31 juillet 2019 – Telegraph Journal

Two former N.B. university presidents still paid full salary

The former presidents of two universities are still collecting a full salary, even after they've left their jobs and have no obligations to their university.

Both Eddy Campbell and Robert Campbell, former presidents of the University of New Brunswick and respectively, are receiving paycheques from their former employer thanks to a contractual provision known as administrative leave.

Eddy Campbell left his post in June after a decade at the helm of the University of New Brunswick, but the salary he earned in his final year as president (between $425,000 and $449,999) will continue to be paid for two years – one for each term he served, according to his contract.

It's a similar situation in Sackville, where Robert Campbell completed his two-term, 12-year tenure at the helm of Mount Allison in June 2018. He'll stay on the payroll until June 30, 2020. His salary was disclosed on the university's website as between $305,000 and $329,999 in his final year.

Both universities are raising tuition rates and planning operating deficits this year.

Robert Hiscock, a spokesman for Mount Allison, said there's "historical precedent for the notion of leave on the academic side of things" and administrative leave is "a very common practice" among universities.

University professors are entitled to sabbatical leave – a period when they are relieved from teaching duties but are compensated to do research or other activities to benefit their expertise.

But presidents, who are often academics who've gradually assumed more administrative duties, must remain engaged in duties as president for the duration of their term, so they are provided leave that is collected once they finish their term, Hiscock explained.

"Every university competes for leadership and talent at all levels," he said. "It's a competitive business in that sense, and universities are a unique breed. [The president is] a demanding role, with complex organizations and balancing the needs of different stakeholders."

Robert Campbell, an appointee to the Order of Canada, is "under no restriction" to provide research or other work to the university during the administrative leave period. He was named to the Bank of Canada's board of directors just as his tenure in Sackville concluded.

Both schools are dealing with a financial crunch leading to tuition increases ranging from five per cent to 25 per cent for incoming students at UNB and 5.7 per cent for Canadian students at Mount Allison. UNB is projecting a $5-million operating deficit, while Mount Allison plans an operating deficit of $809,000. 31 juillet 2019 – Telegraph Journal

"We are projecting a deficit, and I know our finance people are working diligently to remediate that through the course of the year," Hiscock said.

He said provisions were made to account for Campbell's administrative leave during budgets passed during his term, so "there’s no impact to this year's or last year's budget. There's no impact to the operating expenses of the budget.”

He also noted that Mount Allison's endowment fund nearly doubled in size over Campbell's tenure, a period which saw the construction of a new student centre, sports field, environmental research centre and fine arts centre, without taking the school into debt.

The new president at UNB, Paul Mazerolle, has a slightly different arrangement in his contract whereby he'll collect only one year of administrative leave, regardless of the number of terms he serves as president, said spokeswoman Natasha Ashfield.

She said the policy is something "we'll look at more closely going forward."

Jean Paul Boudreau, who makes $300,000 as the current president of Mount Allison University, will receive administrative leave on the same terms as his predecessor.

A third New Brunswick school's former president recently completed his period of administrative leave.

Raymond Théberge, who left the top job at l'Université de , collected slightly more than a year of administrative leave after he became the nation's Commissioner of Official Languages on Jan. 29, 2018 – about seven months into his second term at the school. That's a position that pays a “salary equal to the salary of a judge of the Federal Court, other than the Chief Justice of that Court," according to the Official Languages Act.

UdeM announced tuition hikes of between two and eight per cent and is planning a million-dollar deficit, it was announced in June.

Sarah Bustard, spokeswoman for the Department of Post-Secondary Education, Training and Labour, said public universities are administratively independent and can "make administrative decisions like leave, as they wish."

Kjeld-Mizpah Conyers-Steede, president of the New Brunswick Student Alliance, said he sees both sides of administrative leave, but it's a minor, distracting issue compared to the reform needed of an underfunded post-secondary education system.

"We are the definition of a have-not province and education is the pathway for the future," he said.

St. Thomas University president Dawn Russell, now in her second term, is owed one year of compensation at her base salary for her first term at the Fredericton school, which ranged between $225,000 and $250,000, according to the school's website. 31 juillet 2019 – Telegraph Journal

Crandall University doesn't normally release details about employee contracts because it is a private institution, said spokesman Darrell Nevers.