Posts tagged with administrators.
Presidents should pay for their own tee-off times
Ontario's senior university administrators are going to face their first provincially mandated austerity measure - they'll have to start paying for their own golf and country club memberships.
The Ontario government announced the province's "broader public sector" will no longer be allowed to pay for golf club and gym memberships or season tickets for sporting events, or get lump-sum payment for travel without receipts.
University administrators are included in the group that will be affected, and golf and country club memberships are a common perk given to highly-paid senior university administrators, as revealed by The Hamilton Spectator in 2008 after a freedom of information request.
While today's move is more about politics than sound fiscal policy - the savings are minuscule in relation to the billions of dollars spent by universities each year - it's good public policy.
Taxpayers and students should not be struggling to make ends meet at the same time that a highly paid university president is teeing off at their expense.
With some university presidents making more than a half-million dollars a year, it's about time they started paying for their own tee-off times.
The question now is: Will the government vigilantly enforce the ban or allow universities to continue robbing Peter to pay Paul?
The wage-freeze does not include benefits, which are unregulated. A larger bonus has the same effect on an administrator's bank account as a wage increase, but is allowed.
As well, university foundations can easily be used to continue funding perks for university administrators and, unless the government closes this loophole, it's likely they will. Universities justify some of these perks as the cost of fundraising. Rich people frequent country clubs and the president is able to befriend them to increase donations to the institution.
While this is a sound argument - it's flimsy. The president can pay his own pay.
Universities should think of the claw-back as a fundraiser that will easily pay for a lecturer or two.
---
Ending perks received most of the attention today, but the announcement also included bad news for Ontario's research sector. The government is canceling the Premier's Discovery and Catalyst Awards, two of the three awards known collectively as the Premier's Innovation Awards.
These two awards cost the government $2.5-million each year. The $5-million Premier's Summit Award in Medical Research remains.
The cancellation is surprising, as the Ministry of Research and Innovation was one of Premier McGuinity's pet projects. You know money's tight when this is getting cut.
Tagged with
ontario,
cuts,
pay,
austerity,
administrators,
perks
| Comments (15)
| 
JOEY COLEMAN