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LOOK AT THE NUMBERS
The current CAUT Almanac reports Stat Can data on academic salaries by university, by rank, by province, and by Maclean’s grouping (see page 5). What the numbers mean depends on what they are compared to. For example, in 2003-04 (the first year of the current contract) Acadia University paid less than the national average for fulls, associates, assistants, lecturers, and librarians. Some argue that the Canadian aver-age includes medical and dental schools and may not be the best comparator. Acadia paid less than the average salaries in the Maclean’s Undergraduate Universities grouping for fulls, associates, assistants, lecturers, and librarians. Some argue that the undergraduate category is not a fair comparator for a Nova Scotian university. Acadia paid less than the Nova Scotia average for fulls, associates, assistants, lecturers, and librarians. Acadia paid less.
How much less? Stats Canada data released in February 2005 report $89,300 as the 2003-04 Canadian all ranks average (excluding medical and dental schools) and $63,550 as Acadia’s all ranks average. How much less? At least $2,145.83 per person per month less.
It would be unfair to claim Acadia is the lowest paying Canadian university. Four pay less for all reported categories. Three of these are religious institutions whose faculties have apparently taken vows of poverty. The fourth is UCCB. Acadia paid more for all four job categories reported by UCCB in 2003 – 2004. There has been perverse comfort in the knowledge that another university paid even less than Acadia. That comfort is about to disappear. UCCB obtained a better contract and has almost surely passed Acadia in at least two categories. This can be confirmed when the 2004 – 2005 data are reported.
Acadia pays less. Why? Where does the money go? Has the BoG, for example, made a strategic investment in small classes? Acadia
does pride itself on small classes. Small classes, of course, divide the available student generated funds among more faculty. Acadia’s full time student/faculty ratio is 27.4 to 1. The Canadian average is 22.9 to 1 and the Nova Scotian average is 20.5 to 1. Acadia is in the bottom quartile of student/faculty ratios. Even the University of Toronto has fewer students per full time faculty member.
Where does the money go? CAUT reports salaries of university presidents (these numbers do not come from Stats Canada). Acadia reported the lowest presidential salary for 2003. Not reported was that this was for only 4 months. Also unreported was the post- retirement salary and benefits paid to the previous president. CAUT listed $7,385 as the 2003 benefits for the current Acadia president. This can represent only the standard faculty benefits package expanded to a presidential salary. It seems unlikely to include the free and fully maintained house, the sports car, the deferred compensation, or any other executive benefits. Whatever it includes, $7,385 is $28,407.64 lower than the $35,792.64 figure obtained by AUFA on 14 January 2004 under the Freedom of Information Act.
Compensation for the two presidents can be estimated from the annualized information uncovered to date. Their combined total is $583,983.84 per year. They tie for 12th place among Canadian university presidents and first place in Nova Scotia. While this estimate accounts for almost $300 per person per month of the shortfall discussed above, it only partly explains the bottom ranking of Acadia’s faculty, for two reasons. First, other universities must pay their president(s) something and 11 pay more. Secondly, 33.7% more students per faculty member generate enough surplus to cover presidential compensation with no decrease in faculty wages.
The CAUT data are useful to a point. They reveal that Acadia’s BoG is spending money on neither market level faculty salaries nor on small classes. CAUT data combined with FOIPOP data reveal that the BoG does spend money on presidents. This is useful but incomplete. The question of where most of the money goes remains largely unanswered. Where it doesn’t go, however, is clear.
There are other ways to analyze data and other analysts will surely offer different interpretations. In the absence of those alternative interpretations it is too early to reach a conclusion. Nonetheless, a reasonable working hypothesis is that Acadia faculty are paid less than colleagues in comparable positions in comparable institutions in the country, in the Maclean’s grouping, and in the province.
Rick Sparkman