All Posts Tagged With: "university salaries"
Student execs are being paid what?
Alberta student leaders to get 28.5% raise
The other day, I caught a item in The Gateway, the University of Alberta’s newspaper, about student union executives having their pay raised from $25,668 to $33,000, or by 28.5 per cent. Unsurprisingly, the article had more than its usual share of online comments from students.
Last year, On Campus compiled many of the student executive salaries across the country, and they varied between $20,000 and $35,000, often with very little correlation between the university in question and the amount of money/number of students they governed.
It’s fair for student leaders to think they deserve more money—they work long hours and are in charge of millions of dollars. They’re comparing themselves to executives of other organizations of similar budgets.
But students compare them to, well, students. Students who also have to work jobs and take classes at the same time, and who often don’t see the same benefits coming from their student union as other places they pay fees to—like their actual tuition dollars.
Much like university president salaries, student executive salaries are a hot-button issue, especially during times of relative economic hardship, because of the general gut reaction of “My Money Is Going Where?” At the same time, student union leaders tend to think that what they do is very, very important, and of course they deserve to be fairly compensated. Unsurprisingly, this creates tension, rarely of the productive type.
For example, at UVic, the student society realized they were in a financial crisis, the executive did what they could to reduce their salaries, held a referendum to increase student fees, and it passed.
At UBC however, the student executive of the Alma Mater Society (AMS) announced they were in financial trouble, only to ask for a $1,200 yearly health benefit package for themselves within the budget. Shockingly (at least to them), council took a month to pass their budget (though they got their health benefits), and the student body at large was so against a proposed referendum on increasing student fees to help the AMS’ finances that they postponed it until the new year. I’m not at UVic, and I don’t know how much impact the symbolic salary decrease had at that campus—but it is a line-item in the budget which always arouses tension, regardless of what province you happen to reside in.
Tiny raise for UManitoba profs
And no labour unrest
Faculty at the University of Manitoba recently ratified their collective agreement with the university that provides a 4.4 per cent raise over the next three years.
This is quite a tiny increase, compared to the 2007 agreement that saw salaries for academic staff rise 2.5 per cent in the first and second year and a 2.9 per cent in the third year, a deal reached only after narrowly avoiding a strike. Considering the professors held a strike that lasted four days in 2001, and another that lasted 23 days in 1995, it’s surprising this round of negotiations resolved itself without any major problems. At least, not that we know about yet.
Members of the University of Manitoba Faculty Association (UMFA), which represents approximately 1 ,700 professors, lecturers, librarians, and instructors, will receive a $500 lump sum pay increase in the first year, a one per cent increase in the second year, and a 2.9 percent increase in the third.
The seemingly problem-free negotiations by far contrasts the contract negotiations this year between the university and security services officers, which came to a complete breakdown over the summer.
The university had been in talks with Security Services for a year. When these negotiations stalled in early August, the university presented the small membership of 27 employees with what they called their final offer, along with the threat of a lock out if they voted not to take it. When officers voted not to accept, the threat proved not to be an empty one, and the officers were barred from campus .
While the lock out only lasted a few days and happened during a time when the campus was relatively quiet, it was still a scary time for students and staff who didn’t know who was patrolling the campus or when (if ever) these officers were coming back.
As UMFA president Cameron Morrill put it in the Winnipeg Free Press, this is unfortunately just a sign of the times at the university which has been facing $36.4 million budget shortfall for 2010. When U of M president David Barnard first annouced the shortfall last fall, the campus was filled with rumours and uncertainty over what would befall the university. Aside from announcing some “resource optimization” measures and tuition fee increases, administrators have mostly left staff and students in the dark.
The results of these budget constraints are starting to come to light with each labour relations issue that arises. Considering the majority of university’s budget is comprised of salaries and benefits for faculty and staff, there’s no doubt that the relatively small increase for faculty members is a reflection of the U of M’s current money woes, and judging by preliminary data from Statistics Canada, still leaves the U of M far behind many universities across the country in terms of professor pay.
The million dollar president
UAlberta buys president’s house for $930,000
University of Alberta president Indira Samarasekera has had a very good year. Not only did she bag a whopping $936,000 in compensation and benefits during the 2009-10 fiscal year, but she also made a lucrative real estate deal − by selling her house to the university.
Yes, that’s right. The University of Alberta purchased Samarasekera’s home on July 1, 2009 for $930,000, according to the Edmonton Journal. The house was bought to be the official residence of the president and Samarasekera continues to live in it, although she now pays rent to the university.
A handful of other universities including the University of British Columbia and the University of Toronto also own houses in which the president lives. The residences double as venues for meetings and social activities related to university business. The added bonus of housing is a perk that also comes in handy when recruiting new presidents, Brian Heidecker, chairman of the board of governors, told the Journal. “The fact that you have a very good quality home available makes recruiting infinitely easier, and it makes the transition for the president much easier if they happen to be an outsider.”
What is odd about U of A’s decision to buy the home is not only that they purchased it from the current president, but that the home is off campus. Customarily, president residences are on-campus estates that are maintained by the university and conveniently located for university functions. U of A hasn’t provided housing for presidents for decades, and one of the last presidents to make use of an official residence (Walter Johns, who was president from 1959 to 1969) didn’t like being roused from his sleep by drunk students walking through campus in the middle of the night. Since then, presidents have lived off campus.
Before the sale, Samarasekera’s home was used for some university functions, and the university paid some operating costs to her. According to Heidecker, the house worked so well for these events that the board decided it should be owned by the university. “It was to our mutual benefit that we owned the house instead of Indira.” While I’m sure that the house serves its purpose as a venue to entertain just fine, it’s seems only prudent to look for other houses that would be more appropriate, and its unclear if the board shopped around before the purchase.
The Journal also makes the valid point that the timing of the deal could be seen as unfortunate by critics. When the sale was being arranged, U of A knew of looming funding cuts that would lead to layoffs, increased fees for students and unpaid furloughs for staff.
House sale news aside, the other interesting nugget of information in the Journal report is Samarasekera’s compensation. With a base salary of $479,000, her non-cash benefits pushed her total compensation to $936,000, making her one of the highest paid university officials in Canada by a wide margin. The top paid academic in Ontario in 2009, according to data released by the Ontario government, was Amit Chakma, vice-president academic and provost at the University of Waterloo, who bagged a whopping $737,640 in compensation plus $3,505 in benefits. The second highest paid university official was William Moriarty, president and CEO of the University of Toronto Asset Management Corporation, who was paid $605,728 in 2009.
Photo: University of Alberta president Indira Samarasekera
Glass ceiling persists among scientists
Females with science PhDs earn up to 40% less than their male counterparts
Male scientists, across several countries, earn up to 40 per cent more than their female counterparts, according to a new study published by Nature. The journal surveyed 10,500 scientists working in industry and academia and found that men’s salaries begin significantly overtaking women’s between three and five years after completing their PhD in Europe, and between six and 10 years in North America. The wage gap ranged from 18 to 40 per cent. The countries included in the study were Australia, Germany, Italy, Spain, the United Kingdom, India, Japan, Canada and the United States. In Canada the average salary for male scientists is around $80,000, while it is around $65,000 for females.
In a commentary published in the same issue of Nature, Kathleen Christensen–Director of the Workplace, Work Force and Working Families programme at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation–wrote that the gap is the result of “an aggregate effect, over many years, of accumulating inequities in resources and respect.” Women, she added, “often start their careers with slightly lower salaries, in more poorly equipped labs, with fewer graduate students, and appointments to less-prestigious committees,” and “are less likely, typically because of family reasons, to go on the job market to jockey their salaries higher.”
Related: Knocking on the glass ceiling
Knocking on the glass ceiling
Although female students have outnumbered their male counterparts for decades, male professors still rule the roost in academia
When the University of Calgary announced last week that engineering dean Elizabeth Cannon would be its next president, the appointment was widely applauded. Cannon — who is by all accounts an excellent scholar and administrator — will be UCalgary’s very first female president in its 43-year history. Both major universities in Alberta are now headed by women.
“This sends the message that anything is possible,” Anne Katzenberg, an archeology professor and former women’s issues advisor, told the Calgary Herald.
Hurray! Right?
Considering that the number of female university students overtook the number of male students way back in 1988, why is the appointment of a female president being praised as a milestone in 2010? Women accounted for nearly 60 per cent of post-secondary students in 2009 and the gender gap is continuing to grow. However, when it comes to who is standing in front of the classroom, men still overwhelmingly dominate.
In the past few decades, universities have taken considerable steps towards hiring and pay parity. Nevertheless, male professors with tenure still vastly outnumber female professors, they are paid more than their female counterparts and they are more likely to be promoted to senior positions. It seems that no matter how many more women than men graduate from our universities, men continue to reign in the upper echelons of the ivory tower.
Among the lower ranks of professors there are nearly as many female professors as male professors. For example, in 2006-07 there were slightly more female lecturers than male, according to Statistics Canada. But look at higher ranks—full, associate and assistant professor—and the gender gap widens. Only 20 per cent of full professors were women in 2006-07, and women made up only 33 per cent of all professors.
Last week’s release of Ontario’s Public Salary Disclosure—popularly known as the “Sunshine List”—further illustrated how the number of women declines in the upper ranks of universities. While salaries are nearing parity in the lower ranks, men vastly outnumber women in high paying upper administration jobs. For example, 413 men working for universities in Ontario make in excess of $200,000 (including benefits) while only 115 women are members of the $200,000-plus club.
High profile examples of top paid female university administrators exist; University of Alberta president Indira Samarasekera was the highest paid university president in the country in 2008 with compensation over $620,000. Uof C’s Cannon will also take her place among the best paid university administrators in Canada; her contract includes a base salary of $430,000, an “annual incentive payment” valued up to 20 per cent of her base salary, a car allowance of $16,000 and other benefits.
Ontario’s top female earner in 2009 was Tina Dacin, director of corporate social responsibility at Queen’s School of Business, who was paid over $475,000 including benefits. Roseann Runte, Carleton’s president, was the highest female president with compensation over $400,000. She ranked fourth after Carole Stephenson, dean of the Richard Ivey School of Business at Western, who earned $405,000. Interestingly, the fifth top paid woman doesn’t even work at an Ontario university any more; Lorna Marsden, former president of York University who stepped down in 2007, netted $396,567.00.
Click here to view details on all women earning more than $200,000 at Ontario universities.
For more coverage of university salaries, see The high cost of status
Despite these examples, women account for only about 30 per cent of administrative positions, according to a 2005 survey conducted by Karen Grant for the Senior Women Academic Administrators of Canada. Also, on average women continue to make less than men at every level of employment at universities. In 2006-07, the median salary for female university professors was $113,450 while men earned an average of $119,725, according to Statistics Canada. Women with senior administrative duties earned an average of $123,400 while their male counterparts earned $128,300.
The high cost of status
Top administrator salaries point to universities’ pursuit of global recognition, and it’s hurting education quality
Take a guess: who earned the largest paycheque last year at Carleton University? If you guessed President Roseann Runte, with her $358,000 annual salary and $43,000 in taxable benefits, you’re wrong. Some high level financial manager, you say? Nope; vice-president of finance and administration Duncan Watt made a measly $256,000 annually plus $4,000 in benefits.
The highest paid employee at Carleton in 2009 was Feridun Hamdullahpur, vice-president research and international, according to Ontario public sector salary disclosure figures released Wednesday. Having earned $503,000 plus $12,000 in benefits, Hamdullahpur ranked third highest paid university employee in Ontario.
But to say Hamdullahpur enjoyed the highest salary is somewhat misleading. He stepped down from his post at Carleton in July 2009 to become vice-president academic and provost of Waterloo University, meaning that much of his 2009 compensation was likely a severance package, possibly including pension and other supplemental benefits. (He earned $230,000 in 2008.) Nevertheless, his comfortable salary and generous severance package demonstrate just how much Carleton valued Hamdullahpur’s work.
Hamdullahpur’s compensation also illustrates a trend that is impacting universities from coast to coast. Universities, particularly large research-focused schools, are putting more and more resources into pursuing global status.
In Hamdullahpur’s case, his work overseeing international activities at Carleton was one of Waterloo’s reasons for hiring him. A Waterloo press release announcing his appointment states, “Hamdullahpur will play a key role in helping the university achieve the ambitious objectives outlined in its strategic plan, Pursuing Global Excellence,” and goes on to describe those objectives as including the expansion of Waterloo’s global reach. He will surely continue to be handsomely rewarded for his efforts at Waterloo; his predecessor ranked as Ontario’s number one earner having pocketed a whopping $737,000 in 2009 (which also likely included a severance package).
These staggering numbers are indicative of a slow shift of vision that has been occurring for years on Canadian campuses, according to Bill Smith, an independent researcher who was formerly the general manager at the University of Alberta Students’ Union for 17 years. “The focus has switched from [on] campus to off campus,” he says.
Smith’s research—a 20-year analysis of university spending based on numbers submitted by universities to the Canadian Association of University Business Officers—shows that the average university spent almost $9 million on external affairs in 2007-08. The Top 5 schools, which are most eager for global recognition, spent $15 million on average.
Smith wrote about his research in Maclean’s in January. Click here to read: “Where all that money is going.”
To Smith, the salaries of university top brass aren’t the most troubling aspect since they only account for a small portion of overall spending. What is of concern, he says, is ballooning central administration costs. “It’s all the infrastructure under these people,” he says. “These are bright people with big dreams and the only way they can make them happen is by building a big support infrastructure and then you start seeing things like international vice presidents, vice presidents of external affairs. Before too long, you’ve really jacked up central administration costs.”
Attracting high quality people to pursue goals like boosting a university’s global status is expensive, and has contributed to escalating central administration costs. In 1987-88, the top 25 universities in Canada spent 7.8 per cent of their general operating expenditures on administration costs, which rose to 11.7 per cent in 2007-08. At the top five schools, administration spending grew from 7 per cent of all expenditures to 12 per cent.
While “pursuing global excellence,” in Waterloo’s words, seems to be a noble objective, there is no indication that it benefits students. Take, for example, the University of Alberta. President Indira Samarasekera has pledged the university will be recognized as one of the top 20 universities in the world by 2020. “Was there ever any public discussion about whether that is a legitimate goal? Is that goal important to the public that is funding these universities?” Smith questions. “I don’t know if anybody had any clear idea of what the price tag was going to be.”
As an aside, Samarasekera is among the highest paid university presidents in the country. Administration costs at the University of Alberta have doubled since 2000-01 and have quadrupled since 1994-95.
With university budgets as stretched as they are, money spent on administration is money not spent in the classroom. In 1987-88 the top 25 universities spent 65 per cent of general operating funds on instruction and non-sponsored research; now only 58 per cent is spent on teaching, meaning some $30 million has been deflected from the classroom.
This is why Smith argues that some universities appear to have become preoccupied with status rather than excellence. The dangers of ballooning administrative costs go further than the erosion of education quality and threaten universities’ overall financial sustainability, he says. “When enrolment falls, and it will at some point, this massive residue of central fixed cost is going to act as a millstone and drag universities into a much deeper crisis than they’re in now.”
Which uni presidents make more than Obama?
Compared to politicians, they’re overpaid. But compared to CEOs, they’re a bargain
With a global recession hammering endowment funds and university budgets, we’ve been hearing a lot about how the coffers of institutions of higher education are bleeding money these days.
But to look at the rising paycheques of university leaders, it would be hard to tell how dire the situation in Canada’s post-secondary sector is becoming. In fact, some university presidents in Ontario are paid more than Stephen Harper or Barack Obama receive to run entire countries. On the other hand, university presidents (not to mention Harper and Obama) get paid less—a lot less—than today’s corporate CEOs.
At the top of the university presidential pay scale in Ontario, for the second year in a row, was McMaster president Peter George, who pulled in a total of $ $533,913 in salary and taxable benefits last year. At current exchange rates, that’s slightly more than President Barack Obama’s US$400,000. Although, to be fair, President Obama also gets a hefty expense account, $19,000 for “entertainment” and 10 years of personal security. Last year, Prime Minister Stephen Harper was paid $310,800 including a $2,000 car allowance. (Just to put that car allowance in perspective, that’s about how much I paid for my first car, a rickety 1992 Volkswagen Golf.)
The argument is that university president’s pay packages need to be big enough to attract educated, qualified candidates away from other sectors. And considering the paycheques earned by other bankable Canadians — corporate chief executive officers, for example —it could be argued that university presidents are underpaid. After all, Ed Clark, the CEO of Toronto Dominion Bank, made $8 million in 2008. The CEO of Imperial Oil brought home more than $9 million. (See salary chart at the end of this article.)
Then again, looking at our university presidents’ peers in the U.S. suggests that Canadian presidential salaries might be in the right ballpark. The median salary for the president of a public university in the United States is about $335,000, according to the U.S. College and University Professional Association for Human Resources. And while 10 presidents in Ontario received compensation above that benchmark, so did many presidents at American institutions. For example, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, New York University president John Sexton made $1,324,874 in 2007, and also has the run of a downtown university-owned apartment. Although that’s chump change compared to the $4.4 million garnered by University of Southern California head football coach Pete Carroll.
Canada’s highest paid president appears to be in Alberta. University of Alberta president Indira Samarasekera received $627,000 in the 2007-2008 fiscal year, which includes house and car allowances, performance bonuses and deferred compensation. Her salary is up 6 per cent compared to the year before.
Who is Ontario’s most highly paid professor?
Highest paid are in business, medicine
Every year, legions of new bright-eyed university students aspire to a six-figure salary in business or at a top-tier medical practice. But according to figures released this week on Ontario’s salary disclosure day, the big money could also be in becoming a business or medical professor.
Last year, twelve out of thirteen professors making more than $300,000 in the province taught business or medicine. That means they earned more than most executives at medium-sized universities. On disclosure day, all eyes are on the rapid growth of university presidential salaries, but last year many business and medical professors were quietly clocking big bucks.
Last year, we reported that the top-paid professor in 2007 was Brian Golden of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Business. In 2007, he earned $303,490. But the bar has since been raised. In 2008, 13 professors, all without senior management responsibilities, made more.
This year’s leading professor appears to be McMaster University assistant professor Gary Chaimowitz, who made $373,321. However, while listed in the disclosure as an assistant professor Chaimowitz also holds an administrative position as Head of Service, Forensic Psychiatry at St. Joseph’s Healthcare Hamilton. He also holds an MBA, merging his medical knowledge with business management ― a potent earning combination.
Many hospital-based physicians and hospital administrators at university teaching hospitals also hold the title of medical school professor, because of the close relationship between medical schools and teaching hospitals. As we noted in this story, in the United States, almost all of the most highly paid academics are senior physicians or hospital administrators, with some earning more than US$1 million a year. In the U.S., many hospitals are part of a university, and therefore many of those people are considered to be university employees. In Canada, they often aren’t, because of a different corporate relationship between hospital and university. But you get a sense of how much their Canadian medical equivalents (some of whom would also be med school professors) are making from this list.
Leaving medical schools aside, the 2009 title for Ontario’s top paid professor without senior administrative responsibilities goes to John Hull, a finance professor at the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Business. He received total compensation of $364,335 last year. Closely behind are fellow Rotman professors Glen Whyte and William Strange, who earned $363,290 and $354,231 respectfully.
Ontario’s top paid female professor is Deborah Cook of McMaster University’s Faculty of Medicine, who made $349,943. The most highly paid female professor not at a medical school is Brenda Zimmerman, who is an associate professor at York University’s Schulich School of Business. She made $314,612 last year, in part for teaching a course called “Understanding the Canadian Health Industry.”
Financial crisis in the university sector? What crisis?
To look at the presidents’ paychecks, you’d never know universities were desperately short of cash
Ontario’s public universities cry poor to anyone who will listen and can produce elaborate pie charts and balance sheets to support their claims. Interestingly, none of their advocacy materials mention the increasingly rich financial compensation awarded to the senior administrators of those same institutions.
Today, as required under Ontario’s “sunshine act,” the province’s universities were forced to disclosure the taxable compensation given to senior administrators.
If you were judging only by how much senior administrators are taking to the bank, you’d think universities were richer than ever.
Two university employees made more than a half-million dollars last year. John Lyon, Managing Director of Investment Strategy at the University of Toronto, was paid a salary of $494,598.04 with $62,876.32 in taxable benefits for a total of $557,474.36. Peter George, president of McMaster University, continues to be Ontario’s top paid executive head with a salary of $524,435.14 and taxable benefits of $9,478.34.
The next highest paid president, David Johnston of the University of Waterloo, made $45,000 less than George with a total compensation figure of $488,242.66. Following close behind at $484,357.92 is Mamdouh Shoukri, president of York University. Overall, 13 Ontario university employees were compensated over $400,000 in 2008 with another 59 clearing the $300,000 hurdle.
Province wide, 10,461 university employees made the $100,000 plus list. In fairness, over half of the people on the list made less than $125,000. The grand compensation total of everyone on the list is $1.4 billion. More than half of that went to those earning more than $125,000.
Judging by the record pay cheques for senior and mid-level university executives, one could reasonably conclude that universities are flush with cash and that “business” is booming. Sadly, that is not the case. University endowments are down by double-digit percentages and pension plans are facing major deficits.
To address growing shortfalls, universities are going so far as to exploit loopholes in tuition regulations to increase fees on students, in order to pay for the excesses of the sector. The University of Toronto, for example, is the latest university to exploit a loophole in provincial regulations limiting the maximum tuition the university charges. The rules set the maximum tuition for students taking a 100 per cent course load. Traditionally, student fees are based on the number of courses taken: A student taking four courses paid for four, a student taking five paid for five.
The University of Toronto plans to make students taking three or four courses pay the same fees as those taking five. Ten Ontario universities are already exploiting this loophole to generate additional funds. Other universities are increasing “administrative fees” for services students must use in the course of their university career.
But if the situation is so dire in the Ivory Tower, why are the people at the top taking home growing, record pay cheques?
Administrators are asking low-level staff to take pay freezes and benefit rollbacks. They are increasingly cutting full-time tenure track positions in favour of contract positions. (And then, as budgets squeeze, reducing contract positions). Student services are being cut so that, for example, students can’t get the counselling and other supports they need to succeed in university.
It seems that Ontario universities are only poor when it comes time to deliver the undergraduate education that taxpayers believe their money is going to support.
It’s time for Ontario’s university administrators to follow the lead of University of Winnipeg president Lloyd Axworthy. Axworthy, realizing that he’s asking others to bare the burden of his institution’s financial situation, cut his salary by 10 per cent.
If university administrators are unable to control their excesses, then it is time for the Dalton McGuinty government to step in and force universities to spend taxpayer money on undergraduate education instead of administration.
Administrators taking a pay cut may not amount to much in the big picture, but 10 per cent of McMaster president Peter George’s compensation could, for example, save the job of an entry-level professor facing lay-off as his institutions continues to cut Liberal Arts undergraduate programs.
What do you say university presidents? Do you have 10 per cent to give back to your institutions? Or is it just everyone else who is expected to bail you out?
College presidents: gaining on their more highly paid university peers
The pay of college executives still trails that of universities, but they’re catching up
Colleges are often unfairly seen as the second tier of the higher education universe—and, as we noted last year, that extends to the compensation of college administrators, who have long been paid substantially less than their university peers
So did anything change in 2008? Yes. Ontario’s Sunshine List salary disclosure was released today, and the tally of Ontario college employees earning more than $100,000 (the threshold for inclusion on the list) is, as always, much shorter than the count for universities. However, the number of college senior administrators earning more than $200,000 has grown by nearly two-thirds, and several highly paid college heads are taking home university-president-sized paychecks.
The highest paid college president in Ontario is Frederick Miner of Seneca College. With a salary of $406,000 and taxable benefits worth $5,000, his compensation is enough to put him squarely in the upper tier of university administrators. Miner’s salary is more than that paid to the president of the largest university in the country, David Naylor of the University of Toronto. (The latter’s salary was $380,000).
Conestoga College president John Tibbits was paid $387,000. That’s more than the president of neighbouring Wilfrid Laurier University. (The president of the other university just down the road, the University of Waterloo was however paid about $101,000 more).
The presidents of five other Ontario colleges — Humber, Sheridan, George Brown, Mohawk and Algonquin — earned over $300,000. Their pay is below that awarded the presidents of large Ontario universities, but in line with the compensation given to presidents of smaller Ontario universities. For example, Dennis Mock, president of Nipissing University, Ontario’s second-smallest public university, was paid $271,000. Bonnie Patterson, president of Brock, last year received total compensation of $338,000.
The pay gap between colleges and universities appears to be larger in Western Canada. According to BC public sector salary disclosure, as compiled by the Vancouver Sun, there were 182 employees of the BC university and college system earning more than $200,000. (Data is for either 2006-07 or 2007-08). Of those 182 highly paid individuals, only two were from the college or institute system: the acting and outgoing presidents of BCIT. (What’s more, hardly any of the 182 members of the over $200K club came from the former university college system; almost all worked at one of the province’s four traditional universities, in particular UBC).
Who’s in the $500,000 club?
Who is Canada’s most highly paid academic? Surprise: he isn’t a university president
What does it take to make half a million dollars in a year? According to new figures, released by the government of Ontario today under the province’s decade-old “sunshine law,” two university administrators did just that.
Also, for the second year in a row, the province’s most well-compensated university officer isn’t a president. And one of the province’s most highly compensated university presidents is a former president who stepped down nearly two years ago. These are just some of the revelations in Ontario’s salary disclosures from 2008, which were released mid-day Tuesday on a provincial government website.
John Lyon, University of Toronto’s managing director of investment strategy topped the list with a salary of $494,598, with taxable benefits of $62,876, which brought his total compensation to $557,474.
For full OnCampus coverage of university salaries 2009, click here.
Coming in a close second place was McMaster University president Peter George, who made $524,435, with taxable benefits of $9,478, for total earnings of $533,913 last year. That’s up nearly 6 per cent from his pay the year before, which hit $505,000 in salary and benefits.
Other top earners include University of Waterloo President David Johnston, who made $488,242 total compensation and York University President Mamdouh Shoukri, who, despite his university’s lengthy strike, took home $484,357. In fifth place was University of Guelph president Alastair Summerlee, who made a total of $464,013.
One of the surprises was to find York’s former president, Lorna Marsden, still on the list. Marsden stepped down from the chief executive role in the spring of 2007, and was replaced by Shoukri. However, York in 2008 still has Marsden on the payroll as “president emerita” – and paid her $412,000. That’s more than is paid to most regular, still-on-the-job university presidents.
One other surprise: the most highly paid academic in Canada isn’t at an Ontario university. Ontario university presidents are apparently earning less than some of their peers at Western Canada’s largest universities. Continuing a trend first noticed last year, there are six senior administrators in Western Canada who reported salary and benefits worth more than the package given to Ontario’s most highly paid university president, Peter George. On the list are the president of the University of Calgary, the president of the University of British Columbia, and four executives at the University of Alberta, including President Indira Samarasekera, who received total compensation worth $627,000, or nearly $100,000 more than George. But one of the U of A’s vice-presidents, VP of facilities and operations Don Hickey, earned more than his boss. In 2007-08 he received total remuneration and benefits worth $688,000 — making him Canada’s most highly paid academic.
Go West, ambitious university president
Pay packages appear to be bigger out West — but that may be because BC and Alberta disclosure is more honest
Aspiring university presidents and senior academics looking to maximize their market value may want to look to Western Canada, where the leading universities appear to be offering their top executives compensation superior to that offered in the rest of Canada.
According to the most recent salary disclosures, at least six Western Canadian university administrators are making more than Ontario’s most highly paid university president, McMaster University’s Peter George. In 2008, George reported salary and benefits worth $534,000. During the 2007-08 fiscal year, four senior executives at the University of Alberta, including the president, were paid more. Indira Samarasekera, the U of A’s president, received salary and benefits worth $627,000. Her number two, provost Carl Amrhein, earned $618,000. Two other executives at the U of A earned more: Phyllis Clark, VP of finance and administration, received total compensation worth $654,000 and Don Hickey, VP of facilities and operations, received $668,000.
The president of the University of Calgary, Harvey Weingarten, earned $557,000 in total compensation in 2008. Stephen Toope, president of the University of British Columbia, received total compensation worth $579,000.
In Ontario, the next highest paid president after McMaster’s George is Waterloo’s David Johnston; in 2008, he received $488,000 in total compensation. The third most highly paid Ontario president was York University’s Mamdouh Shoukri at $464,000.
The pay seems higher out West — and that is in part due to the stated objective of some Western universities to offer executive pay that meets or exceeds what’s offered by top institutions in the rest of Canada and the United States. For example, UBC explicitly benchmarks its president’s salary against those peers. “UBC is one of the highest ranked universities in Canada, and one of the top 40 universities in the world,” says the university’s statement on senior administrator compensation. “As such, UBC seeks to retain and attract the best senior administrators it can by remaining competitive in its compensation practices with other large research-intensive universities represented by the G13 (i.e., leading research-intensive universities in Canada), and in particular the University of Toronto and the University of Alberta, and with the global market for senior administrator talent generally.”
David Naylor, president of the University of Toronto, reported $430,000 in total compensation in the most recent year: $380,000 in salary and $50,000 in benefits.
The pay packages appear to be larger out West, but that may be partly an accounting wrinkle: compensation disclosure by Alberta and BC universities is more honest and complete. In Ontario, as in BC and Alberta, executives must report base salary and other compensation. However, Alberta and BC appear to be fully (or at least more fully) expensing the cost of their senior administrators’ supplemental pension payments, whereas Ontario’s salary disclosure does not appear to include this. Pension costs are not cash payments made in 2008, but rather the estimated present cost of the pension benefits earned in 2008. Many Canadian administrators are going to get large pensions on retirement, the cost of which in the present is substantial, and should be recorded and disclosed. Out West, it is.
For example, U of A president Samarasekera’s total compensation of $627,000 exceed that of every Ontario university president. However, her base salary of $436,000 is less than the base pay given to the top three Ontario presidents. What puts her total compensation over the top is $191,000 in “other non-cash benefits.” The largest part of that is pension benefits. UBC’s compensation disclosure for president Toope breaks it down even further: $378,000 in salary, a bonus of $50,000, “other compensation” of $65,000 and pension expense of $85,000. Ontario’s Sunshine Law salary disclosure covers the first three of those items but does not appear to completely cover pension expenses.
For example, it was revealed last year that, on retirement, McMaster’s George is set to receive a golden handshake of $1.4 million, paid out at the rate of $99,999/year for 14 years. This does not appear to have ever been accounted for in McMaster’s disclosures under Ontario’s Sunshine List. (It is not clear how such a payment — which McMaster does not consider a pension — would be treated by Alberta or BC compensation disclosure requirements). Nor does it appear that Peter George’s supplemental pension benefits have been disclosed as completely as those of his Alberta and BC peers. McMaster’s Sunshine Law disclosure says that George received salary of $524,000 and “taxable benefits” of less than $10,000. It seems a safe bet that the cost of his various pension and other benefits is considerably larger than this, but Ontario’s transparency law does not require quite as much transparency as BC and Alberta.
Comparing “total compensation” at Alberta/BC universities with those in Ontario is thus not always an entirely equivalent comparison, as it may somewhat understate the compensation of Ontario administrators. (That wording is deliberately chosen: it’s not that Alberta and BC are overstating executive compensation, but rather that Ontario is understating it). The bottom line, however, is that senior administrators in Alberta and BC are well paid, and at top universities, senior executives’ salaries compete with what is offered by leading universities in Ontario. No matter how you slice it, Western presidents aren’t getting short changed. For example, in 2008, U of A president Samarasekera’s total compensation rose 6.1 per cent.
(Ontario presidents aren’t exactly suffering, either).
And what about those senior execs at the U of A who earned more than the president? The university’s annual report explains that “in the current year, certain individuals became eligible for an additional six month professional leave. Included in non-cash benefits is the equivalent of an additional six months salary for Vice-President Finance and Administration ($176,000) and Vice-President Facilities Operations ($179,000).”
The two VPs, Clark and Hickey, were not paid those benefits in 2009 — but, in another act of Western accounting honesty, the university calculated and reported the cost of their six month leaves (which they will take later, perhaps after retirement) on its 2008 statement of executive compensation.
How much does your president make, 2009 edition
We’ll have complete coverage online later today
UPDATED: For complete coverage of University Salaries 2009, click here.
Ontario this morning released its annual Sunshine List of public sector employees paid more than $100,000. As always, the list includes all university and college employees in the province.
We’re preparing a number of articles right now; look for us for full coverage throughout the day from me, Karen Pinchin and Joey Coleman.
I’m just now taking a look at how university presidents’ salaries in Ontario compare to what we know about pay in Western Canada. The conclusion seems to be: go West, ambitious academic administrator. More in just a moment.
The college football coach makes HOW much?
Survey reveals jaw-dropping salaries at US private universities — but U.S. presidential salaries not out of line with those in Canada
A study of compensation at U.S. private universities, compiled by The Chronicle of Higher Education, shows that many of the highest paid people in American academia are not university presidents.
In the number one spot: The football coach at the University of Southern California, Pete Carroll, who made US$4.4 million in 2007. Second place went to David Silvers, a dematology professor at Columbia University’s medical school, was was paid US$4.3 million. And seven of the eight remaining spots in the top 10 were held by medical school professors and administrators; the only exception is David Swensen, who manages the money in Yale University’s endowment. He was paid US$3.1 million.
In fact, no president of a private American university comes close to cracking the top 10. Only one president made more than US$1 million: Nicholas Zeppos of Vanderbilt. In second place is Ron Daniels, a Canadian (and former dean of the University of Toronto law school) who is earning US$605,000 as the new president of the University of Pennsylvania.
That the highest university salaries are going to top medical researchers is not surprising, given what top U.S. medical specialists can earn in private practice. The shock is just how high, high is. The Chronicle found 46 medical faculty and administrators earning more than $1 million. Based on what we know about pay at Canadian universities (see Maclean’s OnCampus coverage, and Ontario’s salary disclosure of all public employees making over $100K, the only such comprehensive public sector salary disclosure available), no Canadian university can come close to competing with the Brink’s trucks filled with cash being given to the most super of U.S. medical superstars. Leaving senior university administrators aside, there are almost no Ontario professors making more than $300,000 — let alone the $2 million, $3 million and $4 million the Chronicle found a small number of super-superstars taking home in the U.S.
(One caveat: perhaps because of the corporate structure of U.S. university hospitals, doctors who in Canada may be counted as hospital employees are apparently south of the border sometimes counted as university employees, of a university-run hospital. And if we look at hospital salaries in Canada, there are a number of senior hospital officials and doctors earning salaries that, at a university, would be chart-topping. For example, the president and CEO of Toronto’s University Health Network, which oversees several (U of T teaching) hospitals, was paid $836,000 last year. And there are a number of Ontario hospital-based physicians on the list making more than $300,000 or even $400,000.)
And unlike the U.S., when it comes to university sports, Canadian coaches are not among the pay elite. In Ontario, the list of university employees earning more than $100,000 runs to 189 pages of tiny type—but it includes the names of only four coaches. The most highly compensated, at $133,000 a year, is the University of Western Ontario football coach.
The big surprise is that, while a small number of U.S. academic super duper stars — especially in sports and medicine — are earning far more than their Canadian counterparts, there does not appear to be a pay disparity between Canadian and U.S. university presidents. There may have been a gap once upon a time, but Canadian presidential and senior executive salaries have risen substantially over the past decade. According to the Chronicle, the average compensation of the president a private U.S. university classified as a “research” university was US$310,000. How does that compare to Canada? Most Ontario presidents are earning more.
Hey, where did my tuition money go?
It was spent on the senior administration.
After paying thousands of dollars in tuition, sitting through lectures with hundreds of other students taught by sessional lecturers making less than an assistant manager at McDonald’s and finally having the privilege of paying a graduation fee, it’s no wonder students find themselves asking; Where did my tuition money go?
Students at Hamilton’s McMaster University are learning exactly where their money is going: retirement “bonuses”, social clubs, financial advisers, car allowances, social club memberships, and country clubs for already well paid administrators.
The Hamilton Spectator, in a front page story today, revealed the contracts of McMaster’s
The Spectator requested the contracts under Ontario’s Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act. The Spectator, to its credit, has posted all the contracts on its website.
The contracts reveal a wide ranging assortment of perks for senior administrators of the university which, despite facing another budget deficit, seems unable to restrain itself in providing the highest compensation to its senior administrators of any public university in Canada.
The most shocking revelation in the contracts is the massive retirement payout afforded to Dr. John Kelton, the university’s vice-president and dean of health sciences. His current contract, which expires June 30, 2011, includes a $1.44 million payout if he retires at that time.
This is the largest known retirement payout of any university employee in Ontario and likely the largest payout in Canada’s post-secondary sector. The payout is on top of any pension he receives as a former senior executive at McMaster University and slightly higher than a planned $1.4 million payout to McMaster president Peter George. By comparison, the largest known payout at another university is in the ballpark of $900,000. That is the expected payout to David Johnston, president of the University of Waterloo and former principal of McGill University.
Kelton’s total compensation in 2007 was $403,000 which is more than presidents at all but four other Ontario universities.
Many of the VPs receive memberships in expensive social clubs as part of their perks. This is not shocking and can be justified. In the case of the president, membership in these clubs gives him access to individuals with high wealth; the kind of people who can donate to the university. Surprisingly, the university’s vice-president administration Karen Belaire receives payment of her membership fees (including initiation) at the private Beverly Golf and Country Club in addition to the standard package.
Belaire was paid $264,274.03 in salary during 2007.
The vice-presidents also receive compensation for financial planning expenses and a $700 or $800 car allowance as part of their compensation packages.
You can read the entire Spectator article and see the contracts for yourself by visiting: http://thespec.com/News/Local/article/458156
All the presidents’ contracts
How much does your university president make? The definitive guide
Ontario universities began releasing their presidential contracts two weeks ago in response to a two-year old access to information request from the Hamilton Spectator, and many have now made them public.
We have been updating a table with the details of each contract, links to PDFs of the contracts themselves, and local media coverage that has resulted from the disclosures.
Our in-depth coverage began with the contract of long-serving McMaster University president Peter George, and we followed up with a story about Western Ontario president Paul Davenport’s contract when it was released. George’s contract includes a $1.4-million retirement payout in 14 installments of $99,999. Davenport will receive three pensions and a “special executive pension” of $700,000.
We also compiled a chart that illustrates the nearly universal increase of financial compensation paid to Ontario university presidents in the last 10 years. Since 1997, compensation has increased by 97.7 per cent and every school except McMaster has given its president a raise.
Ontario has for more than a decade made public the salaries of all public sector employees earning over $100,000, as part of the province’s so-called Sunshine Law. As a result, the basic annual compensation of all Ontario university president’s has long been public: see our coverage of the this past spring’s salary disclosure, here. However, the details of some of the most important elements of presidential compensation—namely pension and severance arrangements—are not generally part of the Sunshine Law disclosure. And based on those contracts that have been made public over the past two weeks, the severance, pension and administrative leave arrangements accorded some presidents form a significant additional form of compensation.
Several university presidents in southern Ontario won’t have to worry much about finding a new job when their contracts run out at their current digs. On top of their standard pensions, many collect at least an extra year or more of salary at the end of their terms, as part of what is termed “administrative leave.”
According to his contract, Ryerson University’s Sheldon Levy will receive two years “salary continuance” at the end of his term as president if he completes a second term. The University of Toronto’s David Naylor will receive one year’s salary for his duties as president and another 10-months worth for his time as dean of medicine. Wilfrid Laurier’s Max Blouw (who received a $50,000 signing bonus), Guelph’s Alastair Summerlee, and York’s Mamdouh Shoukri will also go on paid administrative leave after completing their terms.
If Levy served two full terms as president, his salary continuance could total at least $625,000. If Levy retired today and collected his retirement money based on his current salary, he would receive no salary continuance (not $625,000, as previously reported in error). Naylor could receive almost $700,000. Blouw could net up to $420,000. Summerlee could also top $400,000 and Shoukri could take in at least $325,000.
These payouts are all on top of regular pensions and in some cases other pensions contained in the contracts.
Professors tend to go on sabbatical once every seven years. Presidents usually serve five-year terms. But they are encouraged to take administrative leave at the end of their respective terms, when they often retire — indeed, these are known as golden handshakes; appreciation for service to the school.
When McMaster president Peter George’s contract was made public last week, at least one group on that campus refused to believe that administrative leave was a legitimate means of paying retired presidents for their service.
The McMaster University Faculty Association (MUFA) says George’s paid leave is questionable and does not meet McMaster’s own criteria for academic leave.
“Administrative Research Leaves are intended to assist a former administrator in making the transition back to full scholarly life,” MUFA stated in a release sent to Maclean’s. “Neither Research nor Administrative Research Leaves are simply an employee benefit. Their purpose has always been to assist McMaster in maintaining research and educational excellence.”
MUFA pointed to a double standard for faculty at the university. Faculty members who do not use research leaves cannot defer them into compensation.
Who is Ontario’s best paid professor?
Being a business prof pays well, but being an English prof can pay even better—under certain circumstances
English students feeling trepidation about their employment prospects, fear no more. Last year’s top paid prof in Ontario was, for once, an English professor. But if you plan to strive for this distinction, your career path may have to take a minor detour.
RELATED CONTENT Who is Canada’s top paid academic? AND Update: Maybe David Naylor is a (relative) bargain AND Professor pay varies greatly by discipline AND McMaster goes to court to block release of president’s pay package
That’s right: David Atkinson — who is listed as a “faculty member” on Ontario’s salary disclosure list — made off with a whopping $467,835.75 plus $19,323.97 in taxable benefits in 2007. His $487,158 total annual take makes Carleton University’s Atkinson not only the highest paid professor in Ontario, but also higher paid than most university presidents, including University of Toronto president David Naylor.
While everyone else in the $400,000 range on the salary disclosure list has administrative duties listed to explain their salaries, it may be Atkinson’s choice not to be an administrator that earned him the top paid prof title. Atkinson served for 15 months as president of Carleton University starting in August 2005. He abruptly resigned on November 20, 2006 under mysterious circumstances, and returned to work as a professor in the English department.
Perhaps fortunately for the Carleton coffers, its $400,000+ English prof announced in January that he will become president of Kwantlen University College in Vancouver starting in July.
Samy Mahmound, in comparison, was paid $337,173.60 to actually be president of Carleton last year.
Aside from Atkinson, Ontario’s other highest paid professors are, not surprisingly, from business schools, not English departments. Ontario’s second highest paid professor is Brian Golden of the University of Toronto’s Rotman School of Business. Golden’s total compensation for 2007, including salary and taxable benefits, was $303,490.32.
Golden barely beat fellow Rotman professors of Strategic Management Joel Baum ($296,748.94) and Brian Silverman ($293,143.20) for the title.
Other University of Toronto professors making more than $250,000 in salary included seven business professors, four medical professors, and one engineering professor. Many business, medical, science, and engineering professors at the University of Toronto made more than $200,000.
The only other professors, without administrative titles, making more than $250,000 in Ontario are Paul Beamish of The University of Western Ontario’s Ivey School of Business and Russell Belk of York University’s Schulich School of Business.
Many part-time professors at Ontario medical schools made over $200,000. Dozens of full-time professors at business and law schools also made over $200,000.
The salary disclosure list confirms a study by the American Association of University Professors which showed that professors in professional schools make at least 50 per cent more than the average humanities professor.
However, for those who make it to the senior administrator level, being schooled in the humanities has no effect on salaries. Both Atkinson, and highest paid university president Peter George of McMaster, have their terminal degrees in the humanities. Lorna Marsden, a sociologist, made $483,124 during her final six months as president of York University.
Which uni presidents make more than Bush?
Compared to Bush, uni presidents make a mint. But compared to CEOs, they’re a bargain
At first glance, you might have mistaken salary disclosure day in Ontario for an elaborate April Fool’s Day joke. But this ain’t a hoax: some university presidents in Ontario are paid more than Stephen Harper or George W. Bush get to run entire countries. Then again, university presidents (and Harper, and Bush) get paid less—a lot less—than corporate CEOs.
RELATED CONTENT Who is Canada’s top paid academic? AND Update: Maybe David Naylor is a (relative) bargain AND Professor pay varies greatly by discipline AND McMaster goes to court to block release of president’s pay package
At the top of the pay scale in Ontario, McMaster president Peter George pulled in a total of $504,792 in salary and taxable benefits last year. That’s $100,000 more than President George Bush’s US$400,000. Prime Minister Stephen Harper was paid $312,922 including a $2,000 car allowance (just for the record, the lease payments on my 2005 Toyota Echo come to more than that each year).
Of course, pay packages for university presidents need to be sufficient to attract qualified candidates away from other sectors. And considering the loot thrown at other highly valued Canadians — professional athletes and CEOs, for instance — maybe McMaster is lucky that president George hasn’t run off yet to join the private sector. Can George skate? The Leafs paid Bryan McCabe over $7 million last year. CEOs at TD, Royal Bank, and Imperial Oil topped $10 million. (See salary chart at the end of this article.)
Looking at our uni presidents’ peers down south, it seems that Canadian presidential salaries might be in the right ballpark. The median salary for the president of a public university in the USA is about $335,000, according to the U.S. College and University Professional Association for Human Resources. And while ten presidents in Ontario are well above that benchmark, so are many presidents at private American institutions. For example, according to the Chronicle of Higher Education, Yale president Richard C. Levin made $869,026 last year. A number of other presidents cleared $1 million. So did some U.S. college sports coaches.
Canada’s highest paid president appears to be in Alberta. University of Alberta president Indira Samarasekera received $591,000 in the 2006-2007 fiscal year. That includes house and car allowances, performance bonuses, and deferred compensation.
Some would argue that comparing university president salaries to corporate CEOs is unfair since taxpayers foot the bill for the former. But CEOs at other public institutions are also making decent coin. Tom Parkinson, CEO of Hydro One, made over $1.5 million in 2007 and Paul Taylor, CEO for the Insurance Company of BC, was paid $480,039.
