to Institution and Pride" is a running theme, as Ripon recently made its $2.2 million Annual Fund goal amid a flagging economy.

"Alumni and friends of the College came through in a big way for us this year, which goes back again to the culture our people have worked so hard to engender over the years," added Joyce.

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 entire 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.

"Despite the down economy, colleges are still hiring,” says Jeffrey J. Selingo, the editor of The Chronicle of Higher Education. “Through this program, The Chronicle is able to provide more information to job seekers about the colleges that are the leading innovators when it comes to providing a rewarding work environment."

About The Chronicle of Higher Education
The Chronicle of Higher Education is the No. 1 source of news, information, and jobs for college and university faculty members and administrators. Based in Washington, D.C., The Chronicle has more than 60 full-time writers and editors, as well as a dozen foreign correspondents positioned around the world. Published since 1966, The Chronicle publishes a daily Web site, a weekly newspaper, a weekly magazine of ideas, and produces newsletters and events. A nine-time finalist for the National Magazine Awards, the newspaper has a weekly print readership of 350,000 and Web traffic of more than 14 million pages a month at http://chronicle.com.

About Ripon College
Ripon College, founded in 1851, prepares students of diverse interests for lives of productive, socially responsible citizenship. Ripon’s liberal arts curriculum and residential campus create an intimate learning community in which students experience a richly personalized education. Ripon has consistently been recognized as a “best value” and “Best 368 College” by The Princeton Review, a “Best Buy in College Education” by Barron’s, a “Best Liberal-Arts College” by Washington Monthly, and is listed among the 160 best schools in the nation by Colleges of Distinction. For more information about Ripon College, visit www.ripon.edu.