Archive for Nick Taylor-Vaisey

Province denies Lakehead, Laurentian and Laurier/Waterloo proposals

Prospective law students in Thunder Bay, Sudbury, and Kitchener-Waterloo will be forced to apply out of town, after the provincial government announced new law schools planned at schools in those cities would not receive funding.

The Toronto Star reports that Minister of Training, Colleges and Universities John Milloy sent a letter to university presidents at Lakehead University, Laurentian University, the University of Waterloo, and Wilfrid Laurier University informing them of the decision.

Milloy told the Star that his government wants to do a lot for higher education, but funding for more law schools are not on the agenda.

“Our government has a pretty ambitious list of post-secondary priorities—more graduate studies, 100 new medical spots, for example—but to be honest, a new law school is not one of them,” said MPP John Milloy, minister of training, colleges and universities yesterday.

“We haven’t seen increased demand for law school, and we’re looking at a study that shows a number of law students aren’t able to find articling jobs,” said Milloy.

Ontario has six law schools based at the University of Toronto, Osgoode Hall at York University, the University of Ottawa, Queen’s University, the University of Western Ontario, and the University of Windsor. It has been almost 40 years since Windsor opened its school, the youngest in the province, in 1969.

Lakehead president Frederick Gilbert was particularly disappointed with the decision; the school had purchased an old high school for $1 million that it thought would house the new program. The selling point of Lakehead’s proposal was a proposed focus on aboriginal law and small, northern community-based law.

Northern Ontario’s Net News Ledger was particularly distressed by the news. It called the funding rejection “just another brick in the wall of misunderstanding” of northern issues.

The University of Waterloo and Wilfrid Laurier University had proposed a joint program, the articling process of which would have differed from other law schools in the province. It would integrate the practical work throughout students’ degrees, not following their studies. Students would largely have been trained to practice in small communities.

Laurentian is still going to conduct a feasibility study, which will be completed in November, to explore the creation of a law school in Sudbury that serves Francophone and Aboriginal students.

Only a few weeks ago, the schools were seen to be jockeying for funding (subscription now required).

Few Ontario high schoolers with C averages go to university, says report

If you just graduated high school with an average of between 60 and 69 per cent and are attending university this fall, you are part of a very select group.

The Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario today released a report examining post-secondary participation rates in Ontario and the rest of Canada. Among the most glaring findings: only 4.8 per cent of students who graduate high school with a C average pursue university. That compares to almost 16 per cent of C-level Atlantic Canadians and 15.1 per cent of British Columbians who scored a C in high school but still pursued university.

However, nearly half of all Ontarians with a “C” high school average went on to attend college. That’s the second-highest college participation level in the country, only topped by Quebec’s participation rate. Quebec’s high rate of college enrolment is partly explained by the fact that in the province, high school ends in grade 11; students thereafter attend CEGEP for either university preparation (the equivalent of grade 12/13 in other provinces) or vocational diplomas.

Trent University economics professor Torben Drewes, who specializes in the economics of education and authored the study, said that it lends credence to the idea that Ontario universities simply have stricter entrance requirements.

“That result, the “C” student in Ontario … is consistent with the idea that Ontario universities are setting a higher bar … but that’s not definitive,” he said. “We don’t have that kind of information. A couple of people have alluded to it, but we have no real hard evidence.”

Drewes added that the study shows that by and large, those students who want to pursue post-secondary studies in Canada are able to do so. He pointed to the success of Ontario’s “double cohort” in 2003-04, when universities and colleges weathered a huge bulge in applications and enrolment. Drewes said that the province, its universities, and its colleges responded to any perceived “crisis” quite admirably.

“In the larger context, I think we should be pretty happy with the availability of spaces,” Drewes said.

The report also found that 70.6 per cent of Ontario’s high school graduates between the ages of 18 and 24 pursue some form of post-secondary education. That compares to 82.9 per cent in Quebec, 76.3 per cent in Atlantic Canada, 63.8 per cent in British Columbia, and 63 per cent across the Prairies.

As far as barriers to PSE are concerned, the report found that financial barriers posed the biggest problem for potential students. Only 20 per cent of Quebec students, however, claimed financial barriers to be an issue. Nearly as many (19.6 per cent) were simply uninterested in pursuing higher education. 28.8 per cent of students in the Prairies were uninterested, compared to 29.3 per cent who faced financial barriers.

Drewes was quick to point out that the study was by no means the final word on access to post-secondary education in Ontario, or anywhere else in Canada.

“The report is kind of preliminary to the real research that will go on now. It doesn’t have as many answers as it does questions,” he said.

The information in Drewes’ report was based on Statistics Canada’s 2002 Post-secondary Education Participation Survey.

New sustainable technology centre to be completed by Fall 2009

The Ontario government today announced a $4.65-million investment in renewable-energy technology at Georgian College.  The money will create a 16,000-square-foot Sustainable Technologies Skills Centre, which will apparently triple enrolment in construction, architectural, and electrical skills-training programs. Construction is expected to be completed in Fall 2009.

Regents short on specifics for firing

The world’s largest Baptist university is now without a president.

Yesterday, the Board of Regents at Baylor University in Waco, Texas, fired president John M. Lilley. Board chair Howard Batson only vaguely outlined the reasons for the action at a press conference.

“The reality is the board lost the confidence in John’s ability to unite the various Baylor constituencies,” he said.

The Houston Chronicle attributed the firing to accusations that Lilley interfered in the tenure process and that he was “meddling” in the process of creating a new logo for Baylor.

The Chronicle said that Lilley denied 12 of 30 tenure applications approved by faculty—10 were appealed and seven eventually accepted.

Another reason reported was apparent disagreement between Lilley and the regents about Baylor 2012, the school’s re-branding campaign that hopes to make the school a top research school that also adheres to its Christian principles.

Lilley became president less than three years ago, following the controversial exit of former president and current chancellor Robert Sloan. AP reported that Sloan, who had served as president since 2005, “had been blamed for rising tuition costs and rifts among professors who had been calling for his ouster for months.”

In a statement responding to his termination, Baylor disagreed with the regents’ decision.

“I deeply regret the action of the board, and I do not believe that it reflects the best interests of Baylor University,”
he said.

Lilley didn’t say much more when asked to elaborate by Inside Higher Ed.

“I just think my love for Baylor is such that as a triple alumnus I just want to be very careful about what I say, and I fashioned that statement and that’s just really all I care to say right now,” he said, alluding to the three degrees he earned from the school in the 1960s.

Batson said Lilley’s faith was not a factor in the firing. Lilley served as a ruling elder in a Presbyterian church before heading to Baylor in November 2005.

Former Baylor board chair Harold Cunningham has been named interim president.

CFS calls for moratorium on private career colleges

After offering unapproved programs an operating an unapproved campus, Toronto’s Goodwin College was shut down yesterday by Ontario’s Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities.

On July 2, a ministry superintendent responsible for private career colleges issued an order to Goodwin to cease operations. The college had 15 business days to appeal the decision but decided not to do so. As a result, their doors closed for good on July 22.

The school did not receive clearance to operate its Mississauga campus. Ministry spokesman Greg Flood said that the college was advertising 31 unapproved programs and delivering 15 of those programs to students.

Canadian Federation of Students-Ontario (CFS-O) chairperson Shelley Melanson said that private career colleges often target first-generation Canadians, immigrants, and international students.

They promise them an education that will make them employable, which Melanson said is simply not the case much of the time because diplomas “are not worth the paper they are printed on.”

“Many of them have been riddled with impropriety. And that’s hugely problematic, because there is no really direct accountability,” she said.

The CFS-O is calling on the provincial government to enforce a moratorium on the creation of any new private career colleges.

Frank 

Gerencser, who is also the past president of the Ontario Association of Career Colleges, said that the CFS-O proposal is an unnecessary step given that private career colleges competently serve a niche market.

“If we disappeared, there are 40,000 people a year who go through private career colleges. Where would they go?” he asked, alluding to the total enrolment of all private career colleges in Ontario.

The provincial government would be forced to create new community colleges to make up for the enrolment gap, something Gerencser said would weigh heavily on the public purse.

Gerencser said private career colleges serve a different market than the public system. The median age of students in such colleges is about 29 years old and includes people who do not necessarily want to attend school with the public crowd, which is predominantly much younger.

Gerencser, the CEO of triOS College—one of the largest private career colleges in Ontario, with locations in eight cities—said that he offered to accommodate displaced students from Goodwin College. Under provincial legislation, all currently enrolled students at the now-closed school are guaranteed placement in another career college.
Anne Burns, the chief administrative officer of the National Association of Career Colleges, disagreed with Melanson’s opinion of the usefulness of private career colleges.

“I think that the ministry has in place, based on the new Act and regulations, fairly rigorous requirements for private career colleges,” she said. “The majority of private career colleges are filling a need recognized by employers who continue to hire their graduates.”

Goodwin’s owner, Zhenxiang “Gordon” Yi, was charged earlier this month with two counts of bribery. He allegedly attempted to bribe a ministry official in return for a report that Goodwin was complying with provincial regulations.

Catherine Chin, a service manager at an unidentified agency apparently affiliated with the college, said that Yi declined an interview with Maclean’s.

A woman who answered the phone at the college’s downtown office who didn’t identify herself said that the school had no plans to attempt to reopen its doors.

The province is looking to make alternate arrangements for students currently studying at Goodwin.

Students rejected from full-time studies owe school $38,000

Three students at Laurentian University will pay $38,000 to the school after losing an appeal in Ontario court. The students complained that they were unfairly barred from graduate studies in biology.

Bryce Mulligan, Mathew Hunter and Hsai-Pai Patrick Wu were rejected from grad studies because the school said that they didn’t meet the funding requirement that mandates each student to earn at least a $15,000 stipend in order that they “do not suffer from financial duress” during their studies.

Related: Carson Jerema’s comments on the Laurentian situation

The students raised money, but not through the proper methods. They filed a complaint and originally lost in a unanimous decision of the Ontario Superior Court last August.

The school did offer the students entrance into a part-time program, which they accepted. But PhD student Linda St. Pierre, who is working with the three students, told the Sudbury Star that she is a bit confused by the university’s actions because full-time students have more financial-aid options than part-timers.

“I don’t get how they logically explain why part time is OK and full time isn’t,” she said. “We have the e-mail from the chair saying it’s to make sure students can live comfortably. They are actually suffering more in the part-time status than they would under full-time status.”

Mulligan, Hunter and Wu were also three of 24 students who filed a $30-million lawsuit against Laurentian and 18 other individuals in 2006 after students and their professor, Michael Persinger, were banned from an animal-care facility on campus. 16 of those individuals have since been cleared of wrongdoing, and three of the student plaintiffs have withdrawn from the case.

Laurentian released a statement that hoped for a speedy conclusion to all legal proceedings between students and the school.

“The university hopes the Court of Appeal’s recent decision, as well as two other court decisions in favour of the university, will encourage the students to now consensually bring an end to all legal proceedings initiated by current and former students in the Behavioural Neuroscience program,” said Dr. Harley d’Entremont, vice-president academic francophone affairs and director of academic-staff relations.

Since 1997, some college leaders have enjoyed bigger raises than their university peers

Ontario’s community colleges generally doubled the financial compensation of their presidents between 1997 and 2007, matching and in some cases exceeding the pace of pay increases offered the province’s university presidents over the same period.

Only 38 college administrators earned $100,000 in 1997, but that number had increased to almost 750 by 2007.

According to disclosures made under Ontario’s so-called “Sunshine Law”, no college president earned $200,000 in 1997. 10 years later, however, none of them makes less than that amount. Indeed, nearly a dozen colleges doubled their presidential salaries and three of them paid their presidents more than $250,000.

The best-paid president in 2007 was Seneca College’s Rick Miner. He received $367,041.92 in salary and taxable benefits. That is 150 per cent more than his predecessor, Stephen Quinlan, earned in 1997. In real dollar terms, once inflation since 1997 is taken into account, it an increase of 78 per cent.

Sheridan College’s Robert Turner, who netted $323,845.38 in salary and benefits, earned almost triple the $119,247.53 paid in 1997 to then-president Sheldon Levy. Levy is now the president of Ryerson University.

By comparison, the University of Windsor was the university most generous to its president. It increased the position’s salary by 185 per cent over the same period of time.

The figures released under Ontario law do not annualize salaries and taxable benefits paid but instead reveals the exact dollar amount of salary and taxable benefits paid to each designated employee. As such, compensation may appear to be lower for employees who worked only a partial year, for example someone on leave or someone who only assumed his or her position part-way through the year.

Five colleges did not declare presidential salaries of over $100,000 in either 1997 or in 2007: College Boreal, Canadore College, Loyalist College and Mohawk College for 1997, and Sault College—which changed presidents last year—for 2007.

The other 19 publicly funded colleges in Ontario, however, did disclose their presidents’ salaries for both years, and the total combined rate of increase is 98.5 per cent. As we mentioned in an earlier article, inflation rose by 24.1 per cent in the same length of time, and average workers’ wages rose by 34.1 per cent.

Jim Knight, the president of the Association of Canadian Community Colleges, attributed much of rising-salary trend to market forces.

“There is quite a bit of competition for these people,” he said. “It’s a supply-and-demand issue. If you can’t find the skill you need at a salary level, then the answer might be to go to a different salary level.”

The College Student Alliance’s director of advocacy, Tyler Charlebois, said that although he thinks “some of the salaries that people are paid are a little blown out of proportion,” college presidents could be making more money because their jobs are more demanding than in the past.

“Maybe you could say that there is more responsibility … so more pressure being placed on the president or the CEO,” he said. “And (they are) therefore requesting that there be that compensation on the back end.”

Knight pointed to a looming problem at colleges—a lack of up-and-coming administrators—as one contributing factor to the financial value placed on upper administrators.

“There is an acute shortage of senior administrators on the college side. And there is a huge cadre of people, at the president and upper level of administration, that will be retiring soon,” he said.

Both Charlebois and Knight suggested that college presidents operate at a lower salary level than their counterparts at universities. But the numbers tell a different story.

The average salary of the 21 college presidents whose salaries were disclosed in 2007 was $269,961. That is well below the compensation of the highest paid university presidents. However, it is equivalent to the average pay of Ontario’s 10 lowest-paid university presidents, who earned an average of only $270,314 in 2007.

Private university denies receiving public funds

An emerging online university in New Brunswick has denied outright that it is benefiting at all from post-secondary funding dedicated to public universities, the school’s president said yesterday.

John Crossley told The Daily Gleaner that his private, for-profit school—expected to roll out courses this fall—has never even applied for funding from any level of government.

Just one day earlier in the Daily Gleaner, Canadian Association of University Teachers executive director James Turk called New Brunswick’s public funding of the private institution “irresponsible.”

“They make a pitch to government for various kinds of financial support and assistance,” Turk said of Meritus Univesity, “and every penny that goes to them is a penny that should go to the cash-strapped public universities. It is irresponsible for the government of New Brunswick to be putting money into private, for-profit universities.”

But Crossley told the paper that no such requests for funding were ever made.
“It was suggested by the (CAUT) that Meritus is somehow taking away from public universities, but in fact, none of that is true,” he said. “No money has been diverted from support of public universities because no money was given to Meritus.”

Meritus is owned by Apollo Group Inc., a Phoenix, Arizona-based company that is one of the world’s largest providers of private education. It’s most important property is the University of Phoenix, which describes itself on its website as “the largest private university in North America, with nearly 200 convenient locations, as well as Internet delivery in most countries around the world.” Turk accused the organization of having “a murky past” thanks to two cash settlements it was forced to make in 2004 that both involved recruitment policies. The settlements totalled almost U.S. $290 million.

Crossley again denied that those cases had any bearing on the quality of education provided by Meritus.

“Bringing up two old and debatable court decisions does not say anything about Apollo Group or Meritus University,” he told the Daily Gleaner.

Meritus will offer several business-related degrees: a master’s in business administration and bachelor’s degrees in business administration and information technology management. It is headquartered in Fredericton’s Knowledge Park.

Lakehead president makes less money than predecessor did a decade ago

[Note: This story updates an earlier version that had no comment from Lakehead.]

According to provincial salary disclosure and recently released presidential contracts, only one university president in Ontario earned less money than his predecessor in 1997: the president of Lakehead.

Most university presidents have seen their salaries rise quickly over the last 10 years. The University of Windsor increased the total compensation of the president by 185 per cent between 1997 and 2007, and nine other presidents saw their compensation double during the same period.

But Lakehead University is a whole other story. Frederick Gilbert took office in 1998, replacing long-time president Robert Rosehart (who moved on to Wilfrid Laurier, from which he retired last year). After serving the top job for 13 years (1984-1997), Rosehart’s total annual compensation—salary and all taxable benefits—had increased to $250,268. Gilbert’s compensation in 1999 was considerably less than that, totalling $177,811.72. In the years since, Gilbert has received raises—but he still made only $249,267.17 in 2007.

That represents a 0.4 per cent decrease in total compensation over the decade. Taking inflation into account, that means that in real terms, Gilbert made about one-fifth less than he predecessor did 10 years earlier.

“I’m a bit of an anomaly, aren’t I?” Gilbert quipped in an interview with Maclean’s.

Why have salaries effectively doubled over the last decade?

“I think there is a sense that the market is driving this. I think there is also an aspect of it that people will push to get whatever they can from the employer,” said Gilbert. “Whatever the employer is prepared to make available, that’s where the contract winds up.”

For his part, Gilbert said that his salary might reflect the circumstances under which he accepted his post.

“I’m a bit of an anomaly because I came into this position perhaps—and perhaps; this may be unfair—for different reasons that maybe some of my colleagues have. I never aspired to be a president,” he said. ” I was looking to be a senior administrator dealing with academic issues.”

And there is a point where university presidents are making too much.

“Following the industrial model in this regard is not the best way to go. There has to be a little bit more altruism in these positions than you find in industry,” he said, adding that he didn’t know exactly how much was too much.

Gilbert pointed out that Lakehead made a conscious decision not to provide administrative-leave packages to senior administration—a perk included in almost every other Ontario university president’s contract. Deans at Lakehead can qualify for such leave, but they must serve two five-year terms to earn a six-month leave.

Lakehead University Student Union president Richard Longtin attributed the more modest presidential salary at his school to its financial position and the cost of living in northern Ontario.

“Our operations, for many years, were running in the red,” he said, suggesting that might be why Gilbert was paid less upon taking the reins as president. “The cost of living is a lot less than in other cities. As well, we also charge our students pretty minimal compared to other institutions, which results in a smaller pool of money to distribute.”

Outgoing president becomes professor — but at presidential salary; receives same supplementary pension plan as vice-presidents

NOTE: This article updates an earlier version.

University of Ottawa President Gilles Patry leaves office today to assume his duties as a regular professor—but one earning a presidential salary. According to the terms of Patry’s contract, signed in 2002, on stepping down he will have the right to up to two years of paid leave, paid at the same level as his last base salary as president. Patry, 58, will also continue to be employed by the university as a professor, paid at the same salary level. In 2007, Patry was paid $327,508. It is not clear how much of that is base salary, and how much is bonus. His 2002 contract stipulated that his base salary was to begin at $250,000, and be reviewed annually.

Upon retirement, Patry also become eligible to receive the university’s regular pension, a regular supplementary pension and a special executive pension. Patry’s 2002 contract was released last week, but Maclean’s today received a contract addendum from the U of O that amends the pension plan contained in the original document.

The original contract, dated Dec. 6, 2002, gave Patry an additional supplementary pension, and credited him for two years of work for each year he served as president, beginning when he took first took the job in 2001. That supplementary pension covered an unspecified percentage of his current annual income, but only up to maximum of $250,000 per year. On Nov. 29, 2007, Patry signed an addendum that replaced the original supplementary pension arrangement with the same top-up pension structure that applies to the vice-presidents and secretary of the university.