October 2, 2008

Administration Mathematics 101

Brandon University issued a press release on October 1, 2008 which initially stated that if a person making $97,000 per year received an increase of 17% over three years that the person would be making over $133,000 per year at the end of the contract. It has subsequently been changed to read a new salary of $113,556.

We suspect that the Administration math error was probably pointed out by one of the students.

In addition, the Administration lumps together normal steps through the salary scales (increments) with increases in the scale itself. All ranks have about 12 steps ( We wonder sometimes about why 12?). Every year BUFA members automatically rise one step up the scale (an increment), until they reach the ceiling of their rank. This is not what one normally thinks of as a salary increase. What the average person would think of as a salary increase is really a scale increase. The Administration knows this. The administration's latest offer is a scale increase of 2 ½% in the first year and up to 3% in years two and three depending on CPI. The Administration's prior offer was for a 2% scale increase in years two and three. Using the Administration's tactic of presenting the worst case scenario, should the CPI in years two and three be 1%, the latest offer would represent a reduction from the 2% offer.

The costs of providing normal increments or steps up the scale should be zero as long as the distribution of faculty among the steps remains the same. As people reach the top and retire, theoretically a new member would be hired near the bottom of the ladder at much less cost. The savings should be used to fund the "increments". However,it seems to us that the administration always seems to believe that the savings should be put into their pockets for whatever happens to be the current pet project. And then they claim that it "costs" them 2.7% per year for these normal increments. We believe that this tactic is transparent to thinking people.

Another example of the Administration Mathematics concerns the costing of the one of the pension improvements that BUFA has proposed. According to the costing sheets supplied by the Employer, on September 8, 2008 when BUFA 's proposal was that the improvement be funded by the Employer alone, the cost was $459,000. BUFA has no dispute with this figure. It is backed up by the actuary for the Brandon University Pension Plan.

However, when administration tabled a proposal on September 25, 2008 to share the cost of this improvement equally with BUFA, the Administration estimated the cost to the Employer as $459,000. In other words, one half of $459,000 equals $459,000.

With mathematics like this, is it any wonder that the University had an unallocated surplus of $1.93 million?