Canadian universities are feeling the impact of the recession. At U of T, senior administrative staff—including the president, vice-presidents, principals, and deans—have voluntarily accepted a salary freeze for the 2009 to 2010 period in anticipation of further financial strain. Salaries of senior administrators at U of T have risen between 5 and 10 per cent on average every year since 1997. President Naylor has seen around $25,000 added to his paycheck between 2005 and 2007.
Earlier correspondences from the office of the provost said that the university will be unable to maintain payouts from its endowment fund, the largest in Canada, if the economy doesn’t improve. Other Canadian universities have been hit even harder. The University of Calgary has announced losses in its endowment fund of $78 million—a figure representing the total donations to the fund over the past two and a half years. As of yet, no programs funded by the endowments have been affected, but the loss typifies a larger trend across Canada, with Mount Royal College experiencing losses to its fund of nine per cent.
