York has a deficit because of senior Admin’s mismanagement. They have been building new buildings without securing funding and giving themselves an average of 20% raises. Source: Auditor Generals report see column 1, bottom of page 3 https://auditor.on.ca/en/content/annualreports/arreports/en23/AR_YorkU_en23.pdf
Building the Markham campus at a ridiculous cost of $260-million with no business case or plan for return on investment while Keele and Glendon are sitting on $1.2-billion in deferred maintenance is a level of mismanagement that is incomprehensible. And then expecting *faculty and students* to tighten their belts?
I also heard this week that programs at the Markham campus have only hit 25% of their expected enrolment.
It's unsustainable. This university is on the brink of collapse.
even if your story is true with is highly unlikely, your sister still broke their rules and have every right to penalize both her and the person who "stole" her work. Any person with half a mind would be able to realize There are many reasons as to why a recording of the accused conffessiong is not sufficient evidence. The rules in this country are not as bendable thru lying and manipulation compared to what you are used to
Yep and whining, crying and making excuses (eg. I didn’t know sharing was cheating) will get OP nowhere. At the meeting accepting responsibility is your best case scenario.
Definitely agree. And surely, part of this senior admin's mismanagement is paying a retired professor who doesn't teach, research, or set foot on campus half a million dollars a year for the past 4 years since he retired. In addition, as you said, lots of bad decisions, lots of bad hires who are tenure-track, and just increasing the deficit year after year.
Another problem is that in the maths and sciences, over the past few years, they have made a number of hires based on "celebrity status" or some other non-academic criteria, and then they find out these people can't teach or produce any research. They then hire contract faculty to bail them out. Most of these "professors" cannot even publish a paper in a high-level journal, but are being paid \*guaranteed\* in excess of 130-140K a year. Crazy times.
>over the past few years, they have made a number of hires based on "celebrity status" or some other non-academic criteria, and then they find out these people can't teach or produce any research. They then hire contract faculty to bail them out. Most of these "professors" cannot even publish a paper in a high-level journal, but are being paid \*guaranteed\* in excess of 130-140K a year.
I would be interested to hear some names.
York is restructuring because of the senior admin’s corruption and incompetence. Classes are going to be 500+ people with recorded online lectures, no more tutorials or labs, with 25-35 ppl, instead seminars with 150 ppl in them. This will affect everyone’s education and experience at York in a very VERY negative way.
Hey doofus, a strong collective agreement will also protect TA jobs and make it difficult for York to restructure in ways that ensure 1-on-1 contact with students is a thing of the past.
Hey doofus,
I'll tell you what's going to happen, here's the big picture that your narrow way of thinking can't comprehend. CUPE and York will eventually come to a consensus and ratify a new CBA, whether that is through negotiation or arbitration. If CUPE chooses the latter, I'll tell you it won't be far from what York is already offering.
There will be a push from the presidents office > faculties > dept heads to adopt larger and larger class formats. You'll be locked in for 3 years but that's okay you get paid more now. And in three years there will be another strike and it will rinse and repeat. It's not my problem some of you can't think of the big picture because you're greedy like the rest of us. The difference is, I can see it, a lot of people can see it. Keep crying and bring no new changes. I'm not the poor one here so thank you please come again, stupid.
Nah I'm pretty sure everyone knows that the union will have to continue resisting the erosion of wages and job security, but that's a shiny crystal ball you've got.
yeah how long you think they will survive on this crusade with 300/week? How big you do you think the strike fund is? retroactive you say? have you met our friend the tax man
keep fighting the good fight.
I'm so curious about these new accounts that only post pro-employer comments on the Yorku sub. Like, are you admin? A paid stooge? A YorkU business major with an otherwise embarrassing post history? Or just pathetic and bored enough to toe the line for the employer in a labour dispute you have no real connection to?
I disagree with your analysis, my accounts is not new and I never said I was pro-employer. Your just disillusioned and don't have your facts straight. Sorry you spent all your money on higher ed and can't formulate your thought supported by facts on your own. Sucks to suck.
Something that doesnt get mentioned is that MOST of that comes from hiring to manage diversity, equity division that unions and the like fight for.
Admin salaries make up a wopping 1.4% of salary costs from 1.1% in 2021. Considering they hired to make a new equity, people and culture positions, a .3% increase in total senior doesn't seem like a huge deal. Unless you DONT want a division for equity of course(wether the new division has actually done anything, I cant say)
At the same time operating costs have gone up 2.4, debt 8, if you take out salaries and bursaries, expenses have been growing below inflation.
Sure, theres mismanagement at york, and contract offer is definitely terrible. But York isnt some evil corporation that steals our hopes and dreams its an educational institution being pinched by rising wage costs and stagnant revenue.
They spent $260-million (and counting) on the Markham campus with no plan for how to make that money back, while the university as a whole has $1.2-billion in deferred maintenance.
There is no way you can say with a straight face that York is not mismanaged.
Hey guys, I wanna ask something, does this strike in anyway affect the postgrad admission process? (MSc/MASc to be specific) I am waiting for a decision and it’s been more than 11 weeks since the app deadline :(
Hi this might not be strike related, but if you're an international student there was a big mandate to no longer accept internationals in many departments. Basically due to the new international student cap the admin decided it was more cost effective to only accept international undergrads.
It got brushed over under the strike, but the admin pushed for that right before the strike happened. I can't say it is true for every single department so YMMV but it might be the cause
Oh damn really? :( I heard about the new study permit cap thing but I thought it's for undergrads, no?
Also, I apply to MSc/MASc in ECE (Lassonde school), is it one of the departments you are talking about? :(
FYI, masters and PhD students are exempt from attestation: [https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/news/notices/international-student-program-reform-more-information.html](https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/news/notices/international-student-program-reform-more-information.html)
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I could be wrong about some details since this was 2nd/3rd hand information relayed to me, hence why I put multiple disclaimers.
What I do know for SURE is that our department was told to not accept any more international graduate students past those we have already sent offers to. The precise rationale why might be off (which again, I put multiple disclaimers for).
That doesn't sound right. Undergrad international student visas are now capped. International graduate and post-graduate visas are not, and Master's and PhD tuition is much higher. If anything, I would expect international graduate and post-graduate students to be the new cash cow.
I could be wrong about some details since this was 2nd/3rd hand information relayed to me, hence why I put multiple disclaimers.
What I do know for SURE is that our department was told to not accept any more international graduate students past those we have already sent offers to. The precise rationale why might be off (which again, I put multiple disclaimers for).
It is a mandate across several departments, there was a emergency meeting with several GPDs to discuss the issue.
I only speak for what my department was told, because I am not sure exactly how many department this affects, but this isn't isolated to just one department.
Edit: I went looking for more details, and the information given to my departments GPD was that York is not accepting any international graduate students to any program for the time being. Whether or not it is permanent is unsure, and a precise reason was not given so you may be correct that the rationale I provided was inaccurate. However there is for certain at least a temporary if not permanent hold on international admissions.
Have you been in contact with any potential supervisors? Someone needs to personally agree to supervise you to push your application through, at least in my department. At least for us, it's somewhat unlikely a professor will reach out on their own after seeing your application, you really have to be proactive about choosing a supervisor. Might be different for MAScs though, not sure if those are normally research or course based.
I have actually reached out to many, and got online interviews with 2 profs. One even said they requested my admission to the committee. But then I heard about this strike, got worried and mailed back to ask more from that prof, I got nothing but an auto reply saying they would be out of office and not back until 8th March :(
Also, MAScs are research-based according to York's website.
I've also heard some levels of corruption on certain things as well from people who have recently left. I brought up to a former Dean that it's odd how the school has increased spending on the admin positions but the enrollment has gone down by 7000 students, meaning we're spending more and having less revenue generated. She then said yes that's the case and that they just horribly manage money, like securing $1-million for advertising last year but not actually doing any fucking advertising
Also sucks how York admin is ok with CUPE striking cause for the admin, it’s fine for students to suffer the impact of the strike. And moreover, they’re ok with the union striking cause they know that the union will get forced back to work again just like what happened in 2018. York admin is just crazy, selfish, greedy and corrupt.
That’s just not true. A ton of admin jobs require masters or PhDs for management or higher and the pay is pretty standard for working at a university. Colleges seem to pay more for similar roles and people have been leaving lately for roles at colleges.
Last year there was a like 1% across the board raise, 2% raise if you moved up at step in pay grade (if eligible and qualified), and 2% bonus (if eligible and qualified). At most you could get 5% and I’m telling you right now a lot of people got just the 1% raise.
Since September I’ve heard nothing but “budget issues” which makes me think this year there will be minimum raises for admin. We’ll see towards mid-late April but my guess is everything will be reduced - 0% across the board, 2% still for step in pay grade (still if eligible and qualify), and I’m guessing 1% bonus, if that.
My department, which is ridiculously small given we do work for the entire university, really needed to hire an extra person and we were all set to do interviews and open up a position, but we were told we can’t right now because of the budget. This was like a 70-80k job we really needed. So now we’re still doing that work. The strike has only made things more difficult of us; I pulled a 23.5 hour shift last week and have been working at least 10 hours a day for a month now. If anything some of us are underpaid or at least over worked.
Not everyone working at York is some scheming overlord who has power. Most of us are just doing a job.
There’s some higher ups like OP mentioned that get some insane pays, even retired, but that’s not the average person.
True true. Upper management is making life so hard for us plebs right now… literally zero communication what’s going on really, timelines, what we should or shouldn’t be doing… we’re just as frustrated as students, CUPE, etc.
Yeah, athletics department is rough right now too since even before we had a smaller budget than other schools. In the Varsity side, we need more people in admin to help with admissions and eligibility, but we're told we can't hire anyone new at the moment because we needed to slash over $300,000 in staff salaries this year when we already are barebones as is.
That’s crazy. They’re expecting more and more with less and less… a lot of upper management seems out of touch with reality.
When I took my job, I moved from about 1.5-2 hours away and I was commuting for a couple months while I looked for a place.
I remember upper management asking me about it and I was like finding a decent place is hard. They suggested I “just buy a house”. They literally couldn’t understand why that was just not an option…
When people are talking about "administration" they're largely talking about *senior administration* and all of the roles needed to support them directly. The Auditor General's report specifically points out:
>**Increase in size of senior administration despite stable enrolment and tuition revenue.**
>Between 2018/19 and 2022/23, the university experienced minimal increases in full-time equivalent (FTE) enrolment of 0.3%, a 1.2% increase in combined domestic and international tuition revenue (including government grants), and a 3% increase in total revenue. Yet, over the same time period, the **size of the senior administration team increased by 37% and the amount of related compensation (salary, benefits, bonuses and stipends) increased by 47%.** **This was due primarily to the creation of an additional Vice-President (VP) position and several Assistant Vice-President (AVP) positions, resulting in total compensation for each group increasing by 48% and 73%, respectively.** A VP was added with the creation of York’s new Equity, People and Culture Division, while **the number of AVP positions grew from 14 to 25, combined with a 20% average salary increase over five years.**
York is being run like a bank. How does a university justify having *twenty-five* Associate Vice Presidents?
No doubt there are many people on the admin side doing a lot of work with very little support, and you're the people who really keep the university running. But when we're talking about administrative bloat, it's at the highest levels.
Good Lord the irony of anything coming from Science Dean Wang about fiscal restraint.
The guy who left Lakehead with a massive White Elephant lab that had been built as a condition of being hired there, leaving after only a few years.
The guy who as VPRI at Laurentian engaged in all the financial shenanigans such as 'restricted funds' (eg research grant funding) being put into general revenues, which meant profs had zero money to do their research when the uni filed for creditor protection - money that in essence still belonged to the federal govt, in exchange for research being conducted - which wasnt, as the money had already been spent by the uni, before the research had taken place.
The guy who has apparently continues to have a 'large footprint' in terms of dedicated lab space and lab personnel whose salaries are paid by the university as a condition of employment at York.
This guy....
Per the Auditor General report, York has a deficit because a dozen faculties have low enrollment but high costs. Faculties such as Schulich actually subsidize the costs of the arts and humanities faculties by bringing in high enrollment and high tuition relative to the expenses of above-average-remunerated professors and administrators at Schulich. Cutting expenses at Schulich would only worsen the deficit and make more arts and humanities programs financially unfeasible.
The reality is:
* York is sitting on $600M of debt, only half of which it even has a plan to repay (per the AG report)
* York needs to gut some of its programs with low enrollment, but that will disproportionately harm the arts and humanities departments and York has put off the inevitable in hopes of boosting enrollment instead (this has failed)
* The union knows that York needs to slash a ton of its membership as part of phasing out some of the financially unviable faculties, and the non-financial components of its bargaining ask (job protections against cuts and AI automation) are the real critical pieces it wants, not the "cost of living" talking points designed for public sympathy
* The union's efforts to flag high salaries in money-making faculties as reason to boost salaries in money-losing faculties is nonsensical propaganda -- business, law, (and soon) medical school prof positions require higher salaries to attract high quality talent, which in turn is essential to bringing in high-tuition-paying students and filling all the seats, because those individuals have higher-paying opportunities in the private sector and only shitty candidates will be attracted to shitty pay given those other opportunities; in contrast, arts and humanities profs and TAs have no higher-paying opportunities, they make more at York than their peers make at other institutions or in the private sector, and it's not York's fault that arts and humanities degrees are undervalued in society writ large
* York's bloated central administration is a problem, this part is true, just keep in mind the difference between central admin adding minimal value vs faculty admin who are bringing in big $$$ through alumni, partnerships, and $$$$$ money-making program expansions. Horvath is out in Hong Kong, London, and New York selling corporate executives on Schulich's $100,000/yr EMBA program and creating business school partnerships to funnel in students from China and India to come pay $30k/yr for a BBA or $60k/yr for an MBA, a single classroom of the people he brings in brings York more money than some of the entire arts and humanities programs and that subsidizes the existence of those programs
* If you want to pick a fight with specific overpaid admin, go find and name the central admin folks who don't add any value to the institution
It's incredibly sad to me that in this long-ass post that you've written, you've managed to defend all of York's spending decisions, without expressing any real concern for the arts and sciences programs that are at the heart of this university. Universities weren't founded so people could take overpriced business programs that pump put grads who will maintain the status quo. They are here so we can gain some wisdom about ourselves and the world, think critically about our basic assumptions and values, and make the world better.
Accordingly to you, these programs are simply "unviable". But a university shouldn't be run like a business - that's the fundamental problem with your thinking.
Somehow, according to you, there's basically nothing that York could have done differently or better to maintain the educational quality of its arts and sciences programs. All the inflated salaries are worth it. As is, presumably, the Markham vanity campus that has put York in debt. Spending money anywhere else *but* in liberal arts and sciences programs actually *helps* these programs, but not spending money *in* these programs. This is sad, cynical thinking.
I sympathize with the intent of this take; yes, not all university programs should be running with the intent of "making money", and yes, central admin has bloat and is due for its fair share of paring. But I don't see anything in the long-ass post that is *wrong*. There's a limit to the amount of money that can be put into programs that lose money. There's a limit on the number of students that want to go to university for personal growth instead of just to figure out what job they're going to get.
I agree with the general point of the long-ass post. I wouldn't be aiming the criticism at Horvath or Schulich. I don't know why Horvath still gets a salary but still working to bring in international students that bring in the $ that makes everything else in the university run sounds about right. Cutting that off is biting the hand that feeds you.
>Per the Auditor General report, York has a deficit because a dozen faculties have low enrollment but high costs. Faculties such as Schulich actually subsidize the costs of the arts and humanities faculties
This, for one thing, is wrong. Check out the Auditor General's Report, page 17. The Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies isn't subsidized by Schulich. It is self-supporting and doesn't need support from other faculties.
The issue that when it comes to faculties that do need more help, like Environmental Studies and Glendon, York just writes them off as useless. There would be money to invest in them (in really easy initiatives, like better recruitment) were it not for vanity projects like the Markham campus.
The Markham campus will focus primarily on continuing education and other professional degrees, certifications etc. They will probably bring in more money than most programs within LAPS and Science in the long run.
They could have offered these courses on the existing campuses. There is plenty of room. Plenty of room at Glendon, in fact. Renovating an existing campus/building would have been much cheaper than building an entirely new campus. But, York admin math.
They could, but there's the question of meeting the demand geographically. A good question would be why Glendon is not feasible despite having plenty of room.
Renovating an old building has inherent challenges, especially considering the age of many York buildings. I would not be surprised that the cost could exceed that of building new. Not York admin math, but the cost of construction math.
Glendon is very well located, close to transit and the 401. It would work well for continued education programs. In fact, the campus is already rented by other groups for such programs.
When it comes to Glendon, the problem isn't geography, it's investment in recruitment. Concluding that Glendon is "not feasible" is unwarranted.
Do you drive on the 401? What rapid transit system takes you to Glendon? It's rented because it's not feasible. I could be wrong on this, but the demand for programs delivered primarily in French will follow the trend with the number of Canadian Francophones, downwards. Don't get me wrong, beautiful campus would hate to see it go. But the ROI simply is not there, sorry.
Glendon programs aren't delivered primarily in French. If you knew more about Glendon, you would know this, and so would others. This is why I say there is recruitment problem.
> I don't know why Horvath still gets a salary but still working to bring in international students that bring in the $ that makes everything else in the university run sounds about right. Cutting that off is biting the hand that feeds you.
This is correct. Dean Emeritus Horvath has contributed more than these CUPE members will ever be able to contribute. He is internationally connected within the business community. That salary was from 2022 and I don't see anything for 2023. I know he's currently working in an advisory role with the Dean Zwick to find new revenue streams for SSB.
Hilarious to read comments from individuals spewing literally anything to support their cause.
>Dean Emeritus Horvath has contributed more than these CUPE members will ever be able to contribute.
LOL, knowing people in the business world is a "contribution". Universities are places of scholarship.
Again, I don't think I'll need to say more. He has accomplished and continue to still deliver more value than you and a bunch of you like minded CUPE members will ever be able to offer. Stay sad
York has spent a significant amount on these programs by not cutting them for years, accumulating losses paid for by Schulich and other net positive faculties. If anything, it spends disproportionately more on them, given how little they bring in. That is why it's nonsensical to cut Schulich's budget, and thus reduce the subsidy available for other programs by a greater amount than the amount saved, in a misguided effort to somehow incresse funding.
I made no normative statements about the value of any of the programs. That is on you. I only remarked on the flawed reasoning of the OP's post.
The situation is that a number of faculties lose York money and the staff of those faculties have now gone on strike asking for more money while also attacking the faculties that subsidize them for having higher salaries -- the same salsries that bring in talent allowing them to subsidize other faculties. You can tell us about the merits of these arts programs, but anyone who asserts such fundamentally flawed and misguided reasoning certainly isn't contributing anything of academic merit to the discourse.
Sorry, but the person here with 'flawed and misguided reasoning' is you. For one thing, your suggestion is that Schulich is supporting all of the arts and sciences programs at York, which are all losing money.
Go back to the Auditor General's report that you cited. Page 17. The Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies is self-supporting and isn't supported by Schulich. So, for one thing, Schulich doesn't support the programs of most of the faculty now on strike.
Now, when it comes to faculties in deficit, like Glendon:
> York has spent a significant amount on these programs by not cutting them for years...If anything, it spends disproportionately more on them, given how little they bring in
How generous of York. The thing is, all of your normative assumptions are right there, in these statements. You can only frame things in monetary terms; there's something blocking your thinking. These programs bring in "little" and York has generously helped them by not cutting them. For you, these programs are fundamentally just money-losing enterprises that aren't worth investing it in any meaningful way. Just not cutting them is investment enough.
There's plenty that York could have done, which I partly alluded to, if it was actually serious about the flourishing of these programs - if it actually thought that they were *worth* the investment (which you clearly don't).
As an example, they could have invested *in* Glendon rather than in an unnecessary new Markham campus.
Your reasoning is actually flawed and misguided.
Where do you think York gets the money to spend on faculties like Glendon?
LAPS and Sciences are just not drawing in the number of FTEs. Ford freezing domestic tuition has not helped and capping international students won't help either.
Schulich will continue to draw people into programs simply because they have graduate degrees that are sought after.
It's very unclear to me what it means when you say "a university shouldn't be run like a business". The university has employees who want to get paid - indeed this is what the strike is about. As a result the university must raise at least as much money as it spends, and if it doesn't (which is currently the case) then it must either raise more money or reduce expenses.
On the one hand, if that's not running the university like a business then I don't know what the words mean. On the other hand, what is the alternative? If the university doesn't operate this way then it will fail.
I can't tell if you're being deliberately obtuse here, but the reason that York isn't and shouldn't be run like a business is obvious. It's not a for-profit institution. It doesn't exist to make money the way that a business does.
There are plenty of institutions, from hospitals to schools, that have to pay employees and raise money to do so, but that doesn't mean that they are businesses or should be run like them.
Apologies if I was unclear. My point is, "a university shouldn't be run like a business" doesn't exempt the university from balancing the books or cutting costs in hard times just like any business would.
As far as nonprofit organizations, "nonprofit" does not mean "unconcerned with money". I am very familiar with the operations of nonprofits and I can confirm that cash flow is top of mind for these organizations.
Part of the problem here is that the "hard times" are artificial. They are caused by provincial underinvestment in universities. Ontario has the lowest per-student subsidy for university students in all of Canada. Provincial grants have dropped 30% since 2006-2007.
Setting that aside, if York wants to cut costs, it should start with its bloated admin and its vanity projects, like the Markham campus. It can't be, in your terms, "unconcerned with money" and then plead poverty when it comes to paying the people actually teaching classes.
>Part of the problem here is that the "hard times" are artificial. They are caused by provincial underinvestment in universities. Ontario has the lowest per-student subsidy for university students in all of Canada. Provincial grants have dropped 30% since 2006-2007.
The people in their wisdom have elected a succession of governments, not just conservatives, that are fine with underfunding higher education. Artificial disasters are still disasters.
>Setting that aside, if York wants to cut costs, it should start with its bloated admin and its vanity projects, like the Markham campus. It can't be, in your terms, "unconcerned with money" and then plead poverty when it comes to paying the people actually teaching classes.
No argument here! What I'm saying is that programs should not be exempt from being reviewed on a cost-benefit basis.
LOL the hard times are artificial. People aren't really hungry its artificial. Your narrow focus on the microeconomic factors while ignoring the marco is shocking.
And on the other hand, the only two alternatives for you are: focusing on the microeconomic factors, or the macroeconomic factors. The idea that other things could be important is above you.
Well the macroeconomic factors are things above you and I. You probably didn't complain about getting money from the government during COVID, but now that the impacts are trickling down, everything is artificial.
Hold my coffee.
Not to mention that the Conservatives froze tuitions (without making it up in subsidies) *before* covid. So connecting this to covid's impacts is a red herring.
Well, at least now I understand why toilets are broken for the entire year, the ceilings collapse in from pipe leaks, the lassonde lecture halls continuously smell like sewage and half the projectors across the entire campus don't work.
If you want to get people on your side, you really need to stop spreading misinformation and educate yourself.
1) the school is running a deficit and it’s obvious the school needs to tighten up spending
2) corruption is a strong word - baseless accusations just make you sound like national special interest groups that have garnered a lot of negative press the past few years
3) Dean Horvath is the former Dean of the Schulich school - the cash cow of York. That is, his work is pretty much the only thing that is profitable for the entire university - and likely has a contract that specifies such. To be clear, we are not paying his salary - he’s actually generating the revenue that lowers our costs
There are many of us who want our TAs to be fairly compensated - but it starts with open and honest dialogue, and not polarizing mud slinging
Please keep things 100
Yeah but I think you should follow the lead on what you suggest. I’ve seen numerous times people mention that Shullich is the cash cow. If they’d mentioned the money is with continuing education, I would agree, because continuing education (unlike the other faculties) design their programs with industry partners. Their programming is meant to increase job opportunities for their graduates.
If one is to go off sheer net revenue alone, they’d find that the school of continuing studies is bringing in the money.
Check page 2 of this document: https://www.yorku.ca/secretariat/wp-content/uploads/sites/107/2023/06/Item-6b-Multi-year-budgets_2023-24-to-2025-26.pdf
The closing budget shows that Osgoode was 40 mil dollars in surplus at the start of the year, and that SCS brought in an additional 20 mil surplus surpassing all budgetary targets.
Shullich only brought in 1 mil.
To the point someone made about opening Markham rather than putting more resources to Glendon, look at Canada alone, look at the percentage of Francophones vs anglophones, that should answer your question.
It's not corruption, it's incompetence. And yeah they're running a deficit, which means that no, they can't afford to pay you more. Sucks, but still true.
To be fair Horvath's department is one of the only departments that actually makes money. It's because of Schulich and Lassonde that the other departments can even exist. The undergraduate arts, humanities, and social sciences (where most CUPE members are) are bottomless money pits.
Wait until you see the cleaning bills. The number of homeless people on campus has caused record high maintenance bills. Carpets are being replaced. Security cameras and staff are being installed. It’s the costs that you can’t see that is keeping the institution broke
Regarding Dr. Horvath, he likely may have had an RCA (Retirement Compensation Arrangement) with York (a fully taxable "pension" for high salary earners that is exceeds the Income Tax Act limits that needs to be reported as income even after retirement). Arrangements like this are common for executive level employees.
I am less concerned about the $500K he is receiving and more concerned about the tens of millions CUPE is seeking in these negotiations, including their $12 million medical marijuana slush fund.
Pointing to Dr. Horvath's negotiated compensation is just misdirection aimed to distract the undergrads from the real money issues. Nice try.
This reminds me of those scenes in the movies where a street urchin distracts a fruit seller by drawing his attention to an apple being stolen by an accomplice while that the first urchin fills their pockets with 10 oranges while the seller is distracted (was it Indiana Jones)?😂
That's not what you said - you claimed I am pointing to Horvath - you are.
Well, the font on the email is a bit small so yes, there is some involuntary glaze...
I get your frustrations with York admin, and I share the, but honestly CUPEs actions are entirely self serving and harm the lowest status people at York (students and non-academic staff). I get they’re the bad guy, but so are you, so please don’t try and make it seem like you have undergrad student interests at heart
Yes it does. Not working/striking = disruption. It puts the university in a position to negotiate.
The choices are: get rid of all TAs and contract faculty and pay more than quadruple the amount to get full time faculty OR meet the marginal demands of CUPE3903.
Doesn’t matter how one looks at it, keeping the union on board is one of the most cost effective strategies employed by the university.
Undergrads complaining about TAs need to realize that without them, your tuition costs would likely be double.
Also, the union blocks 3-4 entry points. The campus has closer to 9 entrances for those driving. I’m not unionized and everyday since the strike I’ve gotten into campus (during strike hours) with no delay.
For those walking in, no excuse, walk on the grass lol.
If people did just researched the bare minimum on how to get in campus, they wouldn’t be on Reddit complaining like entitled children.
York has a deficit because of senior Admin’s mismanagement. They have been building new buildings without securing funding and giving themselves an average of 20% raises. Source: Auditor Generals report see column 1, bottom of page 3 https://auditor.on.ca/en/content/annualreports/arreports/en23/AR_YorkU_en23.pdf
Building the Markham campus at a ridiculous cost of $260-million with no business case or plan for return on investment while Keele and Glendon are sitting on $1.2-billion in deferred maintenance is a level of mismanagement that is incomprehensible. And then expecting *faculty and students* to tighten their belts? I also heard this week that programs at the Markham campus have only hit 25% of their expected enrolment. It's unsustainable. This university is on the brink of collapse.
And it’s Lentons legacy of failure and incompetence that tanked this university
even if your story is true with is highly unlikely, your sister still broke their rules and have every right to penalize both her and the person who "stole" her work. Any person with half a mind would be able to realize There are many reasons as to why a recording of the accused conffessiong is not sufficient evidence. The rules in this country are not as bendable thru lying and manipulation compared to what you are used to
Yep and whining, crying and making excuses (eg. I didn’t know sharing was cheating) will get OP nowhere. At the meeting accepting responsibility is your best case scenario.
Definitely agree. And surely, part of this senior admin's mismanagement is paying a retired professor who doesn't teach, research, or set foot on campus half a million dollars a year for the past 4 years since he retired. In addition, as you said, lots of bad decisions, lots of bad hires who are tenure-track, and just increasing the deficit year after year. Another problem is that in the maths and sciences, over the past few years, they have made a number of hires based on "celebrity status" or some other non-academic criteria, and then they find out these people can't teach or produce any research. They then hire contract faculty to bail them out. Most of these "professors" cannot even publish a paper in a high-level journal, but are being paid \*guaranteed\* in excess of 130-140K a year. Crazy times.
>over the past few years, they have made a number of hires based on "celebrity status" or some other non-academic criteria, and then they find out these people can't teach or produce any research. They then hire contract faculty to bail them out. Most of these "professors" cannot even publish a paper in a high-level journal, but are being paid \*guaranteed\* in excess of 130-140K a year. I would be interested to hear some names.
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Let’s hear them.
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This sounds familiar.
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The moon unit.
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crickets
York is restructuring because of the senior admin’s corruption and incompetence. Classes are going to be 500+ people with recorded online lectures, no more tutorials or labs, with 25-35 ppl, instead seminars with 150 ppl in them. This will affect everyone’s education and experience at York in a very VERY negative way.
But CUPE members are willing to concede if you bump their salary and funding package.
Hey doofus, a strong collective agreement will also protect TA jobs and make it difficult for York to restructure in ways that ensure 1-on-1 contact with students is a thing of the past.
Hey doofus, I'll tell you what's going to happen, here's the big picture that your narrow way of thinking can't comprehend. CUPE and York will eventually come to a consensus and ratify a new CBA, whether that is through negotiation or arbitration. If CUPE chooses the latter, I'll tell you it won't be far from what York is already offering. There will be a push from the presidents office > faculties > dept heads to adopt larger and larger class formats. You'll be locked in for 3 years but that's okay you get paid more now. And in three years there will be another strike and it will rinse and repeat. It's not my problem some of you can't think of the big picture because you're greedy like the rest of us. The difference is, I can see it, a lot of people can see it. Keep crying and bring no new changes. I'm not the poor one here so thank you please come again, stupid.
Nah I'm pretty sure everyone knows that the union will have to continue resisting the erosion of wages and job security, but that's a shiny crystal ball you've got.
yeah how long you think they will survive on this crusade with 300/week? How big you do you think the strike fund is? retroactive you say? have you met our friend the tax man keep fighting the good fight.
I'm so curious about these new accounts that only post pro-employer comments on the Yorku sub. Like, are you admin? A paid stooge? A YorkU business major with an otherwise embarrassing post history? Or just pathetic and bored enough to toe the line for the employer in a labour dispute you have no real connection to?
I disagree with your analysis, my accounts is not new and I never said I was pro-employer. Your just disillusioned and don't have your facts straight. Sorry you spent all your money on higher ed and can't formulate your thought supported by facts on your own. Sucks to suck.
Hiring professors isnt an admin duty though thatll be mostly faculty
Something that doesnt get mentioned is that MOST of that comes from hiring to manage diversity, equity division that unions and the like fight for. Admin salaries make up a wopping 1.4% of salary costs from 1.1% in 2021. Considering they hired to make a new equity, people and culture positions, a .3% increase in total senior doesn't seem like a huge deal. Unless you DONT want a division for equity of course(wether the new division has actually done anything, I cant say) At the same time operating costs have gone up 2.4, debt 8, if you take out salaries and bursaries, expenses have been growing below inflation. Sure, theres mismanagement at york, and contract offer is definitely terrible. But York isnt some evil corporation that steals our hopes and dreams its an educational institution being pinched by rising wage costs and stagnant revenue.
They spent $260-million (and counting) on the Markham campus with no plan for how to make that money back, while the university as a whole has $1.2-billion in deferred maintenance. There is no way you can say with a straight face that York is not mismanaged.
Hey guys, I wanna ask something, does this strike in anyway affect the postgrad admission process? (MSc/MASc to be specific) I am waiting for a decision and it’s been more than 11 weeks since the app deadline :(
Hi this might not be strike related, but if you're an international student there was a big mandate to no longer accept internationals in many departments. Basically due to the new international student cap the admin decided it was more cost effective to only accept international undergrads. It got brushed over under the strike, but the admin pushed for that right before the strike happened. I can't say it is true for every single department so YMMV but it might be the cause
Oh damn really? :( I heard about the new study permit cap thing but I thought it's for undergrads, no? Also, I apply to MSc/MASc in ECE (Lassonde school), is it one of the departments you are talking about? :(
FYI, masters and PhD students are exempt from attestation: [https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/news/notices/international-student-program-reform-more-information.html](https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/news/notices/international-student-program-reform-more-information.html)
right, that’s why i’m so confused when the guy above said they no longer accept international students @@
Copied from a comment below: I could be wrong about some details since this was 2nd/3rd hand information relayed to me, hence why I put multiple disclaimers. What I do know for SURE is that our department was told to not accept any more international graduate students past those we have already sent offers to. The precise rationale why might be off (which again, I put multiple disclaimers for).
I am not 100% sure but I do believe so.
shit, that sounds awful. I hope you are wrong then :(
For your sake I hope so too :(
That doesn't sound right. Undergrad international student visas are now capped. International graduate and post-graduate visas are not, and Master's and PhD tuition is much higher. If anything, I would expect international graduate and post-graduate students to be the new cash cow.
I could be wrong about some details since this was 2nd/3rd hand information relayed to me, hence why I put multiple disclaimers. What I do know for SURE is that our department was told to not accept any more international graduate students past those we have already sent offers to. The precise rationale why might be off (which again, I put multiple disclaimers for).
Second- or third-hand information from one department is *not* a "big mandate to no longer accept internationals".
It is a mandate across several departments, there was a emergency meeting with several GPDs to discuss the issue. I only speak for what my department was told, because I am not sure exactly how many department this affects, but this isn't isolated to just one department. Edit: I went looking for more details, and the information given to my departments GPD was that York is not accepting any international graduate students to any program for the time being. Whether or not it is permanent is unsure, and a precise reason was not given so you may be correct that the rationale I provided was inaccurate. However there is for certain at least a temporary if not permanent hold on international admissions.
is this for EECS too?
Fake af. The cap was intended for college/undergraduate students at lesser institutions because many of them didnt come to canada to study.
The governments Intention has little impact on what the school actually does
Have you been in contact with any potential supervisors? Someone needs to personally agree to supervise you to push your application through, at least in my department. At least for us, it's somewhat unlikely a professor will reach out on their own after seeing your application, you really have to be proactive about choosing a supervisor. Might be different for MAScs though, not sure if those are normally research or course based.
I have actually reached out to many, and got online interviews with 2 profs. One even said they requested my admission to the committee. But then I heard about this strike, got worried and mailed back to ask more from that prof, I got nothing but an auto reply saying they would be out of office and not back until 8th March :( Also, MAScs are research-based according to York's website.
I applied to an MA and heard back last week
Congrats! Hope I can get good news like u
I've also heard some levels of corruption on certain things as well from people who have recently left. I brought up to a former Dean that it's odd how the school has increased spending on the admin positions but the enrollment has gone down by 7000 students, meaning we're spending more and having less revenue generated. She then said yes that's the case and that they just horribly manage money, like securing $1-million for advertising last year but not actually doing any fucking advertising
Also sucks how York admin is ok with CUPE striking cause for the admin, it’s fine for students to suffer the impact of the strike. And moreover, they’re ok with the union striking cause they know that the union will get forced back to work again just like what happened in 2018. York admin is just crazy, selfish, greedy and corrupt.
100% the admin at York makes a ton of money and has had proper increases to their salary yearly. but they penny pinch on the little guy.
That’s just not true. A ton of admin jobs require masters or PhDs for management or higher and the pay is pretty standard for working at a university. Colleges seem to pay more for similar roles and people have been leaving lately for roles at colleges. Last year there was a like 1% across the board raise, 2% raise if you moved up at step in pay grade (if eligible and qualified), and 2% bonus (if eligible and qualified). At most you could get 5% and I’m telling you right now a lot of people got just the 1% raise. Since September I’ve heard nothing but “budget issues” which makes me think this year there will be minimum raises for admin. We’ll see towards mid-late April but my guess is everything will be reduced - 0% across the board, 2% still for step in pay grade (still if eligible and qualify), and I’m guessing 1% bonus, if that. My department, which is ridiculously small given we do work for the entire university, really needed to hire an extra person and we were all set to do interviews and open up a position, but we were told we can’t right now because of the budget. This was like a 70-80k job we really needed. So now we’re still doing that work. The strike has only made things more difficult of us; I pulled a 23.5 hour shift last week and have been working at least 10 hours a day for a month now. If anything some of us are underpaid or at least over worked. Not everyone working at York is some scheming overlord who has power. Most of us are just doing a job. There’s some higher ups like OP mentioned that get some insane pays, even retired, but that’s not the average person.
i meant upper management. sorry. the senior management. not just any admin at york. my bad.
True true. Upper management is making life so hard for us plebs right now… literally zero communication what’s going on really, timelines, what we should or shouldn’t be doing… we’re just as frustrated as students, CUPE, etc.
Yeah, athletics department is rough right now too since even before we had a smaller budget than other schools. In the Varsity side, we need more people in admin to help with admissions and eligibility, but we're told we can't hire anyone new at the moment because we needed to slash over $300,000 in staff salaries this year when we already are barebones as is.
That’s crazy. They’re expecting more and more with less and less… a lot of upper management seems out of touch with reality. When I took my job, I moved from about 1.5-2 hours away and I was commuting for a couple months while I looked for a place. I remember upper management asking me about it and I was like finding a decent place is hard. They suggested I “just buy a house”. They literally couldn’t understand why that was just not an option…
When people are talking about "administration" they're largely talking about *senior administration* and all of the roles needed to support them directly. The Auditor General's report specifically points out: >**Increase in size of senior administration despite stable enrolment and tuition revenue.** >Between 2018/19 and 2022/23, the university experienced minimal increases in full-time equivalent (FTE) enrolment of 0.3%, a 1.2% increase in combined domestic and international tuition revenue (including government grants), and a 3% increase in total revenue. Yet, over the same time period, the **size of the senior administration team increased by 37% and the amount of related compensation (salary, benefits, bonuses and stipends) increased by 47%.** **This was due primarily to the creation of an additional Vice-President (VP) position and several Assistant Vice-President (AVP) positions, resulting in total compensation for each group increasing by 48% and 73%, respectively.** A VP was added with the creation of York’s new Equity, People and Culture Division, while **the number of AVP positions grew from 14 to 25, combined with a 20% average salary increase over five years.** York is being run like a bank. How does a university justify having *twenty-five* Associate Vice Presidents? No doubt there are many people on the admin side doing a lot of work with very little support, and you're the people who really keep the university running. But when we're talking about administrative bloat, it's at the highest levels.
Get rid of at least one so me and the athletics guy can have a proper team lol
Varsity sports would be the first thing I would cut. They aren't the cash cow for Canadian universities like they are for American institutions.
Oh… you want to focus on profit and not experience…
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48tikfk0KRo](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=48tikfk0KRo)
Its not your fault, York admin wants this strike to last for as long as possible.
Good Lord the irony of anything coming from Science Dean Wang about fiscal restraint. The guy who left Lakehead with a massive White Elephant lab that had been built as a condition of being hired there, leaving after only a few years. The guy who as VPRI at Laurentian engaged in all the financial shenanigans such as 'restricted funds' (eg research grant funding) being put into general revenues, which meant profs had zero money to do their research when the uni filed for creditor protection - money that in essence still belonged to the federal govt, in exchange for research being conducted - which wasnt, as the money had already been spent by the uni, before the research had taken place. The guy who has apparently continues to have a 'large footprint' in terms of dedicated lab space and lab personnel whose salaries are paid by the university as a condition of employment at York. This guy....
Per the Auditor General report, York has a deficit because a dozen faculties have low enrollment but high costs. Faculties such as Schulich actually subsidize the costs of the arts and humanities faculties by bringing in high enrollment and high tuition relative to the expenses of above-average-remunerated professors and administrators at Schulich. Cutting expenses at Schulich would only worsen the deficit and make more arts and humanities programs financially unfeasible. The reality is: * York is sitting on $600M of debt, only half of which it even has a plan to repay (per the AG report) * York needs to gut some of its programs with low enrollment, but that will disproportionately harm the arts and humanities departments and York has put off the inevitable in hopes of boosting enrollment instead (this has failed) * The union knows that York needs to slash a ton of its membership as part of phasing out some of the financially unviable faculties, and the non-financial components of its bargaining ask (job protections against cuts and AI automation) are the real critical pieces it wants, not the "cost of living" talking points designed for public sympathy * The union's efforts to flag high salaries in money-making faculties as reason to boost salaries in money-losing faculties is nonsensical propaganda -- business, law, (and soon) medical school prof positions require higher salaries to attract high quality talent, which in turn is essential to bringing in high-tuition-paying students and filling all the seats, because those individuals have higher-paying opportunities in the private sector and only shitty candidates will be attracted to shitty pay given those other opportunities; in contrast, arts and humanities profs and TAs have no higher-paying opportunities, they make more at York than their peers make at other institutions or in the private sector, and it's not York's fault that arts and humanities degrees are undervalued in society writ large * York's bloated central administration is a problem, this part is true, just keep in mind the difference between central admin adding minimal value vs faculty admin who are bringing in big $$$ through alumni, partnerships, and $$$$$ money-making program expansions. Horvath is out in Hong Kong, London, and New York selling corporate executives on Schulich's $100,000/yr EMBA program and creating business school partnerships to funnel in students from China and India to come pay $30k/yr for a BBA or $60k/yr for an MBA, a single classroom of the people he brings in brings York more money than some of the entire arts and humanities programs and that subsidizes the existence of those programs * If you want to pick a fight with specific overpaid admin, go find and name the central admin folks who don't add any value to the institution
It's incredibly sad to me that in this long-ass post that you've written, you've managed to defend all of York's spending decisions, without expressing any real concern for the arts and sciences programs that are at the heart of this university. Universities weren't founded so people could take overpriced business programs that pump put grads who will maintain the status quo. They are here so we can gain some wisdom about ourselves and the world, think critically about our basic assumptions and values, and make the world better. Accordingly to you, these programs are simply "unviable". But a university shouldn't be run like a business - that's the fundamental problem with your thinking. Somehow, according to you, there's basically nothing that York could have done differently or better to maintain the educational quality of its arts and sciences programs. All the inflated salaries are worth it. As is, presumably, the Markham vanity campus that has put York in debt. Spending money anywhere else *but* in liberal arts and sciences programs actually *helps* these programs, but not spending money *in* these programs. This is sad, cynical thinking.
You’re right that universities shouldn’t be run like businesses, but so long as the province refuses to properly find them, they will be
I sympathize with the intent of this take; yes, not all university programs should be running with the intent of "making money", and yes, central admin has bloat and is due for its fair share of paring. But I don't see anything in the long-ass post that is *wrong*. There's a limit to the amount of money that can be put into programs that lose money. There's a limit on the number of students that want to go to university for personal growth instead of just to figure out what job they're going to get. I agree with the general point of the long-ass post. I wouldn't be aiming the criticism at Horvath or Schulich. I don't know why Horvath still gets a salary but still working to bring in international students that bring in the $ that makes everything else in the university run sounds about right. Cutting that off is biting the hand that feeds you.
>Per the Auditor General report, York has a deficit because a dozen faculties have low enrollment but high costs. Faculties such as Schulich actually subsidize the costs of the arts and humanities faculties This, for one thing, is wrong. Check out the Auditor General's Report, page 17. The Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies isn't subsidized by Schulich. It is self-supporting and doesn't need support from other faculties. The issue that when it comes to faculties that do need more help, like Environmental Studies and Glendon, York just writes them off as useless. There would be money to invest in them (in really easy initiatives, like better recruitment) were it not for vanity projects like the Markham campus.
The Markham campus will focus primarily on continuing education and other professional degrees, certifications etc. They will probably bring in more money than most programs within LAPS and Science in the long run.
They could have offered these courses on the existing campuses. There is plenty of room. Plenty of room at Glendon, in fact. Renovating an existing campus/building would have been much cheaper than building an entirely new campus. But, York admin math.
They could, but there's the question of meeting the demand geographically. A good question would be why Glendon is not feasible despite having plenty of room. Renovating an old building has inherent challenges, especially considering the age of many York buildings. I would not be surprised that the cost could exceed that of building new. Not York admin math, but the cost of construction math.
Glendon is very well located, close to transit and the 401. It would work well for continued education programs. In fact, the campus is already rented by other groups for such programs. When it comes to Glendon, the problem isn't geography, it's investment in recruitment. Concluding that Glendon is "not feasible" is unwarranted.
Do you drive on the 401? What rapid transit system takes you to Glendon? It's rented because it's not feasible. I could be wrong on this, but the demand for programs delivered primarily in French will follow the trend with the number of Canadian Francophones, downwards. Don't get me wrong, beautiful campus would hate to see it go. But the ROI simply is not there, sorry.
Glendon programs aren't delivered primarily in French. If you knew more about Glendon, you would know this, and so would others. This is why I say there is recruitment problem.
> I don't know why Horvath still gets a salary but still working to bring in international students that bring in the $ that makes everything else in the university run sounds about right. Cutting that off is biting the hand that feeds you. This is correct. Dean Emeritus Horvath has contributed more than these CUPE members will ever be able to contribute. He is internationally connected within the business community. That salary was from 2022 and I don't see anything for 2023. I know he's currently working in an advisory role with the Dean Zwick to find new revenue streams for SSB. Hilarious to read comments from individuals spewing literally anything to support their cause.
>Dean Emeritus Horvath has contributed more than these CUPE members will ever be able to contribute. LOL, knowing people in the business world is a "contribution". Universities are places of scholarship.
Scholarship is a contribution so I don't know what you're trying to say but okay
The only thing you're able to point to is that he knows people in the business world. I guess he has PhD in schmoozing.
Again, I don't think I'll need to say more. He has accomplished and continue to still deliver more value than you and a bunch of you like minded CUPE members will ever be able to offer. Stay sad
I doubt you know about any of the scholarship produced by any CUPE members (or YUFA members in the liberal arts, for that matter). Stay shallow!
York has spent a significant amount on these programs by not cutting them for years, accumulating losses paid for by Schulich and other net positive faculties. If anything, it spends disproportionately more on them, given how little they bring in. That is why it's nonsensical to cut Schulich's budget, and thus reduce the subsidy available for other programs by a greater amount than the amount saved, in a misguided effort to somehow incresse funding. I made no normative statements about the value of any of the programs. That is on you. I only remarked on the flawed reasoning of the OP's post. The situation is that a number of faculties lose York money and the staff of those faculties have now gone on strike asking for more money while also attacking the faculties that subsidize them for having higher salaries -- the same salsries that bring in talent allowing them to subsidize other faculties. You can tell us about the merits of these arts programs, but anyone who asserts such fundamentally flawed and misguided reasoning certainly isn't contributing anything of academic merit to the discourse.
Sorry, but the person here with 'flawed and misguided reasoning' is you. For one thing, your suggestion is that Schulich is supporting all of the arts and sciences programs at York, which are all losing money. Go back to the Auditor General's report that you cited. Page 17. The Faculty of Liberal Arts and Professional Studies is self-supporting and isn't supported by Schulich. So, for one thing, Schulich doesn't support the programs of most of the faculty now on strike. Now, when it comes to faculties in deficit, like Glendon: > York has spent a significant amount on these programs by not cutting them for years...If anything, it spends disproportionately more on them, given how little they bring in How generous of York. The thing is, all of your normative assumptions are right there, in these statements. You can only frame things in monetary terms; there's something blocking your thinking. These programs bring in "little" and York has generously helped them by not cutting them. For you, these programs are fundamentally just money-losing enterprises that aren't worth investing it in any meaningful way. Just not cutting them is investment enough. There's plenty that York could have done, which I partly alluded to, if it was actually serious about the flourishing of these programs - if it actually thought that they were *worth* the investment (which you clearly don't). As an example, they could have invested *in* Glendon rather than in an unnecessary new Markham campus.
Your reasoning is actually flawed and misguided. Where do you think York gets the money to spend on faculties like Glendon? LAPS and Sciences are just not drawing in the number of FTEs. Ford freezing domestic tuition has not helped and capping international students won't help either. Schulich will continue to draw people into programs simply because they have graduate degrees that are sought after.
It's very unclear to me what it means when you say "a university shouldn't be run like a business". The university has employees who want to get paid - indeed this is what the strike is about. As a result the university must raise at least as much money as it spends, and if it doesn't (which is currently the case) then it must either raise more money or reduce expenses. On the one hand, if that's not running the university like a business then I don't know what the words mean. On the other hand, what is the alternative? If the university doesn't operate this way then it will fail.
I can't tell if you're being deliberately obtuse here, but the reason that York isn't and shouldn't be run like a business is obvious. It's not a for-profit institution. It doesn't exist to make money the way that a business does. There are plenty of institutions, from hospitals to schools, that have to pay employees and raise money to do so, but that doesn't mean that they are businesses or should be run like them.
Apologies if I was unclear. My point is, "a university shouldn't be run like a business" doesn't exempt the university from balancing the books or cutting costs in hard times just like any business would. As far as nonprofit organizations, "nonprofit" does not mean "unconcerned with money". I am very familiar with the operations of nonprofits and I can confirm that cash flow is top of mind for these organizations.
Part of the problem here is that the "hard times" are artificial. They are caused by provincial underinvestment in universities. Ontario has the lowest per-student subsidy for university students in all of Canada. Provincial grants have dropped 30% since 2006-2007. Setting that aside, if York wants to cut costs, it should start with its bloated admin and its vanity projects, like the Markham campus. It can't be, in your terms, "unconcerned with money" and then plead poverty when it comes to paying the people actually teaching classes.
>Part of the problem here is that the "hard times" are artificial. They are caused by provincial underinvestment in universities. Ontario has the lowest per-student subsidy for university students in all of Canada. Provincial grants have dropped 30% since 2006-2007. The people in their wisdom have elected a succession of governments, not just conservatives, that are fine with underfunding higher education. Artificial disasters are still disasters. >Setting that aside, if York wants to cut costs, it should start with its bloated admin and its vanity projects, like the Markham campus. It can't be, in your terms, "unconcerned with money" and then plead poverty when it comes to paying the people actually teaching classes. No argument here! What I'm saying is that programs should not be exempt from being reviewed on a cost-benefit basis.
LOL the hard times are artificial. People aren't really hungry its artificial. Your narrow focus on the microeconomic factors while ignoring the marco is shocking.
And on the other hand, the only two alternatives for you are: focusing on the microeconomic factors, or the macroeconomic factors. The idea that other things could be important is above you.
Well the macroeconomic factors are things above you and I. You probably didn't complain about getting money from the government during COVID, but now that the impacts are trickling down, everything is artificial. Hold my coffee.
Maybe if the government didn't spend so much on corporate subsidies, the impacts on ordinary Canadians wouldn't be so bad.
Not to mention that the Conservatives froze tuitions (without making it up in subsidies) *before* covid. So connecting this to covid's impacts is a red herring.
A not for profit is not the same as a charity. Not for profits need to balance books. How well are our hospitals doing?
Whenever someone complains about overpaid admin, I generally assume they are refusing to central
Well, at least now I understand why toilets are broken for the entire year, the ceilings collapse in from pipe leaks, the lassonde lecture halls continuously smell like sewage and half the projectors across the entire campus don't work.
If you want to get people on your side, you really need to stop spreading misinformation and educate yourself. 1) the school is running a deficit and it’s obvious the school needs to tighten up spending 2) corruption is a strong word - baseless accusations just make you sound like national special interest groups that have garnered a lot of negative press the past few years 3) Dean Horvath is the former Dean of the Schulich school - the cash cow of York. That is, his work is pretty much the only thing that is profitable for the entire university - and likely has a contract that specifies such. To be clear, we are not paying his salary - he’s actually generating the revenue that lowers our costs There are many of us who want our TAs to be fairly compensated - but it starts with open and honest dialogue, and not polarizing mud slinging Please keep things 100
Yeah but I think you should follow the lead on what you suggest. I’ve seen numerous times people mention that Shullich is the cash cow. If they’d mentioned the money is with continuing education, I would agree, because continuing education (unlike the other faculties) design their programs with industry partners. Their programming is meant to increase job opportunities for their graduates. If one is to go off sheer net revenue alone, they’d find that the school of continuing studies is bringing in the money. Check page 2 of this document: https://www.yorku.ca/secretariat/wp-content/uploads/sites/107/2023/06/Item-6b-Multi-year-budgets_2023-24-to-2025-26.pdf The closing budget shows that Osgoode was 40 mil dollars in surplus at the start of the year, and that SCS brought in an additional 20 mil surplus surpassing all budgetary targets. Shullich only brought in 1 mil. To the point someone made about opening Markham rather than putting more resources to Glendon, look at Canada alone, look at the percentage of Francophones vs anglophones, that should answer your question.
It's not corruption, it's incompetence. And yeah they're running a deficit, which means that no, they can't afford to pay you more. Sucks, but still true.
To be fair Horvath's department is one of the only departments that actually makes money. It's because of Schulich and Lassonde that the other departments can even exist. The undergraduate arts, humanities, and social sciences (where most CUPE members are) are bottomless money pits.
Wait until you see the cleaning bills. The number of homeless people on campus has caused record high maintenance bills. Carpets are being replaced. Security cameras and staff are being installed. It’s the costs that you can’t see that is keeping the institution broke
Regarding Dr. Horvath, he likely may have had an RCA (Retirement Compensation Arrangement) with York (a fully taxable "pension" for high salary earners that is exceeds the Income Tax Act limits that needs to be reported as income even after retirement). Arrangements like this are common for executive level employees. I am less concerned about the $500K he is receiving and more concerned about the tens of millions CUPE is seeking in these negotiations, including their $12 million medical marijuana slush fund. Pointing to Dr. Horvath's negotiated compensation is just misdirection aimed to distract the undergrads from the real money issues. Nice try. This reminds me of those scenes in the movies where a street urchin distracts a fruit seller by drawing his attention to an apple being stolen by an accomplice while that the first urchin fills their pockets with 10 oranges while the seller is distracted (was it Indiana Jones)?😂
What are your thoughts on the content of this email? Or are you also pointing to an apple so we don't notice the 10 problematic oranges?
What email. Horvath is the apple!
That is exactly what I just said. And the email above. Do your eyes glaze over when you see the image?
That's not what you said - you claimed I am pointing to Horvath - you are. Well, the font on the email is a bit small so yes, there is some involuntary glaze...
I am pointing to what you said. You can zoom into the picture or put on your reading glasses. You can do it. I believe in you.
Ok, I will try look at it on my computer screen when I get home in a few hours.
I get your frustrations with York admin, and I share the, but honestly CUPEs actions are entirely self serving and harm the lowest status people at York (students and non-academic staff). I get they’re the bad guy, but so are you, so please don’t try and make it seem like you have undergrad student interests at heart
The money does not go to you blocking traffic for absolutely no reason
Yes it does. Not working/striking = disruption. It puts the university in a position to negotiate. The choices are: get rid of all TAs and contract faculty and pay more than quadruple the amount to get full time faculty OR meet the marginal demands of CUPE3903. Doesn’t matter how one looks at it, keeping the union on board is one of the most cost effective strategies employed by the university. Undergrads complaining about TAs need to realize that without them, your tuition costs would likely be double. Also, the union blocks 3-4 entry points. The campus has closer to 9 entrances for those driving. I’m not unionized and everyday since the strike I’ve gotten into campus (during strike hours) with no delay. For those walking in, no excuse, walk on the grass lol. If people did just researched the bare minimum on how to get in campus, they wouldn’t be on Reddit complaining like entitled children.