Laurier Milton

Apparently the university is looking to expand to new land donated to the university by the town of Milton. Ok... so the land is free. But a few simple questions:

Who will pay for the buildings? The professors? The administrators? The staff? The office equipment?

Why is the university looking to expand still when its this over expansion hurt it so badly in the past?

Is the university really having financial problems or can Max Blouw really shit gold?

Either way - why can't they just pay their CAS profs?

Fiscal Mismanagement

WLUFA news release:

Laurier’s “Large Deficit” Show Hides Declining Cost of Salaries

Dr. Max Blouw, the new President of Wilfrid Laurier University, in a number of public statements, has expressed concern about Laurier’s financial deficit. He has indicated that he intends to address this deficit through economies in salaries paid to Laurier employees.

The present impasse with the Contract Academic Staff which has led to a strike is just the first round in President Blouw’s plan.

At the request of Wilfrid Laurier University Faculty Association, Dr. Bill Salatka, Professor of Accounting in Laurier’s School of Business and Economics, has undertaken an analysis of the University’s published financial statements for 2002 - 2006.

“There are at least two important aspects to what the published financial statements show,” Dr. Salatka says.

“By transferring money out of the General (or Operating) Fund into capital and other funds, the University Administration has “created” a large deficit for 2006 in the General Fund. The University was not overall in a net deficit position in 2006 (the last year for which there are published financial statements available).”

Dr. Salatka says, “This deficit of $62 million in 2006 is the result of cumulative transfers out of the General Fund amounting to $39 million since 2002.”

This is a deficit created by the Administration.

A second significant aspect that undercuts the Administration’s claims relates to the total salary bill for all employees (administrators and managers, full-time faculty, contract academic staff, librarians, non-academic staff, et al.), which is a major cost for universities. At Laurier, however, the total salary cost has been declining in relation to total revenues.

“Total salaries, as a percentage of student fees, have dropped approximately 9% since 2002,” Dr. Salatka says.

Also if you compare total salaries as the cost of total revenues, total salaries have actually declined from nearly 53% in 2002 to just under 47% in 2006.

The Administration claims that the deficit means it cannot move to resolve the dispute over CAS seniority and compensation. Yet the analysis of the financial statements indicates that salaries have been a declining portion of University revenues. The deficit arises from past administrative decisions leading to transfers out of the Operating Fund.

This spring the collective agreements for two other major employee groups are coming up for renewal – the WLUFA full-time faculty and librarian collective agreement and the WLUSA agreement for non-academic staff.

“Creative accounting” is being used as a smokescreen to hide the Administration’s real agenda,” says Dr. Judy Bates, President of WLUFA.

Woops... You can't win when you don't have math skills on your side.

Fiscal responsibility

The difference between the two sides would roughly be the same as one year of the president's salary.

The latest WLUFA update indicates that the administration won't move despite there is so little. They are still not willing to compromise. They are jeopardising academic careers of both the students and the CAS.

Jim Butler and Sue Horton have awarded themselves $40,000 wage increases in the past, and are quibbling over a few hundred for equally qualified people. If there really is a debt incurred by the university, shouldn't it be payed by the people who made it? The CAS didn't, but the administration is spending more and more on capital and themselves, and forces the CAS and students to pay by lack of services.

Hearing rumours of cost overruns from buildings in Brantford of 7 million dollars, where are they getting the money? Shouldn't those who do this pay for it? Should I make my friends pay for my VISA bill?