Universities still overgenerous with top brass
McGill’s Heather Monroe-Blum gets some very generous perks with her job – $40,000 over two years for housekeeping, hotels at $1000 a night. Concordia is hardly less lavish with its new rector Alan Shepherd, the Journal slyly filing this story under their occasional header “Où vont vos impôts?” but the Concordian confirming the numbers. Do these people raise so much money for their schools that it’s worth it to spend millions on blandishing them into these jobs? I can’t imagine they have much to do with the daily operation of the organization, functioning more as a decorative figurehead that’s brought in to glad-hand at posh corporate funding meetings and the like. But couldn’t a university get by without this quasi-monarchical structure?
John 15:10 on 2012/10/13 Permalink
“quasi-monarchical structure” ?
You’ve completely lost me on that one. The figureheads for universities are the Chancellor, an honorary position: for McGill, H. Arnold Steinberg, for Concordia, L. Jacques Ménard (I think); and, the Chair of the Board of Directors.
The Vice-Chancellor / Principal, President or Rector (same job, different title depending on the institution) have a great deal to do with the day-to-day running of the organization. Only a small percentage of their time is spent fundraising (which is why the head fundraiser for U of T used to paid more than the President).
And, yes, I agree with you there is absolutely no justification for the amounts they are being paid. Anyone who would argue Concordia is competing with U of T or Harvard for their Presidents is just being silly.