Western Ontario and Fanshawe College

[MolsonExport]

Now It is a Triple Take. AMIT CHAKMA: Western boss made $972,440 in 2009
Western University president Amit Chakma cashed in when making the leap from Waterloo to London

[MolsonExport]

As much as jaws dropped when people learned Western University paid its president nearly a million bucks last year, it wasn’t even his biggest pay day.

In 2009, Amit Chakma moved to London from the University of Waterloo, where he’d been a vice-president, and raked in $972,440 in salary and benefits, $5,000 more than last year’s total.

He did so by cashing in an unused academic sabbatical at Waterloo, raising the ire of some faculty.

“There was quite a bit of alarm expressed by UW faculty over this, since if (a regular) faculty (member) resigns, they never receive anything for any unused sabbatical credit,” a retired faculty member recalled in an e-mail Wednesday to The Free Press.

Chakma was paid more than $741,000 by Waterloo in 2009 and another $229,000 in pay and benefits after his move to London. He became Western’s president in July that year.

His latest high six-figure package, $967,000 in salary and benefits, revealed last Friday, put him near the top of Ontario’s so-called Sunshine List of public servants making $100,000 or more.

London Free Press


This is a fucking outrage.

[jaradthescot]

Absolutely disgusting. As a public institution, shouldn't these numbers be public at all times? How are these just coming out now, as a result of the sunshine list?

The article also backs up what I thought earlier about Western's status under his guidance:

He also declined to be interviewed to answer questions about Western’s global reputation and whether it has slipped under his watch.

When Chakma came to Western, he promised to boost its international standing and pointed to annual rankings done by The Times of London in England.

At the time, he thought the school was well positioned to break into the top 100.

“As a first step, it would be wonderful to be among the top 100 universities that The Times of London (lists). Western is very close,” he said in 2009.

But Western has since fallen in the rankings to between 225 and 250. Those behind the ranking don’t disclose the exact placement of schools not in the top 200.

Another ranking publication that splintered off the Times ranking had Western sinking to 199 and 191 the past two years.

Even the Richard Ivey School of Business at Western slipped badly: It ranked as high as 27th in 2007, ranked in the 40s the following four years, and this year dropped to 97th, hanging by a thread to a top 100 ranking.

[Snark]

Wow, UWO has really bungled the PR component of this story. The larger problem IMO is that this is becoming part of a long list of PR misfires that seem to be consistently sending the wrong message to the larger citizenry of the region, and frankly sending a message of its disdain towards London and greater SW Ontario..

Consider:

1) The name change from The University of Western Ontario to Western University. Message to the public: To be seen as part of southwestern Ontario is embarrassing and not something we want to be associated with. Too small town, too hick.

2) The announcement that the school will not expand outside of the existing campus, especially not into the downtown. Message to the public: We may be located in this city, but we don't consider ourselves part of the city. Nor do we want to be a part of it.

3) The excuse by the board that Chakma's double payout was akin to an "industry standard", yet this apparently doesn't happen in any other Canadian institution. They lied. Message to the public: We will make any pronouncement we choose from the safety of the oak-lined walls in the board room of our ivory tower. The local hicks in this one horse town will swallow whatever we feed them.

4) Chakma's refusal to engage the public in response to the reaction to the huge payout contrasted to apparent lackluster performance of the school. Message to the public: an outsider comes to town with smooth lines and an easy smile while fleecing the golden lamb. Much like the Simpson's monorail salesman, as soon as the chips are down for him, he is suddenly no where to be seen. He doesn't care about anything but the money.

5) Finally, the fact that the institution consistently puts little or no effort into image control over any of these issues or bothers to address its detractors is the ultimate symbol of its derision towards London and the larger SW Ontario region. They simply don't give a damn what anyone here thinks of them, because no one here is worthy of of such an effort in their opinion. If a mouse became angry with you for eating its cheese, would you care?

[tyeman200]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

London Free Press


This is a fucking outrage.

I couldn't agree more. Pisses me off that there are students there who have to pay between 10-30 thousand dollars a year to go there, causing them to be in debt for years, and this jackoff is making over $400,000 a year. Just plain sick. What has education become now a days in Canada?

[haljackey]

He's going to give about half of it back

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windso...lary-1.3018799

At least we got that going for us

[MolsonExport]

The Sphinx blinked.

But hey, he got his (other) million dollar paycheck in 2009. Christ, that's as much as I have earned as a tenured Prof in 10 years at UWO.

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by haljackey

He's going to give about half of it back

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windso...lary-1.3018799

At least we got that going for us

I don't think he had a choice. I heard on CBC Radio yesterday morning that some university donors were threatening to pull their funding unless this situation was corrected. That's how you get a university's attention.

[Snark]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

...Christ, that's as much as I have earned as a tenured Prof in 10 years at UWO.

Careful there. You may not want to disclose that sort of info. The problem with witchhunting is that once it gets started, it can be hard to stop.

I personally don't have a problem with what folks in the teaching biz earn, but many do, and when they hear that someone makes $100k/year to "babysit rich spoilt brats" there will be (and are) calls to go after such folks as well. That's the point of Mike Harris' "sunshine list": it's original specific intent and ongoing purpose is to enrage the broader public against anyone on the public payroll. If it was truly an effort in legitimate transparency, the $100K figure would be annually raised at the rate of inflation and that figure would now be in the $140k's. Politicians refuse to do that however in order to give the impression that the number of individuals on this list is growing out of control, when in fact it's just the cost of living increases outpacing a 20 year old static figure (excluding cops and firefighters).

For those angry "Tim Horton's conservatives" who are typically over-opinionated, uninformed, and living off of a paltry blue collar pension of under $30K/year, $100k or $900k is all in the stratosphere and all such folks earning that are eligible for burning at the stake. So, episodes such as Chakma become a lightening rod however the broader, more subtle, and more lasting effect is to tar all on the sunshine list - and the civil service in general, with the same brush - which is the real intent of this exercise. It gives politicians a bogyman that they can claim to "protect" the citizenry from, "news" outlets have a "scandal" to play up to sell their "product", and the angry disenfranchised portion of society has something to rail against when sitting in the dark of their basement hammering away in internet chat rooms and comment pages on how horrible everything is these days.

Just be glad that Hudak wasn't elected, as he had already proclaimed himself as the "Witchfinder General" even before the election. Imagine if he had got in.

[MolsonExport]

the $100K figure would be annually raised at the rate of inflation and that figure would now be in the $140k's

Of course it should have been indexed to inflation. Quite frankly I am opposed to publishing the Sunshine list (the amount of vexation it creates among my peers is reason numero uno, plus the public has no real point of comparison to evaluate the legitimacy of these figures).

This takes nothing away from my indignation of Pres. Chakma double-dipping. Twice. And now it appears that Brescia's outgoing Principal did the same thing.

Otherwise I completely agree with your post.

[MolsonExport]

Western University faculty has lost confidence in president Amit Chakma

Unionized faculty voted overwhelmingly this week to express a lack of confidence in Chakma and the board chair. An online petition signed by thousands has asked for a non-confidence vote from Western’s senate, which meets next Friday.

The vote (with a majority turnout) was 97% voting no confidence in Chakma and the board chair. https://uwofa.ca/uwofamatters/id:143

Never before has there been this degree of consensus among faculty.

[MolsonExport]

Don't ask, don't tell. Lame excuse.

LFP: Western board didn't see Chakma's contract, member says

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Don't ask, don't tell. Lame excuse.

LFP: Western board didn't see Chakma's contract, member says

You would think a successful businessman like Nash would have enough business sense to at least review the contract.

[Snark]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

...This takes nothing away from my indignation of Pres. Chakma double-dipping. Twice. And now it appears that Brescia's outgoing Principal did the same thing.

Agreed. The double dipping thing is in my mind the real egregious thing here. The entire reasoning is something I find confusing: if this position is so important as to pay $500K/year, how can an individual in the position take 1 year in 5 off? The position and individual are so critical to the well-being of the organization, except for the 20% of the time that they are permitted to be not around? And then, oops, it is too critical to be gone for that much time, so he gets paid double. Pretzel logic.

The issue of the "regular" salary is a different one and much murkier. There are many shades of grey on the topic of remuneration. As for Chakma himself, I have no opinion on his regular salary, as I don't know his job description and roles/responsibilities nearly well enough to pass judgement.

That said, obviously this guy is rightly or wrongly viewed by folks in a decision making capacity as a much-sought after man. I suspect that the salary is likely what the market will bear, especially if one compares to analogous positions in the public and private sector globally. If one goes a step further and looks outside of his specific profession at the broader market economy, if an entertainer such as a pro athlete or an actor can earn $20M/year, why can't the head of a large learning & research institution earn 1/40th of that? Ironically, Chakma's detractors on the right of the political spectrum are typically the first to trumpet ideas such as "market forces" to set prices and wages and find government interference in such things to be awful - except, it seems, when it comes to the public sector.

Market forces do not however place a limit on how much is "too much", and as a result has been a great contributor to the erosion of the middle class and the rise of the super-rich since the economic deregulation of the 80's. Is it right that anyone should earn more than, say $300K/year? How much is enough? When is it in the greater public interest to restrict some position's wages (such as a brain surgeon) and allow others to soar unrestricted (such as Donald Trump)? Who gets to decide such things will result in very different answers. In Chakma's case, his regular salary is very similar to that of the President of The United States. Where's the equivalency in job descriptions there? Yet, certain groups of people have decided that is what both of those positions should be paid.

[MolsonExport]

^Good post. I agree.

Paid leaves come under fire

Canadian universities have hijacked a tool meant to enhance research and teaching to divert millions of extra dollars to their presidents, faculty say.

Schools have long paid professors to set aside for a time scholarly pursuits to serve as administrators, offering, as incentives, paid leaves so they can immerse themselves in research before they return to teaching.

But increasingly universities are using paid leaves to pad the pay of presidents without regard to whether they’ll return to the classroom.

Western University and Brescia University College allowed President Amit Chakma and Principal Colleen Hanycz to forgo their leaves and double their salary, setting off a firestorm of concern by teachers, students and donors.

“This episode — there’s been nothing like it since the 1960s, nothing remotely like it,” said Peter Neary, a history professor at Western who will complete his 50th year there in June.

Neary took a six-month leave after serving three years as the social sciences dean, using time to research and write a book. But getting paid double, taking cash without working or getting a golden parachute as a going-away present while switching schools — those never occurred to him.

“It never entered my head that I could do that,” Neary said ­Tuesday.

The practice of double dipping is uncommon in Canada: 10 of the country’s largest universities say current contracts wouldn’t allow for that. But many of those schools offer fully paid administrative leave presidents can use between stints at the helm or after they leave, and you need not look farther for example than London. There is Chakma, who was twice paid nearly $1 million in salary and taxable benefits, first, when he moved here from the University of Waterloo in 2009, and again last year. After the furor of disclosure 12 days ago, Chakma has said he’ll return the extra money from 2014 and not double dip at the end of his second contract in 2019.

Then there’s the principal of tiny Brescia University College, Colleen Hanycz, whose pay in 2013 doubled to $444,386, more than the president of the University of Toronto.

Even more was paid to the head of Huron University College, Ramona Lumpkin, whose salary and benefits from the school jumped from less than $200,000 in 2009 to $474,000 in 2010 when she cashed in unused leave as she moved from Huron to the top post at Mount Saint Vincent University in Halifax.

Read more here: http://www.lfpress.com/2015/04/07/pa...ome-under-fire

Paid Leave? Should be leave or get paid (to work). Not both. Tenured profs get a salary reduction when on sabbatical (I had my first a couple of years ago, and it hurt since I have two young kids and a stay-at-home wife). Sorry Chiraj Shah (UWO Board Chairman), we faculty are most definitely not permitted to double dip...this is very clear in the collective agreement.

[jaradthescot]

Reduced salary when on sabbatical? That is doubly disconcerting. Isn't the work that you do on sabbatical officially a part of your job description? That seems akin to someone going to a sanctioned business trip to China and saying "by the way, you'll be forgoing 60% of your standard salary because you won't be in the office".

Then they turn around and give presidents a full year's salary for having the bravery to do their standard job instead of taking a year-long vacation.

[Dither City]

http://www.lfpress.com/2015/04/08/ro...s-st-in-london

Interesting news very positive.

[MolsonExport]

Sounds to me like deliberate obfuscation:


Western University president Amit Chakma’s double pay slipped past board

Some Western board members are in a haze over a controversial contract that doubled the school president’s pay to nearly $1 million — and no wonder: Administrators gave them a summary that muddled the key clause.

That mistake became evident when The Free Press asked for a copy of the summary given to the board in 2009. In the clause dealing with administrative leave, someone mistakenly repeated the same 20-word phrase twice, confusing the meaning of a key sentence in a way that could leave readers stumbling.

[MolsonExport]

Finally some semi apology from Chakma. There was absolutely no hint of regret in his previous public statement.

‘Difficult to express how truly sorry I am’

But the faculty is not buying what the Board/President are peddling.

Western's unions gathering to demand change in how school governed

I do not envy the students manning the call centre phones for uwo fundraising activities. Apparently the call centre shut down this week, amidst extremely angry responses from alumni, regarding being solicited for donations in light of the Chakma et al. financial imbroglio.

[manny_santos]

Originally Posted by MolsonExport

Apparently the call centre shut down this week, amidst extremely angry responses from alumni, regarding being solicited for donations in light of the Chakma et al. financial imbroglio.

Good. Western isn't getting a penny from me until they fix the sorry state of affairs there.