Jordan Bateman: B.C. university and college presidents could learn something from Ric Flair
When pro wrestler Ric Flair was at the top of his game, he’d often end TV interviews by describing himself as a “Stylin', profilin', limousine riding, jet flying, wheelin' n' dealin' son of a gun!”
Who would have thought that this would become the de facto motto for B.C.’s 25 university and college presidents?
Using the Freedom of Information Act, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation recently collected detailed expense reports from the heads of B.C.’s postsecondary institutions. The spending was astounding: in a span of two years, the 25 presidents spent nearly $1.1 million in airfare, nearly another half million on hotel rooms, and more than $200,000 on meals.
Collectively, the 25 expensed $2.4 million, an average of $94,566 each. And like Ric Flair, there were plenty of charges for jet flying, and a few for limousine riding.
A staggering number of overseas trips were reported, and it was clear from the airfare price tags that these presidents flew in style.
The president of UBC was the highest flyer, taking 30 trips with airfares of more than $2,000. His expenses included a $21,987.35 airfare for a Hong Kong/Berlin/Paris trip. Ten airfares to eastern Canada never cost less than $2,000—including a couple of $6,000 flights to Ottawa. Rock stars would be jealous of this kind of treatment on a world tour.
When was the last time you took a flight between Kamloops and Vancouver? The Thompson Rivers University president billed for 28 flights to Vancouver, including one that cost $954. That’s on top of four flights to Victoria, including one for $1,232.96, and two to Prince George. That’s an average of one inter-B.C. flight every three weeks.
Remember how legislature Speaker Linda Reid was forced by public pressure to pay back her husband’s share of a junket to South Africa? The president of the University of Northern B.C. charged expenses, including airfare, for his wife on nine separate trips. The University of Victoria’s president took along his spouse on two expensive trips to China and India.
Not every president went crazy with the taxpayer’s credit card. The president of BCIT expensed less than $20,000 over two years. Vancouver Community College and New Caledonia presidents were just over that mark.
Should university and college presidents travel from time to time? Of course—but in a style befitting a public servant acting on behalf of taxpayers and postsecondary students.
During pre-budget consultations, the B.C. government heard from the six largest universities that a $25 million funding boost was desperately needed: “Universities face unfunded cost pressures such as wage increases, non-wage inflation costs, and carbon tax levies,” the budget committee report noted. “These cost pressures…are outstripping universities’ ability to achieve efficiencies and hold the line on program spending.”
If these expenses are an example of presidents acting frugally in the face of funding shortfalls, taxpayers should be very concerned.
Two things need to happen. First, postsecondary institution boards of directors need to push presidents to control expenses. This may cause uncomfortable conversations about accountability, but it is vital.
Second, presidents need to follow the lead of B.C. MLAs and post their expenses regularly. Taxpayers, watchdogs, media, and students deserve to know how money is being spent in our academic institutions—and hopefully this accountability will cause presidents to think twice before they fly first-class.
Ric Flair retired broke, the jet flying lifestyle having proven to be unsustainable financially. Let’s hope our university presidents smarten up before B.C. taxpayers end up broke too.
Comments
21 Comments
AC
Dec 8, 2014 at 5:09pm
Someone's living the glamorous life off your hard earned tuition, kids. Learn how to execute the figure four leg-lock and make these Ric Flairs tapout.
stampeder
Dec 8, 2014 at 6:22pm
Interesting that you publish an article by a spokesperson from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. The CTF is an "organization" with only a handful of members, and nobody else can join. It is an organization that holds no Annual General Meetings, no membership votes for any of the leadership positions, nor does it open itself to any membership drives. It is an organization that demands that all of its targets open their books to complete outside financial analysis, yet never opens its own books to any outside scrutiny. The CTF is made up of a tiny group of insiders who self-appoint themselves to the CTF board.
So, thanks CTF for the expose', but do one on your own tiny, internecine gaggle too.
Mark
Dec 8, 2014 at 9:36pm
@stampeder - what a ridiculous post.They are exposing pure waste of money by these people, and you're angry because they're a small nonprofit that demands accountability, as per laws that exist?
These records should be a matter of immediate public record, given the amount of tuition paid by students and the amount of money pumped by governments into these institutions.
I don't know why I'm surprised
Dec 8, 2014 at 11:25pm
But I am.
How can the UBC president spend over $300,000 on travel and think he can justify it is beyond me. Yes some travel is understandable but have they never heard of the telephone to conduct meetings? Teleconference ? Videoconference? Skype??
stampeder
Dec 8, 2014 at 11:31pm
@mark
The universities are hiding nothing, as you yourself say when you mention the "laws that exist". So, here we have the CTF, which hides everything about itself, and hides behind the fact that the government does not choose to pass laws that force them to expose their own inner workings. I'd like to know all about the CTF's funding and sponsorship, as well as their political connections. Fair is fair.
ACMESalesRep
Dec 8, 2014 at 11:42pm
@Mark: Are they exposing a waste of money, or are they misrepresenting a legitimate cost of doing business as waste for political reasons? Without knowing the reason for each and every one of these trips – or, for that matter, if the CTF's report is even accurate – we have no idea if it's waste or not. We do, however, know that the CTF rarely does anything that isn't politically motivated.
@stampeder
Dec 9, 2014 at 3:38am
Here's all you need to know about the CTF: They're not doing it with your money. End of story.
MD
Dec 9, 2014 at 8:10am
The CTF.
Good for comedy, bad for anything else financial.
The only people that take them seriously do not know any better, or have already decided that any government spending is wrong on purely ideological grounds.
Why doesnt the CTF do an "analysis" on why administrative salaries in BC post secondary institutions have outpaced student funding and wages since the BC Liberal's took over?
That is literally tens of millions of dollars a year going to management, year after year for the past twelve, and not student services nor facility expansion, and the CTF has said NOTHING that entire time.
If you care about taxpayer dollars in this sector, and value for money, that is where you spend your time "analyzing" (and I use the term loosely, since the CTF does not conduct that process in anything resembling an objective or professional manner).
Bateman and the CTF are far more interested in manufacturing outrage by taking minor items with emotional impact and using them to frame a narrative about the public sector that is not true and simply suits their own ideology.
A million dollars on fat cat ivory tower intellectuals travelling gets people pissed off, but it is rather irrelevant. If that entire million was put into the post secondary system, nothing would change for anyone, materially.
Financial management is technocratic, not ideological, and absolutely not emotional. Notice the CTF has the latter two points down cold, and likely can't even spell the first.
So while all you taxpayer dollar crusaders get worked up into a lather over what are literally rounding errors in the context of the entire post secondary education budget, massively larger amounts of money get spent on things that Bateman and the CTF have not problem with.
Go ahead - ask them if deficit financed tax cuts are a bad idea.
Their last two directors would not even admit that such a state of affairs was possible...but see what happens when you cut tax revenue faster than spending, all things being equal.
Go ahead - ask them if the Government of BC spending taxpayer dollars, far in excess of a million, by the way, to send CEO's on trade missions is a waste
Signed, professional accountant in private business with more experience in public sector analysis than Jordan Bateman has experience breathing.
MD
Dec 9, 2014 at 8:14am
ACEMSalesRep
"for that matter, if the CTF's report is even accurate"
They don't publicly disclose their reports, their methodology, or their data sets.
All you get is a press release saying they "did an analysis".
Those interested in academic and research accuracy do not hide their work.
They hide their salaries.
They hide their donors.
They hide their internal processes.
ursa minor
Dec 9, 2014 at 8:56am
Unlike wherever Jordan Bateman went to school, UBC is a world-class university which attracts students and faculty from all over the world. Based on world reputation rankings, UBC plays in the same academic league as Cornell and the London School of Economics, it's not a backward right-wing diploma mill like Calgary or Trinity Western.
The President of an internationally recognized University is going to travel a lot internationally. Reaching out to attract students and faculty means more tuition, more research grants, more patents, and graduates with earning power. I don't even need to have taken a class at UBC's Sauder School of Business to know what an INVESTMENT looks like.