GBC President and Admin should limit own salaries

18 February 2010

Anne Sado, President
George Brown College
200 King St. E
Toronto, ON
M5A 3W8


Dear Anne Sado:

Recent efforts to negotiate the next academic collective agreement have brought into sharp relief the financial state of the college system in Ontario. In particular, facultys requests for more academic freedom and equal working conditions for our partial load colleagues have been dismissed by the Colleges bargaining team as too expensive. The Colleges have also rejected binding arbitration as an alternative, claiming that there is nothing left to talk about because they cannot afford to sweeten the offer (Louise Brown, Toronto Star, February 10). It seems, then, that George Brown should be doing all that it can to reduce its financial burden.

As president, according to the Public Sector Salary Disclosure for 2009, you make $328, 612.17more than our Prime Minister. In addition, your salary increased approximately $48,000 from the year before (17.1\%), and has increased over $33,000 every year youve been at GBC. Salary increases of 7-10\% per year are also common for most upper-level administrators at our college.

Considering that administration at the college has increased substantially over the past decade while full-time faculty numbers have remained relatively steady, it is reasonable to ask that all administrators voluntarily reject all salary increases above those imposed on faculty, counselors, and librarians (1.75\%, 2\%, and 2\%) for the duration of the next collective agreement, and reject any bonuses entirely.

In addition, it is only fiscally responsible for GBC to rely on the expertise and skills of internal employees, rather than more expensive outside consultants. Therefore, there should be a moratorium on hiring consultants until the economic crisis is over.

Such actions would constitute responsible use of public funds and are in keeping with trends in other post-secondary institutions across North America and Europe. In fact, in several universities, presidents have either voluntarily or been embarrassed into rejecting increases, taking cuts, and returning bonuses when their salaries have been disclosed to the public.

We urge you to do the right thing. The academic engine of the college should not bear this burden alone.

Sincerely,