Compared to universities, college heads are poor cousins in salary sweepstakes -

Compared to universities, college heads are poor cousins in salary sweepstakes

Ontario salary disclosure shows lower salaries at colleges; presidents and profs less well-paid than their university peers


Colleges claim that, compared to universities, they don’t get enough respect. A recent Ontario colleges ad campaign was humorously premised on the idea that the average parent would be willing to drug their kid to keep him or her from going to college. Whether parents really want their kids to choose university over college is an open question, but the latest Ontario salary disclosure suggests that parents should at least be dreaming of having their kids run a university, rather than a college.

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The “$100K” list for colleges is shorter—much shorter—than the list of Ontario university employees making over $100,000. And most colleges have only one person—the president—earning over $200,000. That compares to universities, where the $200K club is extensive, featuring a variety of deans, administrators and professors, and where many university presidents are earning over $400,000.

Algonquin College in Ottawa was the only college with three employees making more than $200,000: president Robert Gillett and vice-presidents Raymonde Hanson and Robert Letourneau. Toronto’s Humber College had three names on the list at $200,000-plus, but two occupied them same position: outgoing president Robert Gordon, who retired in the summer of 2007, and new president John Davies.

Sheridan College and Seneca College were the only other Ontario colleges with two employees earning over $200,000. Seneca president Frederick Miner was Ontario’s highest paid college president; in 2007 he earned just over $367,000

Two other college presidents had total compensation over $300,000: Sheridan president Robert Turner was paid nearly $324,000 and John Tibbits, president of Conestoga College in Kitchener, earned almost $339,000.

(See salary chart next page.)