Straight Talk

UBC interim president questions value of comparing faculty-to-administrator levels at different institutions

by Charlie Smith on September 4th, 2015 at 8:04 AM
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      Interim UBC president Martha Piper says it's not necessarily appropriate to compare the faculty-to-administrator ratio at her university to that of the University of Toronto.

      Speaking on CBC Radio's Early Edition show, Piper said that the University of Toronto counts its faculty very differently by including clinical personnel in hospitals in the statistics.

      Earlier this week, the Globe and Mail's Gary Mason reported that U of T has a ratio of two faculty members for every non-faculty staff member. UBC, on the other hand, has two staff members for every faculty member.

      Over a five-year period, the number of UBC faculty members increased by less than one percent whereas the number of UBC non-faculty staff increased by 25 percent.

      Piper acknowledged to CBC host Stephen Quinn that it's appropriate to examine the number of UBC administrators on the payroll.

      However, she also noted that there was a recent expansion of the UBC Okanagan campus as well as new student residents and food services that the University of Toronto doesn't provide.

      Comments

      6 Comments

      Dont Compare Us We are Special

      Sep 4, 2015 at 10:22am

      WTF? Don't compare us with UBC peers? Which Ivory Tower does she inhabit? lol

      UBC must be so special so world leading that we are not supposed to compare them to others.

      HAHA.

      It just goes to show you how out of touch grossly mismanaged (by prior Presidents & BOG) UBC is vs U of T who themselves are not exactly lean, what a joke.

      Piper and her ilk after her have run up a $400 million Deficit at UBC over the last decade.

      The Board must have instituted cut backs & will continue to do so now they have little choice given the Deficit.

      Than there's the $11 Million we & UBC PAY to FOREIGN Students! That's Outrageous!

      UBC has 21.7% Foreign Students on a Year over Year 17% increase! Outrageous.

      Major American Universities have instituted hard CAPS on Foreign Students so should we.

      Foreign Students can go to Private only Universities and Colleges that makes economic sense.

      UBC is Public Funded to the tune of Billions by Canadians it's primary purpose is to educate Canadians not Foreigners who than become our competitors & they don't stay (mostly) to contribute to the development of our Great Country, Canada.

      This is of course part of the Neo-Conservative agenda (BC Liberals are Neo-Cons) cut back on Canadians Health Care, Education & Social Services to privatize for Corporate Welfare reasons.

      Does Google pay for Apple Employees to get Post Graduate credits? No.

      But like Animal Farm some Animals are more equal than others so the BOG won't cut back on themselves or their 'Friends'.

      Examples of Some Animals Being More Equal Than Others...

      Do you think UBC in a huge Deficit ought to be spending the following or flying only Economy?

      Here are Some "Don't Compare" Expenses look at the Life of Luxury here...

      Mr. Toope - $123,000 on expensive Airfares First Class? On the Public's Dime yes you & I pay.

      Total Compensation 3 years ....

      2014/15 = $279,276
      2013/14 = $587,366
      2012/13 = $582,860

      Source UBC :

      http://bog.ubc.ca/files/2015/07/UBC_PSEC_Exec_Comp_Report_2014-15.pdf

      http://bog.ubc.ca/files/2014/07/SJT-Expenses-2013-2014.pdf

      UBC is no place for Neo-Con drones, huge compensation & expenses on the public dime.

      Get rid of them and don't give me the excuse of attracting "talent" at the Board what BS.

      With Friends Like Martha

      Sep 4, 2015 at 12:25pm

      Way to show your true colours, Martha. The increase in the number of staff is an important issue, and instead of stating that you'll look into it and come back with a qualified answer (which would be fair given you've been off campus for several years, so how would you know the answer), you give a lame response that will only increase further speculation.

      Ploot Floot

      Sep 4, 2015 at 1:28pm

      surely the Gary Mason meme has been roundly discredited. UofT and UBC are very similar in terms of staff and UBC runs two large physical campuses that don't need garbage collectors with PHD's unlike the Uof T which relies on toronto for all of that. As for food services of course they need managers but they don't need faculty!

      Music Grad

      Sep 5, 2015 at 10:10pm

      A music full professor just retired and they are replacing him with an assistant professor position. It's certainly appropriate to compare UBC to other universities. How else will we measure the dilution of the full-time faculty? We've seen in the news recently how important it is to have full time professors who can speak their mind without being threatened with dismissal.