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WESTERN UNIVERSITY • CANADA’S ONLY DAILY STUDENT NEWSPAPER • FOUNDED 1906
USC can’t get no… Minutes >> pg. 2 Concert >> pg. 3 Decision >> pg. 6 VOLUME 108, ISSUE 98
UWOFA loses confidence in Chakma Chakma received $500k from Waterloo in 2010 for untaken administrative leave Iain Boekhoff EDITOR-IN-CHIEF @IainAtGazette
The University of Western Ontario Faculty Association voted 94 per cent in favour of a non-confidence motion in President Amit Chakma and the chair of the board of governors, Chirag Shah. The motion was in response to the news that Chakma was paid double his annual salary for not taking a year of administrative leave as he was entitled to at the beginning of his second term. Alison Hearn, president of UWOFA, said in a press release on Thursday that the faculty has “lost confidence” in Chakma and Shah’s ability to lead. “There’s something deeply wrong when a university president earns close to $1-million while student debt is rising, class sizes are increasing, and staff are facing cuts.” The motion was unprecedented as it saw the highest turnout for a vote in the faculty association’s history. Fifty-four per cent of UWOFA members voted in the online ballot, which took place from Tuesday to Thursday. In an email, Hearn said 885 faculty were in favour of the motion, while 39 were against and 18 abstained. The motion was brought forward from the floor in UWOFA’s general meeting on Monday. “It wasn’t something the executive had prepared — it was a spontaneous motion. Obviously, because people were very upset and outraged,” Hearn said in an interview. Hearn stressed the faculty’s opposition to Chakma’s double payment was about the disconnect between administration and the realities of front-line workers at the university. “We’ve said all along that this is not about the money. It’s about poor judgement and skewed priorities, and the deep disconnect between the senior leadership and the realities on the ground.”
Amit Chakma
After a public backlash to his $924,000 compensation last year, Chakma said on Wednesday that he was returning half of the money to the University voluntarily. The board of governors also announced they appointed a former appeals court judge to conduct a review of presidential compensation at the university. According to Hearn, the announcement by the president and the board of governors did little to deal with the concerns of the faculty members. “It’s poor judgment by the board and the president in allowing this deal to be struck in the first place,” she said. “There needs to be a lot more done to restore trust in the senior leadership on campus — more than just these little steps they took yesterday.” Hearn said that while the motion is symbolic, she is going to attempt to bring it forward to the senate. “I’m going to try to present it at senate if I can get on the agenda or if there is an opportunity to do so,” she said. “It was really a way for our members to express their deep dissatisfaction in the actions of the president and of the board.” Waterloo paid Chakma for untaken administrative leave in 2010; compensated nearly $2-million over two years Chakma received $500,000 from the University of Waterloo in 2010, plus his full presidential salary of $440,000 from Western. With taxable benefits, he received a total of $969,743 in 2010. That followed his 2009 midyear appointment to Western, when Chakma received $737,640 from Waterloo and $220,000 from Western. With taxable benefits, his earnings that year were $970,440. His salary as provost and vice-president academic at Waterloo in 2008 was $408,456, and in years previously had been under $400,000. Chakma is listed separately on the 2011 Sunshine List as an adjunct professor at Waterloo in 2010, as well as the president of Western. His total compensation between 2009–10 was $1,940,183. Nick Manning, a spokesperson at Waterloo, said in an email on Friday that Chakma was paid for administrative leave he had not taken when he moved to Western. “The University of Waterloo compensated Amit Chakma in accordance with the terms of his contract. This included payment in lieu of untaken administrative leave when he left his appointment as
vice-president academic and provost in 2009.” Manning added that this payment was similar at universities across Canada. “Earnings and contracts for senior academic leadership at the University of Waterloo are in line with those of other universities across Canada. No organization can attract top talent without appropriate investment.” Former president never received double payment Former Western president Paul Davenport never received a double payment despite being reappointed twice and he was not reported on the Sunshine List to have received any payout after his final term ended. The board of governors chair, Chirag Shah, defended the cash payout initially, saying it was a normal clause for top administrators in the academic world, including Western’s former president, Paul Davenport. “It’s an administrative leave position, his predecessor had that administrative leave in their contract and there are a significant number of other institutions with presidential contracts with the same or similar leave in the terms and conditions of their contract,” Shah said in an interview. An analysis of the Sunshine List since its inaugural year in 1997 shows, however, that Davenport did not once make double his salary, despite having the same five-year length contracts as Chakma. Chakma accrues 2.4 months of administrative leave annually while he serves as president, making him eligible for a year off after five years. He is entitled to take that year off or to a payout equal to his base salary. It was mutually decided between him and the board of governors that Chakma would stay on this year and he was compensated with $440,000 for a total of $924,000 in 2014, the year his contract was renewed. The minutes of the June 25,1998 board of governors meeting show that Davenport was reappointed for his second term and granted a study leave of three months, from May 1–July 31, 1999, which he spent at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, researching “the role of universities in the knowledge based economy.” There is no mention of a sabbatical for Davenport in his November 2002 reappointment to a third term. Davenport is not listed on the Sunshine List following his final half year as president of Western in 2009. He was reportedly set to received $700,000 upon retiring. his is similar to many other university presidents who receive a sizeable monetary amount upon retirement. With files from Hamza Tariq
Taylor Lasota • GAZETTE
Brescia principal double paid in 2013 Iain Boekhoff EDITOR-IN-CHIEF @IainAtGazette
The board of trustees of Brescia University College is defending the 2013 double payment to Principal Colleen Hanycz for not taking an administrative leave — the same payment that Western University President Amit Chakma returned last week following public backlash. As was first reported by The Gazette on Thursday, Hanycz received $444,386 in 2013, which is nearly double her usual salary. This was over $90,000 more than the University of Toronto’s president, who leads a school 47 times the size of Brescia. In an email sent to students on Monday afternoon, the chair of the board of trustees, Liz Hewitt, confirmed this payment was for untaken administrative leave. She said it was necessary for Hanycz to continue as principal and losing her for a year would have set back the university. “It was the board’s view that losing Dr. Hanycz for a year, which would have necessitated appointing an interim principal, would have led to a critical loss of momentum and continuity for the University. The board also considered the fact that there would have been an additional cost to the University in terms of the compensation and recruitment of an interim principal.” Both Hanycz and Chakma made double their annual earnings in years their contracts were renewed and both of their salaries go back down to normal levels the following year. Hewitt added it was “critical” for Hanycz to stay on due to a new academic dean starting in 2013 and the start of a review of Brescia’s academic and operations programming. In 2009, her first year as principal, Hanycz made $213,553. This rose to $222,600.04 in base salary the next year and remained frozen for the next two years. Colleen Hanycz
In 2013, five years after she was appointed principal, Hanycz received almost exactly double this amount, $444,386. Hanycz was reappointed on July 1, 2013 by Brescia’s council of trustees, which is now named the board of trustees. This year’s Sunshine List shows Hanycz earning $265,000. “The importance of continuity and the momentum that Brescia was experiencing were two of the most important factors that led to the decision of the board to pay out Dr. Hanycz’s administrative leave and have her commence her second term immediately on July 1, 2013,” Hewitt said. “Under her continued leadership, Brescia has continued to grow and thrive, and has positioned itself well for the future.” The board of trustees of Brescia is using a similar defence that Western’s board of governors used when they initially defended Chakma’s double payout. The Western board ultimately gave in to public pressure and instigated a review of presidential compensation at Western. Chakma also said he would be returning his double payout and furthermore, would not take the option to receive the same payout in 2019 at the end of his second term. London West MPP Peggy Sattler has introduced a private member’s bill to the provincial legislature to prohibit future deals similar to what Chakma and Hanycz received.